Kapaeeng Foundation

On 18 December 2014, a national seminar titled “Progression of Universal Periodic Review (UPR)Recommendations to Bangladesh: Indigenous Peoples’ Perspective”was organized by Kapaeeng Foundation with support from Action Aid Bangladesh at CIRDAP International Conference Center in Dhaka. Over one hundred and fifty participants, from both indigenous and mainstream population with different working backgrounds, participated in the event.

Prof.Dr.MizanurRahman, Chairman of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Bangladesh was present as the chief guest while Prof Dr.SadekaHalim, Former Information Commissioner and Professor of Dhaka University presided over the seminar. Advocate Rana Dasgupta, Prosecutor of the International Crimes Tribunal and General Secretary of Bangladesh Hindu-Buddhist-Christian Unity Council;Ms.KhushiKabir, Coordinator ofNijera Kori; Ms. Salma AkhterJahan, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs;Mr.SanjeebDrong, General Secretary of Bangladesh Indigenous Peoples’Forum, and Mr. Rabindranath Soren, Chairperson of Kapaeeng Foundation and President ofJatiyaAdivasiParishad were present in the seminar as special guests. Mr Asgor Ali Sabri, Director of Programme and Campaign, ActionAid Bangladesh delivered the welcome speech and Mr.Binota Moy Dhamai from Kapaeeng Foundation presented the keynote paper on the seminar.

National Human Rights Commission Chairman Dr. Mizanur Rahman said, in order to bring peace in the CHT, all it requires is to resolve the land dispute and ensure law and order in there. He 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, than other rights will be defended automatically.He urged the government to take steps to move the settler from CHT.

Prof. Mizan also said that Bangladesh should introduce reserved seats in the parliament for religious and ethnic minorities, whose candidates would be elected by the votes of their respective communities.

NHRC chair added, not a single indigenous personhas ever humiliated the Father of Nation Sheikh Majibur Rahman. It indicates that the indigenous peoples have faith and respect on the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, so Prime Minister should also have faith on indigenous peoples.

Advocate Rana Dasgupta said, a roadmap needs to be declared to fully implement the CHT accord and thus avoid future unrest.He mentioned that the PCJSS, a signatory of CHT Peace Accord,had recently declared tolaunch non-cooperation movement from May 2015 if the Accord is not implemented fully by then. Hence, the government should realize it that any such consequences would be unacceptable.

Nijera Kori coordinator Khusi Kabir demanded for fulfillment of the pledges made by Awami League in its election manifestos of 2008 and 2014 elections about recognizing indigenous peoples as ‘Adivasi’ (indigenous). While before the 2008 election indigenous peoplesused to be recognized by the government as ‘Adivasi’, government stopped recognizing indigenous peoples as indigenous peoples after coming to the power. There might be some mystery for not recognizing them as ‘Adivasi’.

Mr. Sanjeeb Drong said, UPR is a mechanism where the Bangladesh Government is asked about the Human Rights situation of its citizens including indigenous peoples, marginalized women and minorities. He urged the government to fulfill its promises related to indigenous peoples in the UPR session

Mr. Rabindranath Soren said, the UPR is a new and less known mechanism to indigenous peoples. Now in different discussions the UPR issues is being brought about. Civil societies and the parliament members need to be motivated for the implementation of the recommendations made in the UPR, he added. He urged the government to establish a separate land commission for plain land indigenous peoples immediately to stop the eviction of IPs from their ancestral lands.

The Joint Secretary of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs Ministry Ms. Salma Akhter Jahan mentioned, the government is working for the implementation of the CHT Accord and for the wellbeing of the inhabitant of the CHT.

In his welcome speech, Mr. Asgar Ali opined that creating platforms at grassroots level is imperative for the implementation of the UPR recommendations.

In his keynote paper, Mr Binota Moy Dhamai focused the three thematic issues pertinent to the recommendations that Bangladesh government accepted during the period of previous UPR session. Firstly, he described about the issues related to implementation of the CHT Accord. The government claims that altogether 48 out of 72 sections of the CHT Accord had been implemented. However, the other signatory of the Accord, Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (PCJSS), claims that only 25 sections of the Accord has been implemented so far and 34 sections of the accord still remained totally unimplemented while 13 sections were partially implemented.

Secondly, he described about the issue of violence against women focusing on indigenous women. There are a number of recommendations on women rights and developments that were accepted by the government in the second cycle of UPR. Unfortunately, violence against indigenous women is increasing day by day. Government has failed to take measures to end violence against them and a culture of impunity has been established. In most cases the perpetrators elude justice, particularly in the cases of violence against indigenous women and land grabbing. He added that from January to June 2014, at least 26 cases of violence against indigenous women were reported.

Thirdly, Binota described about the issue of rights of vulnerable groups, minorities and indigenous peoples. He said, during the second cycle of the UPR, Bangladesh government has accepted a number of recommendations that allows legal protection and security of the religious minorities. But the ground situation is far from acceptable. Indigenous peoples and minorities are being forcefully evicted from their own lands and much religious persecution against indigenous and other minority peoples is grave throughout the country.

And he also acknowledged some affirmative actions by the government towards the implementation of the accepted recommendation. But he opined that such actions are not enough. Finally, he gave some recommendation to implement the accepted recommendation by the Bangladesh government so that it does not have to face questions in the next cycle of UPR.

In the open discussion session, 10 different participants from indigenous and mainstream communities asked questions, and shared their ideas, opinions and views with the panel discussants as well as their fellow participants. Prof. Mizan, in his speech, tried to address the issues raised by the participants.