REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS Bangladesh continued to host over 1 million Rohingya refugees in camps in poor conditions for the sixth consecutive year. In March, a devastating fire destroyed around 2,000 shelters and left around 12,000 Rohingya refugees homeless.9 In May, cyclone Mocha, made worse by climate change, destroyed camp infrastructure and dwellings. In June, the UN announced that an acute funding shortfall forced the World Food Programme to further slash the value of refugees’ monthly rations from USD 12 to USD 8. Days later, tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh launched a protest demanding to be repatriated to Myanmar, citing their dire situation. The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar urged Bangladesh to suspend its pilot repatriation project given the continuing risk for returning refugees. In July, an ICC prosecutor visited the camps to collect testimony from refugees to aid the court’s investigation against the Myanmar military for genocide. Mohammad Ebadullah, a junior refugee camp warden who was assembling refugees to testify, was stabbed to death just before the prosecutor arrived in the camps. Six other refugees were killed the day after his visit. While the ICC prosecutor told press that these killings were unrelated to the court’s investigation, they underscored the deteriorating security in the camps. On a positive note, in July, UNICEF announced that a record number of 300,000 Rohingya refugee children were enrolled for the 2023/24 school year. 1. “Bangladesh: Government must remove draconian provisions from the Draft Cyber Security Act”, 31 August 2. “Bangladesh: Open letter to the government: Feedback on proposed ‘Cyber Security Act’”, 22 August 3. “Bangladesh: Increasing intimidation and harassment of Prothom Alo signals deepening crisis of press freedom in the country”, 12 April 4. “Student detained for a year for hosting webinar: Khadijatul Kubra”, 25 August 5. “Bangladesh: Woman arrested after her son’s Facebook post must be immediately released”, 23 August 94 6. “Bangladesh: Unlawful use of force against protesters must end immediately”, 4 August 7. “Bangladesh: Authorities must exercise restraint in use of force to police protests”, 19 July 8. “Bangladesh: Stop weaponizing labour law to harass Nobel Laureate Mohammad Yunus”, 18 September 9. “Bangladesh: Urgent emergency measures must aid all impacted by fire in Rohingya refugee camps”, 6 March BELARUS Republic of Belarus The rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly remained severely curtailed. Religious minorities faced discrimination. The justice system was abused to suppress dissent. Torture and other ill-treatment were endemic and impunity prevailed. Refugees and migrants suffered abuses at the hands of the authorities. Death sentences continued to be imposed. BACKGROUND Belarus’s international isolation deepened, and its EU neighbours tightened border controls after Belarus agreed to host the Russian private military company Wagner and deploy Russian tactical nuclear weapons on its territory. Some 350,000 people were estimated to have left Belarus since the crackdown on dissent in 2020, leading to workforce shortages. Authorities attempted to force many to return, including by halting passport renewals at Belarussian consulates abroad. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION Freedom of expression remained severely restricted. In May, amendments to the criminal code made it even easier for authorities to mount criminal prosecutions for “crimes of an anti-state orientation” and introduced criminal liability for “discrediting” the armed forces and other government forces including paramilitaries. Books and other printed products continued to be outlawed for featuring “extremist The State of the World’s Human Rights