Shazia Sultana Rahman Madame President and distinguished guests. Minorities have always played a central role in shaping diverse, resilient, and peaceful societies through their languages, cultures, skills, and lived experiences. They strengthen the social fabric and help build trust across communities. When minorities are meaningfully included in peace-keeping, transitional justice, and post-conflict reconstruction, the outcomes are more just and sustainable. In Bangladesh, indigenous communities, such as the Chakma, [inaudible] and others, have been at the heart of peace-building efforts, particularly through the 1997 Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord, an agreement that is still [inaudible] full implementation. The community-based peace committees have long promoted non-violent solutions to land disputes and identity-related tensions. For many of these groups, preserving languages, cultures and traditions is a form of transitional justice and a way of reclaiming dignity. Their efforts bring national and international attentions to attacks on temples, churches, and minority villages, strengthening democratic oversight and the rule of law in Bangladesh after the overthrow of the elected government in the 2024 mob uprising. Bangladesh currently lacks a comprehensive transitional justice framework for addressing minority-related grievances. As a result, reparations for victims of religious or communal violence remain inconsistent and in urgent need of institutional reform. We bring the attention to UN HRC to take strict action, and call on the caretaker Bangladesh government to put an end to the situation [cut off by Chair].

Select target paragraph3