The InternationalCovenant on Civil and Political Rights: A Study on Bangladesh Compliance to be reasonable to fall within the ambit of the guarantee of equality before the law, enshrined in Article 27 of the Constitution. Moreover, Articles 27 and 28 of the Constitution are limited to citizens. However, in Article 31, the Constitution guarantees the protection of the law, without using the term ‘equal protection’, to non-citizens, in that the Constitution guarantees to any person for the time being within Bangladesh the right to be treated in accordance with the law.58 The international and national protection against discrimination on the basis of race, language, colour, inter alia, closely relates to protection of minorities within a legal regime of non-discrimination. To address the de facto economic and social disparity, the Constitution permits affirmative actions “in favour of women or children or for the advancement of any backward section of citizens”.59 Special measures for indigenous peoples have been justified under this constitutional provision since the inception of Bangladesh by putting them under the rubric of ‘backward section of citizens’. It would be pertinent to mention here that during the British colonial rule too, the special characteristics of life and nature of the hill people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts were protected. The 1900 Regulation formulated by the British rulers is still considered the principal instrument for protecting hill people’s rights. 59 Article 28 (4) of the Constitution. 49