Nagaland Indigenous People’s Forum (NIPF) and the Zo Reunification Organization (ZORO) executives.
Urged to abolish FCA, CAA, UCC and AFSPA
DIMAPUR, MARCH 16 (MExN): The Nagaland Indigenous People’s Forum (NIPF) and the Zo Reunification Organization (ZORO) in a joint Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) have urged the Government of India (GoI) to revoke the scrapping of the Free Movement Regime (FMR) and abolish the Forest Conservation Act (FCA) 2023, Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) 2024, Uniform Civil Code (UCC) and the Armed Forces Special Power Act 1958 (AFSPA).
According to the joint MoU, the FMR has played a crucial role in allowing the communities to seamlessly traverse borders without being constantly reminded of the political divisions. “If India decides to abolish this regime, we would be compelled to obtain passports and apply for visas to visit our relatives or attend funeral services, significantly impacting our traditional and daily lives,” it stated.
It also underscored that the livelihood of the communities and their economic survival would be at stake since they will lose their rivers and its resources, the mountains and lands where they draw their economic sustenance.
The joint MoU also maintained the FCA 2023 will result in losing several square miles of land which the local communities depend on for daily economic sustenance. “We, the agrarian communities whose economic survival depends on the land and forest products will no longer have land for food. We cannot accept this act to surrender our ancestral land for our survival,” it stated.
On the CAA, the joint MoU said this act with destroy the sibling connectivity among the different communities and will make further division by possible influx of illegal migrants.
It, meanwhile, termed the UCC as a grave concern for the tribal people of the North East while expressing apprehension that the customs and traditional that govern their holistic wellbeing and functioning would be destroyed.
Terming the AFSPA as “enacted racially against the people of North East India,” it said this law obliterates all rules of law in the area where it is applied and it was high time the Government of India rescind this act.
The joint MoU pointed out that the notion of abolishing the FMR and implementing border fencing, FCA 2023, CAA 2024, UCC and AFSPA 1958 are in direct contradiction to Article 36 (1), (2) if the United National Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 2007 (UNDRIP) and runs in contradiction to the spirit of the declaration.
It reminded that the GoI is a signatory to the UNDRIP which asserts the right of indigenous peoples, divided by international borders, to maintain and develop contacts, relations and cooperation across borders for spiritual, cultural, political, economic and social purposes- with their own members as well as with other peoples across borders.
