Indigenous Peoples' Land Rights in Bangladesh

The land is the mother of indigenous peoples who think themselves as the son of land and forest as they were entirely dependent upon land and without it, they have no existence to survive at all. The major international laws governing the land rights of indigenous peoples inter alia include the UDHR (1948), ICCPR (1966), and UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007). The Declaration in its Article 10 provides that, "Indigenous person shall not be forcibly removed from their lands or territories". Furthermore, Article 26(1) of the Declaration stipulates that "Indigenous peoples have the right to the lands, territories and resources which they have traditionally owned, occupied or otherwise used or acquired". While in Bangladesh, the laws governing land rights of indigenous peoples in the plains is contained in the SAT Act (1950) and in the CHT is contained in the CHT Regulation (1900) and many other legislations passed in the period following the CHT Accord (1997).