Sarwar Ali
Dr Sarwar Ali is one of the pioneer leaders of the human rights movement in Bangladesh. He is a Trustee of the Liberation War Museum and a member of the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, the only global network of historic sites, museums and memory initiatives which connects past struggles to contemporary human rights movements. He campaigned for the trial of war criminals and has also been involved in anti-nuclear movements.
Human rights defenders in Bangladesh face judicial harassment, arbitrary arrest, fabricated charges, abduction, physical attacks, torture and extrajudicial killings. Between February 2013 and September 2017, at least 15 Bangladeshi human rights defenders and activists were murdered. 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.
