The following is based on a communication written by the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders and other UN experts to the Government of Bangladesh, as well as the company Lama Rubber Industries Limited on 23 May 2025. The communication remained confidential for 60 days before being made public, giving the Government and company time to reply. Regrettably, no response was received within this time frame. If a reply is received it will be posted on the UN Special Procedures communications database.
At the time of publication, human rights defender Ringrong Mro remains out on bail. However, none of the charges have been dropped, and several cases against him are still ongoing.
This is a shorter version of the original communication.
BACKGROUND
Topic: the criminalisation of Mr. Ringrong Mro in Bandarban District on the basis of a complaint filed by the corporation Lama Rubber Industries Limited in 2022.
Mr. Ringrong Mro is an environmental human rights defender and indigenous community leader of the Mro community in Lama Upazila located in the Bandarban district of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. As a leader of the Indigenous Jhum Land Protection Committee, he advocates at a grassroot level for the protection of the local environment and indigenous lands in the region, particularly against illegal encroachment and acquisition of land by corporations, and raises awareness of environmental degradation and land dispossession of local indigenous peoples.
ALLEGATIONS
In 1992, the corporation Lama Rubber Industries Ltd. was granted a lease for 1,600 acres of land in 64 plots of 25 acres per slot by the Bandarban Hill District Council for rubber cultivation. It is reported that since then, Lama Rubber Industries Ltd. has, with the alleged support of security forces and local administration, encroached up to 3,500 acres of land in total. This includes Jhum farming land, Mouza land and common forest belonging to local indigenous peoples. Additionally, between March and September 2022, agents of Lama Rubber Industries Ltd. are reported to have threatened indigenous community members with forced eviction, hired outside labourers to forcibly occupy the lands of indigenous villagers, set fire to 350 acres of farming land and forests, and contaminated the water in the Kalaia Jhiri area using poisonous substances. As a result, there have been reports of food and drinking water shortages for Mr. Ringrong’s local community which cannot be adequately met by relief efforts. In response to these reported encroachments and attacks, Mr. Mro has been vocal in protesting the presence of Lama Rubber Industries Ltd. on his community’s ancestral land, raising awareness about the corporation’s environmental and human rights impact in the region.
On 14 August 2022, a case was filed against Mr. Ringrong Mro in connection with a complaint filed by Lama Rubber Industries Ltd against him and other Mro indigenous community members also protesting the illegal encroachment. The complaint accused the community members of unlawful assembly and mischief by fire or explosive substance under section 435 of the Bangladesh Penal Code, which carries a penalty of up to seven years imprisonment and a monetary fine.
On 22 February 2025, Mr. Mro was arrested in Langkam Para, Sarai Union in Lama Upazila, Bandarban District without an arrest warrant by plainclothes Lama Police. This arrest was made on the basis of the complaint made in 2022 by Lama Rubber Industries Ltd, on the same charges. Following his arrest, on 23 February 2025, the environmental human rights defender was allegedly arbitrarily detained and held in Bandarban District Jail until he was released on 28 March 2025. The criminal case against Mr. Ringrong Mro is ongoing.
As well as judicial persecution, Mr. Mro has also reportedly been subject to threats and harassment in connection with his human rights and environmental work in defence of his community’s ancestral land and environment.
CONCERNS
In the communication, we express our deep concern about the continued criminalisation of indigenous community leader and land defender Mr. Ringrong Mro. We are particularly concerned about the apparent lack of due process employed in the arrest of Mr. Mro and the fact that he was held in pre-trial detention for over one month before his release. If confirmed, the alleged facts would appear to contravene, among other norms, with articles 9 and 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), acceded to by Bangladesh on 6 September 2000, which guarantee the rights not to be arbitrarily deprived of liberty and the right to a fair trial, as well as article 19 guaranteeing the right to freedom of opinion and expression. We express our concern at what appears to be an emerging pattern of criminalization and judicial harassment of indigenous community leaders and environmental human rights defenders in the Chittagong Hill Tracts which we fear may have a deterring effect on their work in defence of human rights and their local environment.
The arrest of Mr. Ringrong Mro on the basis of a complaint made over two years before by a private corporation accused of encroaching on the land of the environmental human rights defender’s community is especially concerning as such encroachments and developments directly undermine the Chittagong Hill Tracts Accord, a peace agreement signed in 1997 by the Government of Bangladesh and representatives of the indigenous people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti (PCJSS). The Accord was drafted to resolve conflict over land, autonomy, cultural rights, and the rights of indigenous peoples over their land and territory, acknowledging that previous land acquisitions and leases without the consent of the indigenous peoples was unjust and that the land should be returned to its rightful owners.
