Professor Dr Iajuddin Ahmed
President and Chief Adviser
Government of Bangladesh
Chief Adviser’s Office
Tejgaon
Dhaka – 1215
Bangladesh

11 June 2007

Dear President,

Re: Travel restrictions on Ms Sigma Huda, the UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons

We are writing on behalf of the Human Rights Institute of the International Bar Association (IBA) in connection with the recent travel restrictions laid on Ms Sigma Huda, the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons.

In its role as a dual membership organisation, comprising 30,000 individual lawyers and over 195 Bar Associations and Law Societies, the International Bar Association (IBA) influences the development of international law reform and shapes the future of the legal profession. Its Member Organisations cover all continents. The IBA’s Human Rights Institute works across the association, helping to promote, protect and enforce human rights under a just rule of law, and to preserve the independence of the judiciary and the legal profession worldwide.

According to reports we have received, Ms Huda was stopped at the airport while en route to New York on an official mission. Despite possessing a High Court order permitting her to leave the country, she was informed that the Chief Justice had restricted her travel for an unlimited period. We understand that the Government of Bangladesh has justified the ban by claiming that Ms Huda is a ‘security risk for Bangladesh as she may give statements detrimental to this Government’.

We would like to remind you of Bangladesh’s obligations under Article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Bangladesh is a state party, which provides that everyone shall be free to leave any country, including their own. Derogations are permitted in very limited circumstances, and must be proportional.  The stated reasons for the travel restrictions, being concerns about Ms Huda giving statements detrimental to the Government, do not appear to satisfy the national security exception to Article 12. 

Furthermore, as a member of the United Nations and the Human Rights Council, Bangladesh is obliged ‘to uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights’ and to ‘fully cooperate with the Council’. The travel restrictions placed on Ms Heda directly interfere with her ability to perform her duties as UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons. 

We strongly encourage you to take immediate steps to lift the travel restrictions on Ms Huda and allow her to continue her important work as a UN Special Rapporteur. 

We should be grateful to receive your assurances that our concerns will be investigated as a matter of urgency.

CC: Chief Justice, High Court of Bangladesh; 
       Ban Ki Moon, UN Secretary-General; 
       Nicolas Michel, Under Secretary-General for Legal Affairs