Divers Paths to Justice - English - Forest Peoples Programme

Divers Paths to Justice: Legal pluralism and the rights of indigenous peoples inSoutheast Asiaseen that customary land rights are often at risk of being subsumed into, ornegated by, mainstream concepts and practices of land ownership and usethat draw upon exchange-oriented individual rights. The latter are oftenpromoted by (largely non-indigenous) government functionaries and nonindigenoussettlers.Several indigenous peoples’ institutions and organisations, includingtraditional institutions (barring some exceptions), on the other hand, seem tobe equally determined to resist such a process, by invoking customarypractices and statutes that support their concept of land rights and land use.Although the force of the State is on the side of mainstream practices,indigenous peoples have the advantage of physical possession of theswidden and forest commons, knowledge about the resources thereon, theirrelative remoteness and the absence of land survey (which would haveprovided the State with detailed data on the lands in question). For the timebeing, the resistance is holding on, to some extent at least, but in the longrun, its persistence will depend upon how united the indigenous peoples canremain, and the extent to which they can combine peaceful occupation andresistance programmes with the strategic use of judicial and other recoursemechanisms.Legal pluralism in Bangladesh: a brief overviewBangladesh - a unitary system of government - practises a form of legalpluralism. This is primarily in regards to two major contexts. One concernspersonal laws. Thus, somewhat like in Pakistan, India and Malaysia - alsoformer British colonies like Bangladesh - the personal or family lawprinciples governing marriage, inheritance and related matters inBangladesh are based upon the ethnic or religious affiliation of theindividuals concerned. 3 This is true for all parts of the country. This paper,however, will not address personal law issues other than where they arepertinent to the issue of customary land rights. 4 The other major form of3 Roy 2009:19.4 For a detailed discussion of the customary personal laws of the indigenous peoples107