INTER-AMERICAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS

The Case of the Mayagna (Sumo) Awas Tingni Community

v.

Nicaragua

Judgment of August 31, 2001

In the Mayagna (Sumo) Awas Tingni Community case (hereinafter “the Community”, “the Mayagna Community”, “the Awas Tingni Community”, or “Awas Tingni”),

the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (hereinafter “the Court”, “the Inter-American Court” or “the Tribunal”), composed of the following judges:

            Antônio A. Cançado Trindade, President;

            Máximo Pacheco-Gómez, Vice President;

            Hernán Salgado-Pesantes, Judge;

            Oliver Jackman, Judge;

            Alirio Abreu-Burelli, Judge;

            Sergio García-Ramírez, Judge;

            Carlos Vicente de Roux -Rengifo, Judge, and

            Alejandro Montiel Argüello, ad hoc Judge;

also present,

            Manuel E. Ventura-Robles, Secretary, and

            Pablo Saavedra-Alessandri, Deputy Secretary,

pursuant to articles 29 and 55 of the Rules of Procedure of the Court (hereinafter “the Rules of Procedure”)^*, delivers the following Judgment on the instant case:

I

Introduction of the case

1.         On June 4, 1998, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (hereinafter “the Commission” or “the Inter-American Commission”) filed before the Court an application against the State of Nicaragua (hereinafter “the State” or “Nicaragua”). The case in question had originated in petition No. 11,577, received at the Commission’s Secretariat on October 2, 1995.

2.         In its application, the Commission cited articles 50 and 51 of the American Convention on Human Rights (hereinafter “the American Convention” or “the Convention”) and article 32 and subsequent articles of the Rules of Procedure. The Commission presented this case for the Court to decide whether the State violated articles 1 (Obligation to Respect Rights), 2 (Domestic Legal Effects), 21 (Right to Property), and 25 (Right to Judicial Protection) of the Convention, in view of the fact that Nicaragua has not demarcated the communal lands of the Awas Tingni Community, nor has the State adopted effective measures to ensure the property rights of the Community to its ancestral lands and natural resources, and also because it granted a concession on community lands without the assent of the Community, and the State did not ensure an effective remedy in response to the Community’s protests regarding its property rights. 

3.         The Commission also requested that the Court declare that the State must establish a legal procedure to allow rapid demarcation and official recognition of the property rights of the Mayagna Community, as well as that it must abstain from granting or considering the granting of any concessions to exploit natural resources on the lands used and occupied by Awas Tingni until the issue of land tenure affecting the community has been resolved.

4.         Finally, the Commission requested that the Court sentence the State to payment of equitable compensation for material and moral damages suffered by the Community, and to payment of costs and expenses incurred in prosecuting the case under domestic jurisdiction and before the inter-American System.

II

JURISDICTION

5.         Nicaragua has been a State Party to the American Convention since September 25, 1979, and recognized the contentious jurisdiction of the Court on February 12, 1991. Therefore, under article 62(3) of the Convention, the Court has jurisdiction to consider the merits of the instant case.

III

PROCEEDINGS BEFORE THE COMMISSION

6.         On October 2, 1995, the Inter-American Commission received in its Secretariat a petition lodged by Jaime Castillo Felipe, Syndic of the Community, in his own name and on behalf of the Community. Precautionary measures were also requested in that petition, since the State allegedly was about to grant Sol del Caribe, S.A. (SOLCARSA) (hereinafter “SOLCARSA”) a concession to commence logging on communal lands. On the 6th of that same month and year, the Commission acknowledged receipt of said brief.

7.         On December 3, 1995, and January 4, 1996, the Commission received briefs reiterating the request for the precautionary measures mentioned in the previous paragraph.

8.         On January 19, 1996, the petitioners requested a hearing before the Commission, but the Commission answered that it would not be possible to grant that request.

9.         On February 5, 1996, the Commission began processing the case and sent the relevant parts of the petition to the State, requesting that it provide the corresponding information within 90 days.

