IACHR: Indigenous Organizations Denounce Violation of Collective Rights

Source: Indian Law Resource Center
www.indianlaw.org

Indigenous Organizations and Peoples Denounce how Panama, Guatemala, Costa
Rica and Nicaragua Violate their Collective Property Rights to their Lands
and Natural Resources in a Hearing Before the Inter-American Commission on
Human Rights

Washington, D.C., July 28th, 2006

The Indian Law Resource Center; the Congreso General Kuna; the Maya Q’eqchi
People; the Asociación Estoreña para el Desarrollo Integral (AEPDI); the
Brunca and Teribe People; the Organización Kus Kura; the Miskito People;
and the Centro por la Justicia y los Derechos Humanos de los Pueblos
Indígenas de la Costa Atlántica de Nicaragua (CEJUDHCAN), participated in a
thematic hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
(IACHR) on July 19th described the manner in which Panama, Guatemala, Costa
Rica and Nicaragua violate the collective property rights of indigenous
peoples to their lands and natural resources, despite the international
commitments they have assumed by ratifying not only the American Convention
on Human Rights, but also Conventions 107 and 169 of the International
Labor Organization related to indigenous peoples.

The Congreso General Kuna denounced the Panamanian State for continually
refusing to recognize their collective property rights to their ancestral
lands located in the Colón Province of the District of Santa Isabel,
despite the presentation of judicial appeals more than 20 years ago. In
addition, they explained how the ancestral lands of Santa Isabel are
intimately related with the Kuna culture and worldview, as well as the
material and spiritual importance these lands hold for the cultural
survival of their communities. In this vein, they identified these lands
as a part of the biological and cultural corridor of Kuna Yala, where more
than 200 indigenous families carry out sustainable agro-forestry
activities, as well other activities related to hunting and traditional
medicine.

The Maya Q’eqchi People of El Estor, Izabal, explained how the Guatemalan
State systematically fails to delimit, demarcate, or title their ancestral
lands with the singular objective of denying them their property rights to
their lands and natural resources. In particular, they provided evidence
which demonstrated that Guatemala has strategically denied their collective
property rights and self-determination in order to grant nickel mining
licenses, in an irregular and surreptitious fashion, to the Guatemalan
Nickel Corporation (CGN), without having informed or previously consulted
the affected communities, which have persistently asked that their
territories be officially registered immediately.

The Brunca and Teribe People, in general terms, demonstrated that the Costa
Rican State has, for almost 30 years, denied indigenous peoples the
collective rights recognized in national Law 6172 of 1977—the “Indigenous
Law”—by failing to apply its principles and failing to ensure that they be
respected by others. They specifically denounced how Costa Rica violates
indigenous peoples’ collective rights to property and self-determination by
imposing upon them “Indigenous Development Associations”—State entities
involving only weak indigenous participation—and denying them their own
traditional ways of organizing communally, through their own traditional
authorities. They also made particular note of the States’ plans to flood
part of their ancestral territories, located in the “Boruca-Terraba
Reserve”, so that the State electrical corporation—Instituto Costarricense
de Electricidad (ICE)—can carry out the internationally financed “Boruca
Hydroelectric Project”. Similarly, they pointed out the numerous negative
spiritual, cultural, and economic impacts that this project would cause in
their communities, as well as the forced internal displacement to which the
project would expose them.

The Miskito People described how the Nicaraguan State has failed to fulfill
the obligations that emerge not only from domestic Law 445—the “Law of
Communal Property”—but also from the decision of the Inter-American Court
on Human Rights that resulted from the Awas Tigni case, related to their
collective property rights to their lands and natural resources. In
particular, they explained how Nicaragua is now planning to violate these
rights anew by placing the collective property titles of indigenous peoples
below “co-ownership with the State” and, through this provisional
alteration, diminish their full judicial effect. They denounced all of
this as, on the one hand, preventing the full exercise of the collective
property rights of communities to the natural resources located within
indigenous territories; and, on the other hand, favoring the advancement of
the agricultural frontier to the detriment of the communities.

Finally, the aforementioned peoples and indigenous organizations asked the
IACHR to, among other things, make an on-site visit to Panama, Guatemala,
Costa Rica and Nicaragua in order to confirm the gravity of the situations
presented, as well as recommend that these States adopt administrative,
legislative, or any other measures necessary to guarantee, in a suitable
and effective fashion, the collective property rights of indigenous peoples
to their ancestral lands and natural resources.

Through this hearing, The Indian Law Resource Center demonstrated to the
IACHR how the aforementioned States promote strong human rights policies
before the international community and other forums for international
cooperation, which do not translate to comprehensive respect for the
collective rights of indigenous peoples within their borders—revealing a
clear and continual discriminatory practice. Likewise, the Center strongly
urged the IACHR—within the framework of its mandate to defend human rights
in this Hemisphere—to apply the principles of international law related to
permanent sovereignty over natural resources, in so far as they constitute
a fitting criteria to guarantee collective property rights and the right to
self determination, as has already been established within the framework of
the United Nations System.

The written report presented to the IACHR is available at www.indianlaw.org

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mensaje no necesariamente significa que la Alianza Amazonica este de
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La Alianza Amazonica para los Pueblos Indigenas y Tradicionales de la
Cuenca Amazonica es una iniciativa nacida de la alianza entre los pueblos
indigenas y tradicionales de la Amazonia y grupos e individuos que
comparten sus preocupaciones por el futuro de la Amazonia y sus pueblos.
Hay mas de ochenta organizaciones del norte y del sur activas en la Alianza
Amazonica. La Alianza Amazonica trabaja para defender los derechos,
territorios, y el medio ambiente de los pueblos indigenas y tradicionales
de la Cuenca Amazonica.

The Amazon Alliance for Indigenous and Traditional Peoples of the Amazon
Basin is an initiative born out of the partnership between indigenous and
traditional peoples of the Amazon and groups and individuals who share
their concerns for the future of the Amazon and its peoples. There are over
eighty non-governmental organizations from the North and South active in
the Alliance. The Amazon Alliance works to defend the rights, territories,
and environment of indigenous and traditional peoples of the Amazon Basin.

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