NHRC needs to grow a backbone

The appalling record of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) is no secret to anyone. While people continue to suffer from rights abuses and injustices in greater numbers each year, it is busy deflecting blame and justifying its existence with the bare minimum it does. But as an analytical report by The Daily Star shows, while significant government restrictions do exist to make it impossible for it to pursue certain cases, the NHRC itself is as much to blame for its own lacklustre performance. The commission, according to data cited by our report, could not resolve nearly half of the cases filed with it over the last decade. Between 2011 and June 2021, a total of 6,736 complaints were lodged with the NHRC, but only 55.11 percent of them were disposed of.