Extensive food adulteration in Bangladesh: a violation of fundamental human rights and the state’s binding obligations

© The Author(s) 2014. The right to life is inherently connected with the right to food which implies that any foodstuff be nutritious and safe. The government of Bangladesh bears binding obligations to protect these rights under both international human rights instruments and its national constitution. The violation of these rights has, nonetheless, been commonplace causing numerous human deaths and terminal diseases. The perpetrators have been adulterating foods, flouting laws with impunity and taking advantage of regulatory impotence and governmental lenience for decades. Laws exist in books, regulators subsist in theory, but consumers die without remedies. This situation must not prevail forever as every human has an inherent right to live until their natural demise. This article aims to explore the binding obligations of the government to prevent food adulteration and to protect people’s essential rights. It highlights that numerous laws exist almost invisibly in the country, and recommends that their enforcement be reinforced in order to protect the people who are exposed to the overly contaminated food markets in Bangladesh.