HR/5062
Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
Tenth Session
12th & 13th Meetings (AM & PM)
Permanent Body Takes Up Reports on 1997 Accord on Chittagong Hill Tracts, Legal Defence of Rights, Biodiversity Protocol, Forced Labour, Global Crisis
While well versed in overseeing the implementation of peace accords, the United Nations system had much less experience in supporting indigenous peoples and communities in conflict resolution, and the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues should consider what kind of role it could play in addressing those gaps, that body was told today as it took up the report of its Special Rapporteur on the status of implementation of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Accord of 1997.
Framing the discussion this morning, Forum Chairperson Mirna Cuningham said land was among the most critical and highly sensitive issues of the 1997 Accord, which had been signed by the Government of Bangladesh and a local indigenous political party and ended 25 years of low-intensity guerrilla warfare. She said the case was intricately related to the mandate of the Forum, not simply because the Accord’s two objectives aimed to re-establish peace and to provide institutional arrangements for regional autonomy, but because indigenous peoples around the world similarly found themselves in conflict with the dominant society, due to the loss of their land or the deprivation of their rights.
The issue of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Accord was among several issues discussed in the Forum today, as it heard presentations during its day-long meeting on four other reports of its Special Rapporteurs, on international criminal law and the judicial defence of indigenous peoples’ rights; the international regime on access and benefit-sharing; forced labour and indigenous peoples; and the impacts of the global crisis on indigenous peoples.
Introducing his report on the Chittagong Hill Tracts Accord, Forum Special Rapporteur Lars-Anders Baer said the study attested to, among other things, the challenges of implementing peace agreements when political will was overridden by other interests. Indeed, 14 years after its signing, many critical clauses of the Accord — which aimed to establish a regional system of self-government — remained unimplemented, or only partially addressed.
One reason for that failure, he said, was a general lack of political support for its implementation, which resulted in a lack of motivation to implement its provisions. In addition, the region was still heavily militarized and there were reports that the military was carrying out gross violations of indigenous human rights. Expressing deep concern over the practice of impunity that had seemed to prevail in the area, he underscored the responsibility of the Bangladesh State to protect its people and to bring violators to justice.
Responding with his own list of provisions his Government had implemented, the representative of Bangladesh expressed serious concerns about the report’s contents, as well as the way in which it was formulated. Stressing that Bangladesh did not, in fact, have an indigenous population, he suggested that Forum members tended to consider the words “indigenous” and “tribal” or “ethnic minorities” as synonymous, which was not the case, at all.
“The Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord is an internal arrangement for improving administration and quality of governance in the Chittagong Hill Tracts region,” he said, adding that, “the Accord has nothing to do with ‘indigenous issues’”. Reiterating the position of the Government of Bangladesh that the Forum did not have any locus standi in discussing issues related to the Accord, he emphasized that the report was a sadly “lopsided” opinion on a non-indigenous issue. He further suggested that its “cherry-picking” approach might not be beneficial for the Forum in the long run, given the demise of even higher bodies on allegations of selectivity.
A representative of the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samithi Samiti, the local indigenous political party to the Accord, said that while a task force had been formed and tribal refugees had been repatriated as per the Accord’s provisions, the lands of all returned refugees had not been returned, and internally displaced Jumma families had yet to be rehabilitated. He agreed that a lack of sincere political commitment, in addition to de facto military rule and hostile bureaucracy, were the main elements hindering the Accord’s implementation.
In the ensuing debate, many representatives of indigenous organizations expressed solidarity with the people of the region and called for their recognition as indigenous people. Several stressed that, with hundreds of army camps scattered across it, the region was still reeling under militarization. A number of other speakers said the Special Rapporteur’s report could be a basis for future initiatives.
Several Forum members underlined the potential inherent in the original Accord to resolve the ongoing tensions, with Raja Devasish Roy, a member of the Permanent Forum from Bangladesh, saying he hoped that “door of dialogue” which had been opened by today’s discussion remained open, as the parties to the conflict were not talking enough — whether in the Forum itself or in the cafeteria.
Further underlining the potential of the day’s dialogue, Dalee Sambo Dorough, Forum member from the United States, stressed that the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples provided a “new, key point of departure” for the region. Rather than focusing on article 7 of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples on acts of violence and genocide, she emphasized article 8 and the real opportunity for the Government of Bangladesh to provide mechanisms of redress for the peoples of the Chittagong Hill Tracts region.
She suggested that implementing certain provisions would be a far more effective route for the Government than denying the indigenous identity. Indeed, the Accord, which had already been agreed on, provided a road map and seemed a far more preferable route to follow than that of forced displacement, which could eventually fall under the portfolio of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
As it took up other reports, the Forum was urged to use the recently adopted Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from Their Utilization to shape laws at the national level. Presenting the technical review of the international regime on access and benefit-sharing, Special Rapporteur Victoria Tauli-Corpuz stressed that despite a number of weaknesses regarding the rights of indigenous peoples, the Protocol could be used to reduce the bio-piracy in indigenous communities
Ms. Tauli-Corpuz also introduced the report on the impacts of the global crisis on indigenous peoples. Eva Biaudet, a permanent forum member from Finland, presented a Special Rapporteur’s study on forced labour and indigenous peoples. The report on international criminal law and the judicial defence of indigenous peoples’ rights was introduced by Megan Davis, a permanent forum member from Australia.
A member of the Permanent Forum from Mexico also spoke today, as did representatives of Denmark, Guatemala and Brazil. Venezuela’s delegate to the Parlamento Indigena de América also spoke, as well as a representative of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Speakers from the following indigenous organization also participated: Global Indigenous Peoples’ Caucus, Asia Indigenous Peoples’ Caucus, Chittagong Hill Tracts’ Citizens Committee, Global Indigenous Women’s Caucus, Kapeeng Foundation, Saami Council, Amnesty International and the International Work Group on Indigenous Affairs, North American Indigenous Peoples Caucus, International Human Rights Association of American Minorities, and the Association of Indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation.
Also: Global Indigenous Youth Caucus, Indigenous Peoples of Australia, Indigenous Peoples' Centre for Documentation, Research and Information, Indigenous Peoples Organization of Australia, First Peoples Human Rights Coalition, Seneca Nation of Indians, Zo Reunification Organization, Ainu Association, Youth Caucus of Australia, Aboriginal Medical Service Western Sydney, Indigenous Peoples Foundation for Education and Environment, Nepalese Indigenous Peoples, Global Indigenous Youth Caucus, Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality.
The Forum will reconvene at 10 a.m. Thursday, 26 May, to consider the draft agenda for its eleventh session.