10.       On March 13, 1996, James Anaya, as legal representative of the Community, submitted two newspaper articles to the Commission, pertaining to the granting of the concession to SOLCARSA, and a letter sent by the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources to the President of SOLCARSA, informing him that the “request for a logging concession [was] being processed [,] all that[was] lacking [was] the signature of the concession contract”, and that the Community’s protests were the main obstacle.

11.       In a March 28, 1996 brief, the petitioners sent a draft “memorandum of understanding” to the Commission for a friendly settlement of the case, and according to James Anaya, the legal representative of the Community, that document had been submitted to the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and of the Environment and Natural Resources.

12.       On April 17, 1996, as legal representative of the Community, James Anaya submitted a document in which other indigenous communities of the North Atlantic Autonomous Region (hereinafter “the RAAN”) and the Indigenous Movement of the South Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAS) expressed their support for the petition brought before the Commission.

13.       On May 3, 1996, there was an informal meeting among the petitioners, the State, and the Commission, so as to reach a friendly settlement in this case. On the 6th of that same month and year, the Commission placed itself at the disposal of the parties to attain such a solution, and granted them 30 days to reply on the matter. On May 8 and 20, 1996, the petitioners and the State, respectively, accepted this proposal.

14.       On June 20, 1996, there was a second meeting between the petitioners, the State, and the Commission. At that meeting, Nicaragua rejected the draft “memorandum of understanding” submitted by the claimants (supra, para. 11). They, in turn, suggested that a delegation of the Commission visit Nicaragua for a dialogue with the parties.

15.       A third meeting took place on October 3, 1996, among the petitioners, the State, and the Commission. At that meeting, the petitioners requested that the State not grant any further concessions in the area, that it begin the process of demarcation of the lands of the Community, and that it differentiate them from State lands. The State, in turn, submitted some documentary evidence, announced the establishment of the National Demarcation Commission, and invited the petitioners to participate in it.

16.       On March 5, 1997, the petitioners reiterated to the Commission their request for precautionary measures (supra, paragraphs 6 and 7), given the threat of logging operations starting on indigenous lands, and on the 12th of that same month and year, the Commission granted the State 15 days to submit a report on this matter. On March 20, 1997, Nicaragua requested a 30 day extension to respond to the request, and it was granted.

17.       On April 3, 1997, the petitioners informed the Commission about the February 27, 1997 judgment by the Constitutional Court of the Supreme Court of Justice of Nicaragua on the amparo remedy filed by the members of the Regional Council of the RAAN, declaring the unconstitutionality of the concession granted by the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (hereinafter “MARENA”) to SOLCARSA, because it had not been approved by the Regional Council of the RAAN, as required by article 181 of the Nicaraguan Constitution. They also reported that the State had not suspended the concession. 

18.       On April 23, 1997, Nicaragua requested that the Commission reject the request for precautionary measures made by the petitioners (supra, paragraphs 6, 7, and 16), given the judgment by the Constitutional Court of the Supreme Court of Justice and the fact that the State undertook to comply with that judgment. Nevertheless, on June 7 of that same year, the petitioners informed the Commission that the State and SOLCARSA continued to act as if the concession were valid, despite the decision by the Constitutional Court of the Supreme Court of Justice.

19.       At a hearing before the Commission on October 8, 1997, the petitioners pointed out that logging operations on Community lands continued, and they requested that the Commission conduct an in situ observation. On October 27th of that same year, three days before the scheduled visit of the Commission to Nicaragua, the State informed it that the visit would no longer be necessary, since it was preparing an additional brief on the matter.

20.       On October 31, 1997, the Commission requested that the State adopt whatever precautionary measures (supra, paragraphs 6,7,16, and 18) were required to suspend the concession granted to SOLCARSA, and set a 30-day limit for Nicaragua to report on those measures.

21.       On November 5, 1997, the State requested that the Commission close the case, as the Regional Council of the RAAN had ratified approval of the concession to SOLCARSA, thus correcting the “error of form” and, therefore, the concession was now valid.

