Hill Voice, 15 July 2025, International Desk: Representative of the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (PCJSS), Augustina Chakma, has delivered speech on agenda “item 5: United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), including report on the rights of Indigenous Peoples” at the 18th session of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP) on Tuesday (July 15).

The 18th session of the EMRIP began on Monday (July 14) at the United Nations Human Rights Office in Geneva, Switzerland. The session will continue until July 18. Augustina Chakma of the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti, Monira Tripura and Tony Chiran of the Bangladesh Indigenous Youth Forum are participating in the 18th session of the EMRIP.

Augustina Chakma has said in her statement that “I did not grow up in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, but the stories of my people—the Jumma people—were carried to me across generations and distance. Stories of lush hills, sacred rivers, and a quiet dignity that has withstood decades of oppression. But those stories were also filled with silence. The silence of military presence. The silence of fear. And the silence of a peace accord that was signed, but never truly fulfilled.”

She has stated that in 1997, the Bangladesh government and the organisation Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti signed the CHT Accord, offering hope of demilitarization and self-determination. But that promise was broken. Instead of peace, the region was placed under a de facto military rule—Operation Uttoron—in 2001. Civil authority was handed over to the military, and the lives of the Jumma people became more tightly controlled.

Augustina Chakma has also added that “I’ve listened to relatives speak in hushed tones about army checkpoints. About displacement. About violence that never made headlines. And while the Bangladesh Army wears the badge of human rights as UN peacekeepers abroad, at home they violate those same rights against Indigenous Peoples. Peacekeepers abroad should first be peacebuilders at home. So today, I don’t just come with a policy request—I come with the weight of those silenced voices.”

Finally, Ms. Chakma has concluded her speech by saying that “I respectfully urge the Special Rapporteur to request an official visit to Bangladesh. I ask the Expert Mechanism and the Permanent Forum to take a stand: to recommend a suspension of Bangladesh’s military participation in UN peacekeeping operations until all temporary camps in the CHT are removed and Operation Uttoron is withdrawn. Justice is not selective. Peacekeeping must begin at home.”