This year, Bangladesh was the subject of heated discussion at the 10th session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII), held 16-27 May. The starting point was a report, commissioned by the UNPFII and written by a former member of the Forum Lars-Anders Baer. Last year, in his post as special rapporteur on the issue, Baer spent time in Bangladesh and subsequently came out with a report exploring the status of implementation of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Accord of 1997. Although the report received statements of solidarity from the delegates, the Dhaka government's response was novel: it refused to acknowledge the existence of any indigenous population in Bangladesh whatsoever.
The UNPFII, established in July 2000, is the first UN forum where indigenous peoples directly represent their own interests. It consists of 16 members, half of whom are nominated by governments and the other half by indigenous communities, and ultimately is tasked with making reports and recommendations, and generally raising awareness about indigenous peoples within the UN system. The members meet once a year for ten working days, at which governments, UN bodies, intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations, and organisations of indigenous peoples participate as observers. In 2010, Devasish Roy, the traditional raja of the Chakma community, was selected as one of the UNPFII's 16 members, representing the Asian region for the period 2011-13. Although indigenous peoples' representatives from Bangladesh have always participated at the UNPFII, this year's meeting was the first time that the CHT Accord has been a focus of the discussion.
In the event, Baer's report was well received by observer governments and international rights organisations, who called on the Dhaka government to speed up the implementation of the CHT Accord. Although a nine-member delegation of the Bangladesh government, including the state minister for CHT affairs, Dipankar Talukdar, and other indigenous members of the Parliament were scheduled to participate in the UNPFII discussion, they all cancelled at the last moment. (Though no official reason was given, it appears that the officials felt they would be cornered at the Forum given the content of Baer's report.) Instead, Iqbal Ahmed, first secretary of the Bangladesh mission to the UN, gave the official response, the thrust of which was that there were no indigenous peoples in Bangladesh and as such the implementation of the Accord was not a suitable topic for discussion at the UNPFII. 'We urge upon the Forum to dedicate its valuable time to discuss issues related to millions of indigenous people all over the world and not waste time on issues politically concocted by some enthusiastic quarters with questionable motives,' Ahmed stated.
Given that one of the UNPFII members present, Raja Devasish Roy, was an indigenous person from Bangladesh, it was rather surprising for Ahmed to take such an approach. Of course, this argument has been used before. Although both Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia have publicly used the word adivasi (indigenous), and many older government laws use the phrase indigenous hill-men, the current government has categorically refused to recognise the existence of indigenous peoples. The Ministry for CHT Affairs has reflected this denial in a memo in which it instructed district-level officials to stop using the terms adivasi or indigenous in government documents. It instead suggested using the word upajati – sub-ethnicity or sub-nation.