Centre for Governance Studies (CGS)
The Centre for Governance Studies (CGS) is a civil society organisation to facilitate democratic governance in Bangladesh and around the world. The Centre aims at facilitating collaborative efforts among the academic community, government, private sector, civil society and development partners to improve the quality of governance, address security needs of Bangladesh, foster the conditions for efficient and prudent utilisation of available resources towards poverty reduction, human resource development, and stabilisation of political and social order through increased democratisation, participation and sustainable economic development. CGS is a leading civil society organisation in documenting cases of human rights, especially focusing on the Digital Security Act.
Human rights defenders in Bangladesh face judicial harassment, arbitrary arrest, fabricated charges, abduction, physical attacks, torture and extrajudicial killings. Local extremist groups pledging allegiance to Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent often claimed responsibility for the attacks, which have targeted HRDs who write about women’s rights, indigenous peoples’ rights, freedom of religion, and other human rights issues. Despite these risks, there was no impetus on the part of the government to address the protection needs of HRDs. The authorities have so far failed to properly investigate a majority of the murders and impunity remains a serious concern.
