UNICEF aims to create a justice system that is fit for children, ensuring a safer and fairer future for Bangladesh’s youth—one that eliminates their criminalization.
“Rather than treating children as threats, ensure they understand their accountability, and recognize them as rights holders in need of care, protection, and rehabilitation,” said the UN agency.
“Ensure child-sensitive legal processes, where specialized courts, legal aid, and child-sensitive investigations uphold children’s rights,” UNICEF representative in Bangladesh, Rana Flowers, said in a statement responding to the OHCHR fact-finding report: "Human Rights Violations and Abuses related to the protests of July and August 2024 in Bangladesh."
For children found by the courts to have committed a crime, she called for expanding alternatives to detention—such as diversion programs, probation, and restorative justice—to replace punitive approaches that inflict lasting harm.
Flowers said that Bangladesh is at a moment of great hope, change, and transformation.
She said: "With reform commissions currently exploring ways to rebuild and reshape the future of its policing, courts, and justice systems, there is an opportunity to create a safer, more just environment for the younger generation."
Flowers added: "Let us seize this moment for meaningful reform and ensure that no child, family, or community in Bangladesh has to go through such tragedies again."
She described the UN Human Rights Office report on the tragic events in Bangladesh in July and August 2024 as both shocking and heartbreaking.
Among the estimated 1,400 people killed between July 1 and August 15, more than a hundred were children.
"UNICEF reported on many of these deaths and has continued working to clarify how many children were killed or hurt—we mourn each and every one of them," Flowers said.
Gender-based violence, including physical assaults and threats of rape, was also documented, aiming to deter females from participating in protests.
Children were not spared, they were killed, maimed, arbitrarily arrested, detained in inhumane conditions, and tortured.
In one harrowing case, a 12-year-old protester in Dhanmondi died from internal bleeding caused by 200 metal shot pellets.
Another tragic incident involved a six-year-old girl in Narayanganj, who was killed by a bullet to the head while observing clashes from her rooftop.
On August 5, one of the deadliest days of the protests, a 12-year-old boy in Azampur described police firing "everywhere like rainfall," witnessing at least a dozen dead bodies.
"These findings must horrify us all, and UNICEF appeals to everyone across Bangladesh to ensure that this never happens to children in Bangladesh again," Flowers said.
In light of these findings, UNICEF, building on its previous statements on this tragedy, stressed the need for all policymakers in Bangladesh, political actors, and officials to work urgently on three key aspects to help the children, young people, and families of Bangladesh heal and move forward with hope.
First, Flowers emphasized the need for accountability and reconciliation for the children whose lives have been lost and the families grieving for them.
"Second, let us call for justice, supporting and ensuring the reintegration of those who remain in detention or who are otherwise affected by these events," Flowers said.
"This is a time for all political actors, parties, and policymakers to reach a consensus on the need for reforms to policing and justice systems, ensuring that no child in Bangladesh ever again faces arbitrary detention, a lack of due process, torture, or violence for exercising their right to peaceful assembly. This will allow children in Bangladesh to fully realize their right to safety, dignity, and justice," said the UNICEF representative.
In calling for accountability and reform, UNICEF offered support to ensure independent investigations into all cases of violence, abuse, and unlawful detention of children, as well as justice sector reforms aligning Bangladesh’s legal framework with international standards for child protection.
UNICEF advocated for stronger safeguards to prevent future violations, including the establishment of independent monitoring mechanisms.
UNICEF also called for the protection of child protesters and survivors, ensuring that accountability mechanisms are in place to prevent further violations against children and to secure justice for victims.
