Life Against Deathworlds: Bangladesh’s July Charter 2025 and the Reconfiguration of Power

Abstract

The July–August 2024 mass uprising in Bangladesh marked a definitive rupture in the nation’s political trajectory, culminating in the collapse of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s fifteen-year tenure. In the aftermath, the interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus initiated a profound restructuring of the state. Throughout 2025, this transition materialised through three interconnected processes: the dismantling of the previous regime\u27s ‘necropolitical’ apparatus of state-sponsored violence; the drafting of the July National Charter 2025 to overhaul the constitution; and the preparation for a historic joint general election and constitutional referendum. This perspective outlines how Bangladesh has navigated the transition from an authoritarian system characterised by severe human rights abuses to a nascent, reform-bound democracy, analysing the legal, electoral, and human dimensions of this ongoing transformation