Bangladesh: Protests can change governments, but can they strengthen democracy?

Two years after mass protests toppled Sheikh Hasina's government in August 2024, Bangladesh is still arguing over whether the uprising changed anything beyond who sits in the chair. The OHCHR counted roughly 1,400 deaths in the six weeks of unrest that ended with Hasina's resignation and flight from the country.

Surveys from BRAC's governance institute show optimism about the country's direction sliding from 71 percent to 42 percent between August 2024 and July 2025, even as most respondents rank police and judicial reform as urgent. Al Jazeera found at least 23 of 133 interim-government ordinances already revoked or expired, touching human rights and anti-corruption measures the government insists are merely under review, not abandoned.

Critics point to the dissolved Rapid Action Battalion resurfacing under a new name, SRB, and to proposed Cyber Security Act amendments that look a lot like the old speech-control machinery in fresh packaging. The July Charter, meant to lock in structural reform, remains a document political parties still can't agree how to implement.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.