UN officials urge Bangladesh to protect minorities from attacks
United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim and the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples José Francisco Cali Tzay in a joint statement called upon the Interim Government of Bangladesh “to take immediate action to protect the Jumma Peoples from violent and indiscriminate attacks, conduct an impartial commission of enquiry into allegations of violence and prosecute perpetrators to end the culture of impunity” regarding recent human rights violations committed in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHTs) in September 2024.
In their joint statement, the UN experts stated, “The recent violence is set against a backdrop of broader discrimination and marginalization of the Indigenous Jumma Peoples, who for decades have been subjected to forced evictions and heightened militarization of the region”.
Most importantly, the UN experts called on “social media companies to take all relevant steps to prevent their platforms from disseminating hate speech and misinformation regarding the Indigenous Jumma Peoples.”
The UN Permanent Forum Chairperson and the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples called on the interim government to implement the CHT Peace Accords of 1997, in line with national and international laws, and the provisions contained within the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, in particular Article 7, which states that «Indigenous Peoples have the collective right to live in freedom, peace and security as distinct peoples and shall not
