Hill Voice, 30 March 2023, Special Correspondent: The Ministry of Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs (MoCHTA) held a preparatory meeting on the upcoming 22nd Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Affairs (UNPFII) to be taken place at the United Nations Headquarters.

This preparatory meeting was held today Thursday (March 30) in the conference hall of the MoCHTA under the chairmanship of the Secretary of the Ministry Mosammat Hamida Begum. It is not yet known precisely what was discussed in the meeting.

However, although various ministries and departments including the National Security Intelligence Agency, the Directorate General of Defense Intelligence and the Public Security Department of the Ministry of Home Affairs were invited, no representatives of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Regional Council and the three Hill District Councils were invited.

It should be noted that the 22nd session of the UNPFII will be held from April 17 to April 28, 2023, at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

The session of the UNPFII is attended every year by representatives of indigenous peoples organizations, government representatives, representatives of various UN specialized agencies, academics and human rights activists from different countries across the world.

Like other countries of the world, representatives of indigenous peoples organizations from Bangladesh, secretaries and other officials of the MoCHTA and representatives of variuos intelligence agencies on behalf of the government participate in this event.

Every year, the delegation of Bangladesh government makes anti-indigenous statement and highlights the distorted information on implementation of the CHT Accord and also the development of indigenous peoples of the country.