22.       On November 17, 1997, the petitioners stated to the Commission that the central element of the petition was the lack of protection by Nicaragua of the rights of the Community to its ancestral lands, and that this situation still persisted. Furthermore, regarding ratification by the Regional Council of the RAAN of the concession to SOLCARSA, they pointed out that this Council is part of the political-administrative organization of the State, and that it had acted without taking into account the territorial rights of the Community. Finally, they requested that the Commission issue a report in accordance with article 50 of the Convention.

23.       On December 4, 1997, the State sent a brief to the Commission stating that on November 7, 1997, the petitioners had filed an amparo remedy at the Matagalpa Appellate Court, requesting it to declare the concession to SOLCARSA null. For this reason, Nicaragua argued that domestic remedies had not been exhausted, and it invoked articles 46 of the Convention and 37 of the Rules of Procedure of the Commission.

24.       On March 2, 1998, the State informed the Commission that on January 22 of that same year the petitioners had filed a request before the Supreme Court of Justice for execution of the February 27, 1997 judgment by that court (supra, para. 17). On this occasion, Nicaragua reiterated its position that domestic remedies had not been exhausted, and requested that the Commission abstain from continuing to process the case.

25.       On March 3, 1998, the Inter-American Commission approved Report No. 27/98, forwarded to the State on the 6th of that same month and year, and granted Nicaragua 2 months to report on measures it had taken to comply with the recommendations. In that Report, the Commission concluded:

141.   Based on the acts and omissions examined, […] that the State of Nicaragua has not complied with its obligations under the American Convention on Human Rights. The State of Nicaragua has not demarcated the communal lands of the Awas Tingni Community or other indigenous communities, nor has it taken effective measures to ensure the property rights of the Community on its lands. This omission by the State constitutes a violation of Articles 1, 2 and 21 of the Convention, which together establish the right to the said effective measures. Articles 1 and 2 oblige States to take the necessary measures to give effect to the rights contained in the Convention.

142.  The State of Nicaragua is actively responsible for violations of the right to property, embodied in Article 21 of the Convention, by granting a concession to the company SOLCARSA to carry out road construction work and logging exploitation on the Awas Tingni lands, without the consent of the Awas Tingni Community.

143.  [...]   that the State of Nicaragua did not guarantee an effective remedy to respond to the claims of the Awas Tingni Community regarding their rights to lands and natural resources, pursuant to Article 25 of the Convention.

The Commission also recommended that Nicaragua:

          a.  Establish a procedure in its legal system, acceptable to the indigenous communities involved, that [would] result in the rapid official recognition and demarcation of the Awas Tingni territory and the territories of other communities of the Atlantic coast;

              b.  Suspend as soon as possible, all activity related to the logging concession within the Awas Tingni communal lands granted to SOLCARSA by the State, until the matter of the ownership of the land, which affects the indigenous communities, [has been] resolved, or a specific agreement [has been] reached between the state and the Awas Tingni Community;

              c.  Initiate discussions with the Awas Tingni Community within one month in order to determine the circumstances under which an agreement [could] be reached between the State and the Awas Tingni Community.

26.       On May 7, 1998, the Inter-American Commission received the State’s reply. The Commission stated that, even though said reply was presented extemporaneously, it would analyze its content in order to add it to the case record. As regards the recommendations of the Inter-American Commission, Nicaragua stated that:

a)  In order to comply with the recommendations of the IACHR with regard to establishing a legal procedure acceptable to the indigenous communities involved, which [would] result in the demarcation and official recognition of the lands of the Awas Tingni and other communities of the Atlantic coast, the Government of Nicaragua has a National Commission for the Demarcation of the Lands of the Indigenous Communities of the Atlantic Coast.

