Declaration

Declaration of the Indigenous People of Bangladesh on Globalization and  WTO

 

Background:

Long before Bangladesh emerged as an independent nation, we the indigenous people have been living in this land and have continually struggled to establish our and in general people’s rights.  We have also played a significant role in wining freedom from the British colonial regime. In this regard the Te-bhaga Movement of the indigenous people of Northwestern parts of Bangladesh was a milestone in people’s struggle against colonialism and feudal exploitation. During the Pakistani period, many indigenous people were killed by the Pakistani military. A large number also had to took refuge in India to avoid violence. During the War of Independence of 1971, the indigenous people actively fought along side the mainstream Bengali population for an independent Bangladesh. Nevertheless, even after the independence was won, the exploitation and violence against the indigenous people continued. Our human rights are violated: we are evicted from our natural habitat, our cultural identity is not recognized and respected, our access to education and resources are undermined and our status as citizen is under severe discrimination.

To fight the discriminations and exploitations and to establish the rights of the indigenous people Jatio Adivashi Parishad was formed. The organizations have been fighting to establish a nine-point program for the indigenous people of Bangladesh. This includes:

 

  1. The indigenous people of Bangladesh have to be constitutionally recognized as the “indigenous population” of the land.
  2. The indigenous people must have legal possession to land owned and distributed by the state to the landless, the land which was allotted to the indigenous people by the Jamindars and land which the traditional habitat to the indigenous people.
  3. The state must take active measures to protect and promote the indigenous culture and languages and must ensure entitlement to primary education in indigenous language.
  4. There must be government paid legal aid to the indigenous people to recover the misappropriated land of the indigenous people.
  5. The indigenous people must have special qouta and special provisions to all the educational institutions and employment opportunities.
  6. The displaced and landless indigenous people must be rehabilitated.
  7. The enemy property act has to be repealed and the occupied land has to be handed back to the indigenous owners and their legal heirs.
  8. Indigenous Cultural Academies must be formed in every District.
  9. All forms of violation of rights and violence against the indigenous people must be stopped and:
  10. Separate ministry of Indigenous people must be formed and
  11. Special land commission must be formed to establish land rights of the indigenous people.

The indigenous people are in struggle to establish their demands but they paying with their blood. Recently the murder of the indigenous leaders such as Alfred Soren and Pradip Bishwash are the visible evidence of on going violence against the indigenous population.

The corporate globalization presently has introduced new challenges for the indigenous people of Bangladesh. We are now subjugated through the global capitalism. This leads to this specific declaration to ensure that the rights of the indigenous people of Bangladesh are upheld at the face of challenges imposed by the global capitalism.

Preamble:

Globalization as directed by The World Trade Organization is mainly ensuring the global plundering of the TNCs. Opposing this corporate globalization, the people of the world has initiated a process of humane globalization. On the International Day of Indigenous People, the indigenous people of Bangladesh are declaring their solidarity with the process of humane globalization opposing globalization on international indigenous day.

The history of globalization so far has been one of deprivation and oppression for the indigenous people. The indigenous people of Bangladesh have already lost their thousands years old traditional social ownership on land, water and forest. The expansion of market economy has gradually marginalized the indigenous people; evicted them from their ancestral land; robbed off their traditional rights on water and forest; and have deprived them of their language and violated their freedom of living their own way. In the name development the indigenous people have been farther burdened with eviction, oppression and projects hostile to life and nature.

In the name of globalization, WTO within its legal capacity is active to give a permanent, more acute and institutional shape to the deprivation and exploitation of the indigenous people across the nations. WTO led so called liberalization process is violently attacking the traditional social resources and the sovereign and unique lifestyle of the indigenous people. Nowadays TRIPs has become the major means of intellectual and bio-piracy; the TNCs are using the TRIPs to misappropriate the traditional indigenous knowledge and living-resources. In the name of investment and liberalization, the stage has been set to permanently deprive the indigenous people of their habitat (land-water-forest) and unique way of life. The indigenous people view nature as the center of their life and spirituality, while WTO and its treaties have turned the nature and its biodiversity merely into sources of commercial profit. The indigenous people call on all the nations and states of the world, the human rights organizations and activists and the United Nations to unitedly resist the aggression of the corporate globalization.

 

Declaration:

  1. The Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) of WTO is against the core values of the agro-based lifestyle of the indigenous people. The acts of AoA are unacceptable to the indigenous people. In this regard, specifically there is urgency in surpassing the narrow framework of AOA to ensure government supports and subsidies to protect the unique agriculture, agro-resources and agricultural knowledge base of the indigenous communities.
  2. The indigenous localities of the world have to be kept beyond the general principles of WTO (such as most favored nation or national treatment etc.) so that there can be special protective provisions to safe guard the indigenous communities.
  3. All the barriers must be eliminated to ensure that the agricultural and ethnic products of the indigenous people have unrestricted and easy access to the markets of all the nations.
  4. Prior to planning and implementation of any form of investment or development project in the indigenous localities, there must be a mandatory process of seeking opinion and permission of the indigenous people of the localities. In this regard a provision of referendum can be introduced.
  5. There has to be a special protection act to safe guard the traditional indigenous knowledge base and bio-diversity so that the rich knowledge and living-resource of the indigenous communities are not pirated by others (such as the TNCs) through patenting. If any such knowledge or resources are already patented under any law, the indigenous people call to immediate cancellation of such patents.
  6. The moral-cultural construction of the indigenous people is against any for of patent on life, living-resources, micro-organism or biological processes. The indigenous ethical and spiritual beliefs on nature and life are opposed to any form of genetic-modification or tempering of micro-organism. In this regard, the indigenous people reject all the acts of TRIPs and express their unwavering commitment to work against implementation of any of these acts.
  7. The constitutional recognition of the indigenous people is the primary precondition of protecting the interests of the indigenous people in government level trade talks. The indigenous people call on the governments to reflect on the rights and interest of the indigenous people at international multipartite trade and policy discussions. The national governments must actively consider and reflect the opinions of the indigenous people in trade related policies.
  8. The government must inform the indigenous people about all the trade related treaties signed till date. The government and WTO must facilitate a process through which the indigenous people may assess the implications and impacts of any such treaty. The government and WTO must also take note of the opinions of the indigenous people regarding the treaties. Only then real transparency and accountability of the government in global governance will be assured and active and informed participation of the indigenous people in globalization will be ensured.
  9. There must be legal recognition of the traditional social rights of the indigenous people on their agricultural land, habitat, wetland and forests.  These ownership rights must not be violated for the sake of forestation, mining, land development, agro-development or any other form of development or liberalization process.
  10. The provisions, projects or planning to safe guard the language, culture and lifestyle of the indigenous people should never be obstructed, reduced or abandoned through any form of trade treaties among nations.

 

This declaration had been adopted by 2000 indigenous activists and leaders of Bangladesh on the International Indigenous Day 2003 in Rajshahi through a convention organized by CCBVO, Rajshahi.

CCBVO

Mohisbathan, Rajshahi Court,

Rajpara, Rajshahi-6201, Bangladesh.