The Vicious Triangle of Corruption, Human Rights Violation and Injustice in Bangladesh: Is there a Way Out?1

Abstract

Corruption is an insidious crime that prevails in every country in the world. It has destructive effects on states, people, and societies. It is an outcome of deficits of transparency, accountability, integrity, rule of law, and ineffectiveness of the institutions that are expected to hold power to account. The cost of corruption is usually understood and analysed in terms of adverse social, economic, and developmental challenges. It is also considered an outcome of governance deficits, which in turn result in further corruption, creating a vicious cycle. A similar mutually reinforcing relationship also exists between corruption and the weakening of the key institutions of democratic accountability or the national integrity system. The deficit of the rule of law, for its part, protects and promotes corruption, and corruption also leads to further erosion of the rule of law. Corruption erodes public trust in government, leads to the violation of human rights, and breeds injustice. By distorting the political and economic structures and weakening the social fabric, corruption can also be a potential source of mistrust of the government and insecurity in the state. Corruption is also increasingly linked to the violation of human rights, the deprivation of justice, and the spread of the culture of impunity.

This paper is an attempt to contribute to the discourse on a triangular relationship between corruption, violation of human rights, and injustice, drawing upon the experience of Bangladesh during the past fifteen years of authoritarian and kleptocratic rule. The main theme of what follows here is that Kleptocratic state capture to enable and sustain corruption in Bangladesh was responsible for gross violations of human rights and injustice  on  unprecedented  dimensions.  The  transformation  of  a

government elected to power through a well-recognised national election of 2008 into authoritarianism was primarily an outcome of the regime’s design for unaccountable abuse of power. Corruption was facilitated, promoted, protected, and granted impunity through politically influenced, dysfunctional, and professionally bankrupt state institutions. State power was captured by kleptocratic syndication, and to strengthen and sustain authoritarian control of the state, various repressive measures were adopted, and systems were created for widespread, multi-dimensional, multi-level, and often ruthless violation of human rights and deprivation of people’s access to justice. Judiciary itself was also deeply politicised and used with the same purpose of reinforcing kleptocratic control of the state structure and denial of justice and protection against violation of nearly every category of human rights, including civil and political rights. The paper highlights this vicious triangle of corruption, human rights violations, and injustice in general and Bangladesh in particular as experienced during the period of the kleptocratic regime from 2009 until its fall on August 5, 2024.

Dhaka University Law Journal, 2026, 37 (1), 01-24