Source: Kapaeeng Foundation
On
10 December 2015, a national seminar titled “Indigenous Peoples in Bangladesh:
Human Rights and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)” was organized by
Bangladesh Indigenous Peoples Forum (BIPF) with the support of International
Labour Organization (ILO) in Dhaka. Over one hundred participants, including
ambassadors, diplomats, development activists, civil society members,
journalists, indigenous and mainstream population with different working
backgrounds, participated in the event.
Rashed
Khan Menon, MP, minister of Civil Aviation and Tourism Ministry was present as
the chief guest while Jyotirindra Bodhipriya Larma President of Bangladesh
Indigenous Peoples Forum (BIPF) and Chairman of Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) Regional
Council presided over the seminar. H. E. Pierre Mayaudon, Ambassador and Head
of Delegation, European Union; H. E.
Henne Fugl Eskjaer, Ambassador, Royal Danish Embassy; Fazle Hossain Badsha, MP,
Convener, Parliamentary Caucus of Indigenous Peoples; Srinivas B. Reddy,
Country Director, International Labour Organization and Barrister Sara Hossain,
Honorary Director, BLAST were present in the seminar as discussant. Mr. Sanjeeb
Drong, General Secretary of BIPF, delivered the welcome speech and Mr. Mangal
Kumar Chakma, Advisor of Kapaeeng Foundation presented the key note paper which
was written jointly with Raja Devasish Roy, Chakma Chief, Advocate, Supreme
Court & Member, UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
BIPF
chairman Jyotirindra Bodhipriya Larma said, the Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) offer us a unique opportunity to adopt a new partnership between the
United Nations, development partnership of Bangladesh and other stakeholders,
including indigenous peoples and their organizations and other representative
bodies. He expressed his expectation that the government of Bangladesh would
respect and fulfill the rights of indigenous peoples in spirit with different
international instruments, including ILO Convention No. 107 & 169, UNDRIP and
Outcome Document of WCIP. He also expected an effective interface between
government’s inclusive development plans and internationally agreed development
goals would allow us to ascertain that none of the marginalized people of the
country, within our multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-religious society,
is left behind in sustainable development process.
He
said that indigenous peoples in Bangladesh are experiencing different
discriminations the violations of the rights of indigenous peoples instead are
occurring, such as, land grabbing and eviction of indigenous peoples from their
ancestral land by States and Non-State actors, and lack of recognition of
customary tenure systems, particularly in plain land. This impairs indigenous
peoples’ rights to access and use forests, ancestral lands and natural resources.
It also exposes indigenous peoples to the effects of climate change, disrupts
their social unity and exacerbates their situation both in CHT and plain land.
He also added, the country could not make any progress without advancement of
indigenous peoples of the country. If the government establishes indigenous
peoples right to land in the CHT and plain land, than other rights will be
defended automatically.
Mr.
Larma added a roadmap needs to be declared to fully implement the CHT accord
and thus avoid future unrest. He mentioned that the PCJSS, one of the
signatories of CHT Accord, already declared to launch harder non-cooperation
movement from 1 January 2015 if the Accord is not implemented fully by then.
Rashed
Khan Menon, MP, minister of Civil Aviation and Tourism Ministry said, the CHT
Accord not yet been fully implemented so
the need for removing
complexities to take bold steps to implement the CHT Accord signed 18 years
ago. It is true that the bureaucratic government in the country and fundamental
Islamism are the main hindrance to implement the CHT Accord. He also opined that
creating platforms at grassroots level is imperative for the implementation of
the CHT Accord.
European Union
ambassador Pierre Mayaudon stressed the need for a dialogue ‘at the higher
level between the government and indigenous leader’ for implementation of the
CHT Accord. He also emphasized on the need for formation and activation of the
land commission for plain land ethnic minorities.
H. E. Hanne Fugl
Eskjaer, Ambassador, Royal Danish Embassy stressed the importance of including
indigenous people in the development agenda and use of the newly adopted
Sustainable Development Goals to address the needs of this vulnerable group
including indigenous peoples, and to make sure no one is left behind. As marked
poverty reduction is one of the key area of intervention attaining the SDGs, an
enhancement strategy on indigenous peoples would help to overcome the
inequality and poverty, and ecological sustainable for the long run. At this
stage, indigenous peoples should be inclusive for the implementation,
monitoring and evaluation of the SDGs, and the overall development.
Fazle
Hossain Badsha, MP, Convener, Parliamentary Caucus on Indigenous Peoples urged
civil societies, parliament members and the Bengali people for playing active
roles in the movement of implementation of the CHT Accord. He urged the
government to establish a separate land commission for plain land indigenous
peoples immediately to stop the eviction of indigenous peoples from their
ancestral lands.
