16/07/2025
|| Statement of JSS Representative Dangubi Augustina Chakma on the Declaration on Indigenous Rights at EMRIP. And the fruitful session will commence untill 18 July, 2025.
Borgang Times News Desk: Today, the 16th of July, 2025 the 18th session of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRI), Augustina Chakma, representative of the Parbatya Chittagong Jana Sanghati Samiti (PCJSS), delivered her statement on the agenda “Item 5: Report on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, including the United Nations Declaration on Indigenous Peoples”.
The 18th session of EMRI began last Monday (14 July) 2025 at the United Nations Human Rights Office in Geneva, Switzerland. The session will continue until 18 July, 2025.
In her speech at the EMRIP session on 15 July, 2025, Augustina Chakma calls on the Expert Mechanism and the Permanent Forum for Suspension of Bangladesh Army Camps & deployment in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
Augustina Chakma of the Parbatya Chittogram Jana Sanghati Samiti (PCJSS), Monira Tripura and Tony Chiran of the Bangladesh Indigenous Youth Forum are participating in this 18th session of EMRI.
Augustina Chakma said in her speech, “I did not grow up in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, but the stories of my people, the Jumma people, have reached me across generations and distances. Stories of lush mountains, sacred rivers and a serene solemnity that has withstood decades of oppression. But those stories are also filled with silence. The silent military presence. The silence of fear. And the silence of a peace agreement that was signed but never properly implemented.”
She said the Chittagong Hill Tracts Accord was signed in 1997 by the Bangladesh government and the Parbatya Chattogram Jana Sanghati Samiti with the hope of civilianization and self-determination. But that promise was broken. Instead of peace, the area was effectively brought under martial law in 2001 under ‘Operation Uttoron’. Civilian authorities were placed under military authority and the lives of the Jumma people were placed under tighter control.
Augustina Chakma added, “I have heard relatives talking in their ears about army checkpoints. I have heard them talking about displacement. I have heard them talking about violence that has never made headlines. While members of the Bangladesh army wear the badge of human rights as UN peacekeepers abroad, the same army violates those same rights against indigenous peoples at home. Peacekeepers abroad should first be peacekeepers in their own countries. So today I have not only come with a principled request – I have come with the burden of those silenced voices.”
Finally, Dangubi Augustina Chakma concluded her statement by saying, “I respectfully request the Special Rapporteur to request Bangladesh for an official visit. I request the Expert Mechanism and the Permanent Forum to take this position: recommend the suspension of the participation of Bangladeshi military forces in UN peacekeeping operations until all temporary camps in the Chittagong Hill Tracts are removed and Operation Uttor is withdrawn. Justice is not a matter of choice. Peacekeeping must begin at home.”
