Divers Paths to Justice - English - Forest Peoples Programme

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Divers Paths to Justice: Legal pluralism and the rights of indigenous peoples inSoutheast Asiatheir advocates to thoughtfully restructure legal pluralism in a manner thattruly creates a scenario where a respectful co-existence of different legalnorms and customs is possible.105
Divers Paths to Justice: Legal pluralism and the rights of indigenous peoples inSoutheast Asia5. Asserting customary land rights in the Chittagong Hill Tracts,BangladeshChallenges for legal and juridical pluralism 1Devasish Roy 2This paper discusses the challenges faced by the indigenous peoples in theChittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) region in Bangladesh in exercising theircustomary land rights within the Bangladeshi legal and juridical system(other than in those lands categorised as ‘forests’). Although Bangladeshhas a unitary form of government, the CHT has a separate administrativesystem where customary laws, largely unwritten, apply under the aegis ofstatute law. The colonial-origin CHT Regulation of 1900 regulates, and thusimplicitly recognises, customary land and resource rights of the indigenouspeople, under the custodian role of traditional chiefs and headmen. The1997 “peace” Accord on the CHT, and consequent post-Accord legislation,reinforce the status of customary law, including through strengthened selfgovernmentunder indigenous-controlled district and regional councils.Implementation, however, remains a daunting challenge.This paper explores the nature of these challenges, including the tensionswithin the Bangladeshi legal and juridical system in accommodatingcustomary land. It will focus on two major areas: allotment of ownershipand use of land, and the resolution of disputes over land. In both cases, it is1 Paper prepared for presentation at the “Regional Meeting on Securing Rightsthrough Legal Pluralism in Southeast Asia” hosted by the Forest Peoples Programmeand the Centre for Peoples and Forests with the support of Rights and ResourcesInitiative, Kasetsart University Bangkok, Thailand on 20-22 September 2010.2 Devasish Roy is the hereditary Chakma Raja and Chief of the Chakma Circle inthe Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh. He is also a barrister (Lincoln’s Inn,London) and an advocate at the Supreme Court of Bangladesh (High CourtDivision). He has recently been appointed – following an election – as theIndigenous Expert Member from the Asia region to the UN Permanent Forum onIndigenous Issues for its 2011-2013 term.106
Page 2 and 3:
Divers Paths to Justice: Legal plur
Page 4 and 5:
Page 6 and 7:
Page 8 and 9:
Page 10 and 11:
Page 12 and 13:
Page 14 and 15:
Page 16 and 17:
Page 18 and 19:
Page 20:
Page 23 and 24:
Page 25 and 26:
Page 27 and 28:
Page 29 and 30:
Page 31 and 32:
Page 33 and 34:
Page 35 and 36:
Page 37 and 38:
Page 39 and 40:
Page 41 and 42:
Page 43 and 44:
Page 45 and 46:
Page 47 and 48:
Page 49 and 50:
Page 51 and 52:
Page 53 and 54:
Page 55 and 56: Divers Paths to Justice: Legal plur
Page 105: Divers Paths to Justice: Legal plur
Page 157 and 158:
Page 159 and 160:
Page 161 and 162:
Page 163 and 164:
Page 165 and 166:
Page 167 and 168:
Page 169 and 170:
Page 171 and 172:
Page 173 and 174:
Page 175 and 176:
Page 177 and 178:
Page 179 and 180:
show all

Divers Paths to Justice - English - Forest Peoples Programme

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?