Indigenous people find it far more difficult to enjoy their fundamental human rights than mainstream groups, as their traditional laws, values and customs have been eroded by the influence, and rapid development of mainstream culture. These issues have been further exacerbated by a lack of government recognition and specific legal mechanisms to protect against such discrimination.We have been implementing the Support to Indigenous Peoples in Plain Land (SIPPL) project since 2011 with financial and technical support from Oxfam. The main objectives of this project are to empower the indigenous population through capacity building, and to enhance local Community Based Organizations (CBOs) to better enable indigenous people in recognizing their rights and claiming their entitlements from government and different service providers.
Under Anagrasar Gonno Unnayan Prokolpo (AGUP), we organized consultative meetings with local government institutions on indigenous people;s issues. The aim of the meetings was to encourage indigenous people to share their problems with local government officials and to introduce them with local government offices, and their duties and responsibilities. The rationale behind these meetings was to bridge the gap between indigenous people and local government. We realize that local government play an important role in the lives of indigenous people, and the indigenous population, though have the right to report their issues to upazila administration, are not in the habit of doing so. The meetings are therefore a platform where they can raise their concerns and offer an opportunity for upazila administration to better understand the challenges that indigenous people face.
n 2013, ECDO set precedence by organizing the first public hearing on indigenous human rights violations which was held in Sylhet City under Strengthening the voice of human rights defenders to protect right and entitlements of ethnic minorities project with support from European Union and Oxfam. ECDO also formed a Human Rights Defender (HRD) forum in Sylhet to protect human rights for indigenous peoples and other marginalized groups. This forum is consists of twenty five members including male and female and these members have selected from different sectors like academician, lawyers, civil society members, students etc. ECDO already provided training to these HRD forum members and now they are working very actively on indigenous peoples rights issue.
All of our projects and activities that relate to human rights are supported by Civil Society Organizations, including political leaders, media, academics, local government officials, and indigenous leaders.
Gender Equality
ECDO is committed to achieving gender equality, which we believe is achievable through the empowerment of women.Under Anagrasar Gonno Unnayan Prokolpo, we formed two women-only Community Based Organizations (CBOs), who have established their own development savings fund, which they use to fund community projects.We have also provided income-generating training workshops in sewing and block boutique to women, which have empowered them to seek an income, independent from their male spouses.
Legal Aid
Since 2008, ECDO has been working in partnership with Bangladesh Legal Aid Services Trust (BLAST) to provide legal assistance to indigenous victims. DANIDA and Oxfam have also supported ongoing land rights training workshops for indigenous people.Our most recent project, Strengthening the Voice of Human Rights Defenders to Protect the Rights and Entitlement of Ethnic Minorities, supported by European Union and Oxfam aims to empower indigenous people through the provision of land management training workshops, in which participants are educated on maintaining and preserving their official land documents, and how to access local government services when problems arise.
In November 2013, we organized the first public hearing on human rights violations, with a focus on issues of land grabbing. We also organized a lobby meeting with government officials to encourage their active cooperation in safeguarding against illegal land grabbing activity.
This Patro marginalized indigenous woman (35) from Kulauti village of Sylhet sadar upozela under Sylhet district was raped by an army person of Sylhet Jalabad Cantonment on 4th April 2014. ECDO is providing necessary counseling and legal support to this victim with support from European Union and Oxfam and local legal support unit.
A Patro young indigenous girl (11) has been gang raped in a hotel in Sylhet city last 19th June 2014. Next day in the morning Dakshin Surma thana police under Sylhet Metropolitan Police (SMP) rescued her from hotel Biroti nearby Sylhet Railway station and arrested four accused named Humayun Rashid (23), son of Ataur Rahman, Junel Ahmed (24), son of Ponki Mia, Md. Alomgir Hossain (20), son of Shamsu Mia and Sajid Mirza (28), son of Chuyab Mirza from the spot who were directly involve with this offense. Now ECDO is providing counseling, legal and other necessary support to the victim with support from European Union and Oxfam. It should be mentioned that the victim was given to the custody of her parents on 22nd June after a long legal process supported by ECDO.
On behalf of ECDO we are urging to the concern authorities and agencies for taking necessary action against the accused of this offense. Otherwise this type of offense will not be possible to stop.Besides of these ECDO provides legal aid support related to land grabbing and other human rights violation issue for indigenous and other marginalized groups.