Constitution of Bangladesh

Constitution of Bangladesh
First page of the original Constitution of Bangladesh in Bangla
Overview
Jurisdiction	Bangladesh
Ratified	4 November 1972; 51 years ago (1972-11-04)
Date effective	16 December 1972; 51 years ago (1972-12-16)
System	Unitary Parliamentary Constitutional Republic
Government structure
Branches	Three (Executive, Legislature and Judiciary)
Chambers	One
Executive	Prime Minister and cabinet responsible to the Jatiya Sangsad
Judiciary	Supreme Court
Federalism	No
Electoral college	No
History
Amendments	17
Last amended	8 July 2018
Location	Dhaka, Bangladesh
Author(s)	Dr Kamal Hossain Chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee and other members of Constituent Assembly
Signatories	404 members of the Constituent Assembly of Bangladesh
Supersedes	Proclamation of Bangladeshi Independence
Full text
Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh at Wikisource

This article is part of a series on the
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The Constitution of Bangladesh^[a] is the supreme law of Bangladesh. It was adopted on November 4, 1972, and came into effect on December 16, 1972, marking the first anniversary of Bangladesh’s victory in its Liberation War in 1971. The Constitution establishes Bangladesh as a unitary parliamentary democracy, with commitments to nationalism,^[1] socialism,^[2] democracy^[3] and secularism^[4] as its four fundamental principles. These four principles reflected the four tenets of Mujibism, the political ideology of the country's founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

While the Constitution nominally declares the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms, an independent judiciary, and local democratic governance, it has been often labelled as "fascist"^[5] and criticized for fostering autocracy^[6] and failing to adequately safeguard human rights. The first twenty-five articles focus largely on ideological foundations rather than addressing the practical needs of citizens, such as the protection of human dignity and individual liberties in daily life.^[7] Furthermore, despite provisions for rights like freedom of speech and protection from arbitrary detention, these have often been compromised through the continued enforcement of repressive British colonial laws such as the Penal Code, 1860 and the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898, and later-enacted laws such as the Special Powers Act of 1974, and the Cyber Security Act, 2023 as well as the frequent imposition of emergency powers.

The Constitution has undergone 17 amendments, reflecting its malleability under political pressures rather than consistent adherence to its original intent of ensuring justice, equality, and liberty for all citizens. Judicial precedent and review are supported within its framework, but the implementation of these rights has often fallen short, leading to significant gaps between the ideals of the Constitution and the lived realities of Bangladesh’s citizens.

The interim government of Bangladesh, led by Muhammad Yunus, has established the Constitutional Reform Commission in 2024 with the aim of reforming or drafting and adopting a new inclusive democratic constitution through a constituent assembly.^{[8][9][10][11][12]}

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