To the same end, a draft Law on Indigenous Communal Property [has been] prepared, with three elements:

1.  To make the necessary provisions for accrediting the indigenous communities and their authorities.

2.  To proceed to demarcate the properties and provide title documents.

3.  Settlement of the dispute.

The bill endeavors to find a legal solution to the property of indigenous people or ethnic minorities. The project will be consulted with civil society and, once there is a consensus, it will be submitted to the National Assembly for discussion and subsequent approval. The estimated time for the whole procedure is about three months from today’s date.

b)  Regarding the recommendation to suspend all activity relating to the logging concession granted to SOLCARSA and to comply with the judgment of the Supreme Court of Justice, the Government of Nicaragua cancelled this concession on February 16, 1998. On that day, it notified Michael Kang, General Manager of SOLCARSA[,] that, as of that date, the concession was null and void. He was also advised that he should order the suspension of all activities and warned that, to the contrary, he would be violating Article 167 of the Constitution and be liable to having either a criminal or civil suit brought against him.

c)  Regarding the recommendation to initiate discussions with the Awas Tingni [C]ommunity, the Government of Nicaragua is firmly committed to finding a global solution for all the indigenous communities of the [A]tlantic [C]oast, within the framework of the [C]ommunal [P]roperty Draft Bill, and to this end, there will be extensive consultations with these communities.

27.       As regards the conclusions of Report No. 27/98, the Nicaraguan State expressed its acknowledgment of the rights of the indigenous communities, enshrined in its Constitution and other legislative norms. It further stated that it

has faithfully complied with the previous legal provisions and, consequently, it has acted in accordance with the national legal system and the provisions of the rules and procedures of the [American] Convention [on] Human Rights. Likewise, the Community of Awas Tingni exercised their rights as set forth in the law and had access to the legal remedies that the law provides.

Finally, Nicaragua requested that the Inter-American Commission close the instant case.

28.       On May 28, 1998, the Commission decided to bring the case before the Court.

IV

Proceeding before the court

29.       The Commission filed the application before the Court on June 4, 1998.

30.       The Commission appointed Claudio Grossman and Hélio Bicudo as its delegates, David Padilla, Hernando Valencia and Bertha Santoscoy, as its legal advisors, and James Anaya, Todd Crider, and María Luisa Acosta Castellón as the assistants.

31.       On June 19, 1998, after a preliminary examination of the application by the President of the Court (hereinafter “the President”), the Secretariat of the Court (hereinafter “the Secretariat”) notified the State of the application, as well as of the periods within which it should respond to it, raise preliminary objections, and appoint its representatives. Furthermore, it invited the State to appoint an ad hoc Judge. That same day, the Secretariat requested the Commission to send some pages of the petition annexes which were illegible.

32.       On July 2, 1998, Nicaragua appointed Alejandro Montiel Argüello as ad hoc Judge, and Edmundo Castillo Salazar as its agent.

33.       That same day, the Commission submitted to the Court copies of the application annex pages requested by the Secretariat (supra para. 31), as well as the addresses and powers of attorney of the representatives of the victims, with the exception of Todd Crider’s power of attorney, which was submitted on July 24, 1998.

34.       On August 18, 1998, the State attested the appointment of Rosenaldo J. Castro S. and Bertha Marino Argüello as its legal advisors.

35.       On August 19, 1998, Nicaragua filed the preliminary objection stating that domestic remedies had not been exhausted, pursuant to articles 46 and 47 of the Convention, and requested that the Court declare the application inadmissible.

36.       On September 25, 1998, the Commission submitted its observations to the preliminary objection raised by the State.

37.       On October 19, 1998, the State submitted its reply to the application.

38.       On January 27, 1999, the Organization of Indigenous Syndics of the Nicaraguan Caribbean (OSICAN) submitted a brief as amicus curiae. On February 4, 1999, the Secretariat received a note from Eduardo Conrado Poveda, in which he acceded to the abovementioned amicus curiae brief.