International Labour
Organisation (ILO) country director Srinivas B. Reddy stressed the need for
pursuing a policy of inclusion for mainstreaming indigenous community’s issues
in the development agendas. ILO is working for different vulnerable groups in
Bangladesh and the indigenous issue is one of the major vulnerable groups, he
added.
Bangladesh Legal Aid
Services Trust honorary director Sara Hossain reminded that investigation and
placing charge sheet on Kalpana Chakma, a victim of forced disappearance, had
remained stalled for years. She also urged government of Bangladesh to withdraw
two circulations of Home Ministry issued in January 2015 on CHT and Public
Works & Housing Ministry dated in August 2015 on indigenous peoples as
these circulations are contradictory to the fundamental rights of the
Constitution.
In his welcome speech Mr.
Sanjeeb Drong, General Secretary of BIPF said SGD promise to “leave no one
behind”. However, the indigenous peoples in Bangladesh so leg far behind to the
mainstream Bengali communities. In this
wave, government should come forward to establish a separate land commission
for plain indigenous people and declare a road map to implement the CHT Accord.
He also urged to
indicate the development partners to keep and priority of the indigenous issues
in their agenda.
In the key note paper, the
keynote authors
said that historically, Bangladesh is a country with diverse languages,
religions and ethnicity. However, the existence of indigenous groups and their
diverse cultural practices has remained unrecognized both by the State and its
mainstream population, on account of ignorance, discriminatory perspectives or
chauvinistic mindsets, or a combination of them. This has resulted in the
exclusion of indigenous peoples from governance and development, except in a very marginal manner.
Systemic poverty exacerbates inequality, especially for indigenous women,
children and youth and persons with disabilities who are particularly affected
by the lack of access to health services, housing, and other services.
The
keynote speakers said that out of 72, only 25 sections of the CHT Accord have
been implemented. However, the government claims that altogether 48 sections of
the CHT Accord had been implemented. They described about the issue of the
situation of alienation of lands of indigenous peoples of the country, both in
the CHT and in the plains, is alarming, and continues to deteriorate. The indigenous
peoples of the plain land claiming to form a separate land commission for plain
indigenous peoples. However the government is not yet to take any such measures
and form a Land Commission for the plains indigenous peoples.
Key note paper focused
on the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which were adopted by the UN General
Assembly on 25 September 2015, contain the 17 Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) and 169 targets and include six specific references to indigenous
peoples. He added that Bangladesh has made remarkable progress in the areas of
poverty alleviation, primary school enrolment, gender parity in primary and
secondary level education, lowering the infant and under-five mortality rate
and maternal mortality ratio, improving immunization coverage and reducing the incidence
of communicable diseases stipulated in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
However, indigenous peoples in Bangladesh are still lagging far behind in many
of these key goals and targets, if not all.
Keynote
authors opined that if the 7th Five Year Plan is formulated by incorporating
adequate provisions that address the indigenous peoples’ contexts of both
opportunity and disadvantage, several crucial human rights and developmental
rights of indigenous peoples can be addressed. Speakers said that indigenous
peoples in Bangladesh look forward to being a full part of the SDG journey, so that
all Bangladeshis can truly transform Bangladesh and bring peace and prosperity
for all. Indigenous peoples wish to ensure that they are not left behind. Therefore,
the designing of culturally relevant indicators, preceded by the disaggregation
of data, including in the data of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, is a
vital precondition. The UN system including the country teams, along with the development
partners of Bangladesh, have an important role to play in this regard.
In
the keynote paper, the authors appealed to all development partners of the Government
of Bangladesh for using its foreign aid for good governance, including the
overall development of the citizens of Bangladesh, in a non-discriminatory
manner. They stressed for taking adequate and context-specific measures to
consult the indigenous peoples with regard to the adoption of the 7th
Five Year Plan and to amend the Sectoral Policies of the country to include
indigenous peoples’ issues; formulation of a National Action Plan for
implementation of the SDGs, UNDRIP and Outcome Document of the WCIP, at country
level; capacity building of Indigenous Peoples’ Organisations for protection and
promotion of the rights of indigenous peoples and inclusive development; awareness
building among indigenous peoples, policy makers and other stakeholders on the rights of indigenous
peoples including SDGs, UNDRIP, Outcome Documents, ILO Convention No. 107,
ICCPR, ICESCR, ICERD and CHT Accord of 1997; Establishment of partnerships for
development on issues relating to indigenous peoples; declaration of a time-line-based Action Plan or ‘Road
Map’ for proper, speedy and full implementation of the CHT Accord of 1997 by
the government and recognition of indigenous peoples’ collective rights, in
particular the right to land, territories and natural resources; to form a
separate Land Commission to prevent land alienation and to restitute alienated
lands of the indigenous peoples of the plains.
