Recently, a piece of information has been circulated on social media citing ‘Human Rights’ with the headline, “No evidence of ‘genocide’ found against Sheikh Hasina.”
See posts circulated on Facebook with this claim: here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Fact-Check
An investigation by the Rumor Scanner team found that the circulated claim is not correct. In fact, the US-based human rights organization Human Rights Watch has stated that Sheikh Hasina and several top military and civilian officials were involved in the 2024 student-mass uprising.
At the beginning of the investigation into this matter, an observation of the posts circulating the claim shows that an organization named ‘Human Rights’ was used as the source. However, no organization named ‘Human Rights’ was found to exist. A similar New York-based human rights organization named Human Rights Watch was found, which has a Bangladesh section with matters related to Bangladesh.
Observing the organization’s Bangladesh section, two most recent reports, published on October 08 and 09, were found. The report published on October 08, titled ‘Bangladesh: New Crackdown Under Anti-Terrorism Law‘, states that the process the interim government led by Professor Muhammad Yunus is using to suppress Awami League supporters and critics using the new anti-terrorism law violates the freedom of expression, and that the government is walking the same path of political repression as before.
Additionally, from the description of the report published on October 09, titled ‘In Bangladesh a Step toward Justice‘, it is known that the Bangladesh government has filed charges against 28 people, including former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, on allegations of enforced disappearances and torture. Human Rights Watch called this an important step towards justice but expressed concern about the transparency of the judicial process and the risk of the death penalty.
Before that, another report was found from August 28 regarding the push-in of Rohingya refugees from India to Bangladesh. It states that the Indian government has forcibly returned more than a hundred Rohingya refugees to Bangladesh and Myanmar since May 2025 and has arbitrarily detained and tortured many others. The organization said these actions are a clear violation of international law and human rights and reflect discriminatory policies against Muslim Rohingyas.
In other words, no information regarding the claim ‘no evidence of ‘genocide’ found against Sheikh Hasina’ was found in any recently published report by Human Rights Watch.
Additionally, no mention of information supporting the claim in question was found in domestic mainstream media or any reliable source.
Notably, on January 27 of this year, Human Rights Watch published a report on the student-mass uprising in Bangladesh. In the report, the organization stated that ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and several top military and civilian officials were involved in the enforced disappearances and killings that occurred in Bangladesh.
See news published in domestic media based on the Human Rights Watch report here.
Therefore, the claim circulated in the name of ‘Human Rights’ stating that no evidence of ‘genocide’ was found against the former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted in the student-mass uprising, is completely false.
Sources
- Human Rights Watch: Website
- Human Rights Watch: Bangladesh: New Crackdown Under Anti-Terrorism Law
- Human Rights Watch: In Bangladesh a Step toward Justice
- Human Rights Watch: India: Scores of Rohingya Refugees Expelled
- Human Rights Watch: After the Monsoon Revolution
- Prothom Alo: Sheikh Hasina used to give orders for enforced disappearances and killings