39.       On March 15, 1999, the Secretariat requested that the State send various documents offered as annexes in the briefs of reply to the application and on preliminary objections, which had not been submitted at that time. Documents requested from the reply to the application were: pages 129 and 130 of annex 10; maps and physical descriptions offered in annex 15, and documents pertaining to titling of neighboring communities to Awas Tingni, offered in that same annex. The following documents were requested for annex 10 of the brief on preliminary objections: estimated projections of the geographical location of the area claimed by the Awas Tingni Community, claims by other communities, “overlap” of claims, ejido lands, national lands, and other illustrations relevant to the case; a certification by the Instituto Nicaragüense de Reforma Agraria (hereinafter “INRA”) in connection with the request for titling by the Awas Tingni Community; the Nicaraguan Constitution; certification of articles of the Nicaraguan Legal Codes, relevant Laws and Decrees, and certification of the actions taken by Central Government institutions, decentralized bodies or autonomous entities, and other institutions of the National Assembly and the Supreme Court of Justice of Nicaragua.

40.       On May 26, 1999, the State submitted a brief to which it attached the following documents: the Nicaraguan Constitution, with its amendments, the Amparo Law, Law No. 290 and pages 8984 to 8989 of the Official Newspaper La Gaceta No. 205, of October 30, 1998. In that same brief, Nicaragua stated that it would not submit the maps and physical descriptions offered as annex 15 in its brief replying to the application, because “the maps submitted with the brief on preliminary objections show the geographical location of the area claimed by the Community, claims by other communities, physical descriptions, and so forth”. The State also expressed that it would not submit the INRA certification regarding titling of the Awas Tingni Community, offered as annex 10 of the brief on preliminary objections, “because that same brief […] included a certification issued by that institution on this same affair, on August 5, 1998”. Regarding pages 129 and 130 of annex 10 of the brief replying to the application, the State indicated that said annex actually ended on page 128. As regards the documents pertaining to titling of other indigenous communities, the State pointed out that, if it deemed this appropriate, it would submit them later on during the proceedings.

41.       On May 28, 1999, the Canadian organization Assembly of First Nations (AFN) submitted a brief in English, acting as amicus curiae. The Spanish version of that document was presented in February, 2000.

42.       On May 31, 1999, the organization International Human Rights Law Group submitted a brief in English, acting as amicus curiae.

43.       A public hearing was held on preliminary objections, at the seat of the Court, on May 31, 1999.

44.       On February 1, 2000, the Court rendered its Judgment on preliminary objections, in which it dismissed the preliminary objection raised by Nicaragua.

45.       On February 2, 2000, the Secretariat requested that the Commission send the definitive list of witnesses and expert witnesses offered by the Commission to render testimony at the public hearing on the merits of the case. The Commission submitted said information on the 18th of that same month and year.

46.       On March 20, 2000, the President issued an Order convening the Inter-American Commission and the State to a public hearing on the merits, to be held at the seat of the Court on June 13, 2000. That public hearing did not take place due to budgetary cutbacks which made the Court postpone its XLVIII Regular Session, at which that hearing was to take place.

47.       On April 7, 2000, the State submitted a brief stating “the names of the persons who w[ould] explain the content and scope of the documentary evidence offered at the appropriate time”, for the following persons to be heard as witnesses and expert witnesses at the public hearing on the merits of the present case: Marco Antonio Centeno Caffarena, Director of the Office of Rural Titling; Uriel Vanegas, Director of the Secretariat of Territorial Demarcation of the Regional Council of the RAAN; Gonzalo Medina, advisor and an expert in Geodesics and Cartography at the Nicaraguan Institute of Territorial Studies, and María Nella Rocha, Special Public Attorney for the Environment at the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic.

The arguments submitted by the State in said brief indicate that testimony of the witnesses and expert witnesses offered would contribute to establishing:

a) damages caused to property rights of indigenous communities that are neighbors of the Mayagna Awas Tingni Community, if title were given to the disproportionate area claimed by that Community [;]

b) damages to land claims of the rest of the indigenous communities of the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua, if the disproportionate area claimed by the Awas Tingni Indigenous Community were allocated to it;

c) the interest of the State in carrying out an equable and objective titling process on the lands of the Indigenous Communities, which will safeguard the rights of each one of the Communities; arguments presented in the brief on Preliminary Objections and in the Reply to the Application, and supported by documents submitted by means of the Annexes previously referred to.

