October 3, 2026

Mass Student Expulsions in Bangladesh: A Human Rights Crisis

By Arifa Rahman Ruma and Rana Hassan Mahmud

Closed gates at a university entrance, symbolizing mass student expulsions and the denial of educational rights in Bangladesh. — Educational rights under strain: Examining the legal implications of mass student expulsions and political exclusions in post-August 2024 Bangladesh.

WASHINGTON – “Everyone has the right to education.” Article 26 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) recognizes this not as a mere aspiration, but as a fundamental right of every person.

Hardly any nation has dared to openly and systematically violate this right since the UDHR was adopted on December 10, 1948. Clear exceptions are extraordinarily rare, limited mostly to rogue regimes or extreme crises—such as apartheid South Africa, war-torn Serbia, and Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

Bangladesh may now be added to this troubling list following the catastrophic political developments of August 5, 2024.

Thousands of students affiliated with the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) have been barred from entering their own educational institutions. Many have allegedly suffered brutal mob attacks while attempting to attend classes or sit for examinations.

Their apparent “crime” is their political affiliation with the Bangladesh Chhatra League, an organization banned by decree by the administration led by Dr. Yunus after August 5. The legitimacy of that administration has itself been questioned.

To date, more than 1,450 university students documented by the authors, with their limited capacity, have had their student credentials revoked solely because of their membership with that student organization. Actual numbers are many times more.

Students belonging to BCL have reportedly not been permitted access to legal counsel, nor have they been given a meaningful opportunity to challenge or appeal their expulsions.

A glaring example of this mass expulsion and unprecedented persecution of students have been eloquently articulated through social media post by a former Dhaka

University student who is now pursuing a postgraduate degree at Harvard. Tahseen Jahan declined to accept the prestigious Dean’s Award from her alma mater, citing the following reasons without ambiguity:

“It was 2024 when mobs attacked me simply because of my political identity, despite my not being involved in any form of violence. I was threatened by mobs from my own department and university and was forced not to sit for my final viva or submit my undergraduate thesis. Because of some teachers who still had the ethical conscience to stand up for my educational rights, I was eventually able to sit for my final viva online while protecting myself from physical attacks (No, not your pseudo ethical Teachers’ Network).

While I was lucky enough to graduate and work on rebuilding myself here at Harvard despite my educational rights being hijacked at DU, more than 10,000 students like me at the University of Dhaka and other public universities could not. The administration remained quiet and, was and still is quietly supporting the fundamentalist mobs.”

Mahfuzul Hassan, also known as Noyon Munshi, was a postgraduate student at Jahangirnagar University studying Government and Politics.

‘On July 15, the dreaded Chhatra Shibir and Chhatra Dal, the student wings of Jamaat-e-Islami and the BNP respectively, attacked the official residence of the Vice-Chancellor. Those of us who belonged to the BCL rushed toward the VC’s residence to rescue him. However, there were clashes, and one of our students was so badly beaten that Shibir and Chhatra Dal left him thinking he was dead. At that point, fearing for our lives, we had to leave the campus. After the fall of the government, we were temporarily expelled first and then banned for life,’ said Noyon. During this time, his dormitory room was ransacked beyond recognition, as a classmate informed him.

These are the facts and not mere fictions. The speed of these expulsions, as well as the number of students affected, is deeply alarming.

There is no doubt that any student accused of criminal acts committed during July 2024 upheaval in Bangladesh, which led to the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government, must face a thorough and impartial judicial process, irrespective of their political persuasion.

However, punishment cannot lawfully be imposed collectively on a particular group solely because of its political or organizational affiliation.

This is where mass expulsions of students belonging to a particular political organization may raise serious concerns under international human-rights law and, depending on the facts, potentially under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

Under the Rome Statute, persecution may constitute a crime against humanity when it is committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population and when the other required legal elements are established. The Statute expressly recognizes persecution on political grounds as a prohibited form of discrimination.

This does not mean that the expulsion of every individual student automatically constitutes a crime against humanity. However, systematic deprivation of fundamental rights on the basis of political identity may fall within the scope of international criminal law when the relevant legal threshold is met.

Put simply, if evidence were to demonstrate a coordinated, widespread, or systematic campaign to deprive a civilian population—or an identifiable group within it—of fundamental rights because of political affiliation, together with the other elements required under Article 7 of the Rome Statute, the matter could potentially go beyond discriminatory administrative action and amount to persecution as a crime against humanity.

Thousands of rank-and-file members of the Bangladesh Awami League have been incarcerated, along with prominent intellectuals, journalists, teachers and human rights activists, allegedly for no reason other than their association with the Sheikh Hasina government.

However, the expulsions, victimization and outright persecution of countless students since the pyrrhic victory of the student led movement, expropriated by the extremists within, constitute an entirely different category of injustice.

Without an imminent intervention by the international community, these young people, whose lives lie ahead of them, will lose their future—and the nation, in turn, will lose its promise and destiny.

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