RAPE IN THE CHT

I have been following the recent FB exchanges on the recent rape events in the CHT, but couldn't join in due to time constraints, while attending a session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York.

OUTRAGE

As with so many others, I too am outraged at these events, including the rape and murder of Sujata, and the assault on another Jumma woman from Langadu recently, and rapes of other women in different parts of the CHT and elsewhere in Bangladesh. However, punishment to the guilty, and outrage and condemnation of the event only covers one, among several, aspects of the evil rape, sexual assault and other forms of violence against women.
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11th Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
7-18 May, 2012
UN Headquarters, New York
Agenda Item 3:
"The Doctrine of Discovery: its enduring impact on indigenous peoples and the right to redress for past conquests (articles 28 and 37of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples)"

Intervention by:
Raja Devasish Roy
Member, UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
8 May, 2012

NATIONAL REGIMES ON LAND & NATURAL RESOURCES

Most national constitutions today declare that the state belongs to its citizens, including indigenous peoples. Therefore, in theory, the lands, territories and natural resources of the states also belong "to the people". The challenge, however, is that, among the population of most states, indigenous peoples remain on the margins of power, law-making and policy-making. Even where indigenous peoples constitute a significant percentage of the population of the state or its different parts, their economic marginality and the dynamics of competing interest groups and money-oriented party-based electoral politics result in their exclusion from major policy-making processes.
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