A Study on the Rights and Protection of Indigenous People in Bangladesh

Abstract

Indigenous people represent the ethnic groups of people around the world who are usually alienated from dominant societies, for their distinct custom, tradition and religious beliefs. Due to their ethnicity they have some limitations to exercise all human rights. Although the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is designed to protect the human rights of all human beings, it does not have any special mention for the group rights of indigenous people. The International Labor Organization (ILO) adopted the Indigenous and Tribal Populations Convention, 1957(No.107) for ensuring their rights and protections. Considering the development of international law and socio-economic expansion of indigenous community, the ILO revised this convention in 1989 (No. 169). Finally, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), 2007 has been adopted for promoting the inherent rights of indigenous people. In Bangladesh among 160 million people with heterogeneous religion, culture and tradition, nearly two-three million indigenous people from around fifty ethnic groups have been living for centuries. The Constitution of Bangladesh ensures the rights of indigenous people with special emphasis. This country has ratified major international human rights instruments including the ILO Convention No.107. Following the norms of these instruments some special laws have enacted for protecting their rights. But a major portion of them continues to be deprived of their rights due to legal inconsistency and inadequate implementations of existing laws. In this given context, this paper aims to analyze the actual legal status of indigenous people in Bangladesh from the view point of domestic and international law. Based upon such assessment, some suggestions will be put forth to the policy and law makers of Bangladesh to protect and promote the rights of indigenous people through exhaustive implementations of domestic and international law.