48.       On April 13, 2000, the Commission sent a brief in which it requested that the Court order the State to adopt “the necessary measures to ensure that its officials do not act in such a way that they tend to apply pressure on the Community to give up its claim, or that tends to interfere in the relationship between the Community and its attorneys, [, and…] that it cease to attempt to negotiate with members of the Community without a prior agreement or understanding with the Commission and the Court in that regard”. The Commission attached an April 12, 2000 brief by James Anaya, legal representative of the Community, to Jorge E. Taiana, Executive Secretary of the Commission, which included as an annex the report prepared by María Luisa Acosta Castellón on the meeting between officials of the State and the Awas Tingni Community, held on March 30 and 31, 2000, in the offices of the Nicaraguan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

49.       On April 14, 2000, the Secretariat gave the State 30 days within which to submit its comments to the aforementioned brief. On May 10 of that same year, Nicaragua stated that it had not applied any pressure at all on the Community nor had it interfered in the Community’s relations with its legal representatives. The State also indicated its willingness to seek a friendly settlement through direct and exclusive conversations with the Commission. It submitted an attached document dated February 3, 2000, with the title “record of appointment of the representatives of the inhabitants who constitute the Mayagna ethnic group of the Community of Awas Tingni, Municipality of Wa[s]pam, Río Coco, RAAN”.

50.       On May 10, 2000, the Commission sent a brief in which it stated that Nicaragua, in its reply to the application, had not offered witnesses nor expert witnesses. It also added that the State had not argued that force majeure or other reasons justified admitting evidence not listed in its reply, and for this reason the Commission requested that the Court declare the calling of witnesses and expert witnesses offered by Nicaragua inadmissible (supra para. 47).

51.       On June 1, 2000, the Secretariat requested that the State submit, no later than June 15 of that year, the grounds for or comments on its offering of witnesses and expert witnesses, for the President to consider their admissibility. In its August 18, 2000 Order, the Court reiterated its request for the State to submit the grounds for the extemporaneous proposal of witnesses and expert witnesses (supra para. 47); the Court also requested that the State specify which persons were offered as witnesses and which as expert witnesses.

52.       On May 31, 2000, the Hutchins, Soroka & Dionne law firm submitted an amicus curiae

brief in English, on behalf of the Mohawks Indigenous Community of Akwesasne.

53.       On September 5, 2000, the State submitted a brief in which it stated that the persons listed in its April 7, 2000 brief (supra para. 47) had been offered as expert witnesses. The following day the Secretariat, under instructions by the President, asked the Commission to send its observations to that brief, as well as its definitive list of witnesses and expert witnesses by September 12, 2000.

54.       On September 12, 2000, the Commission sent a note in which it upheld its request for the appointment of expert witnesses offered by the State to be declared inadmissible, since the State did not give reasons to substantiate the extemporaneous proposal. In that same note, the Commission gave the definitive list of its witnesses and expert witnesses, including as an expert witness Theodore Macdonald Jr., who in the application had been offered as a witness.

55.       In his September 14, 2000 Order, the President decided that the offer of evidence made by the State on April 7, 2000 (supra para. 47) was time-barred; however, as evidence to facilitate adjudication of the case, in accordance with article 44(1) of the Rules of Procedure, the President summoned Marco Antonio Centeno Caffarena to come before the Court as witness. The President also rejected the request by the Commission for Theodore Macdonald Jr. to appear as an expert witness, because it was time-barred, and admitted him as a witness, as originally offered. The President also summoned witnesses Jaime Castillo Felipe, Charly Webster Mclean Cornelio, Wilfredo Mclean Salvador, Brooklyn Rivera Bryan, Humberto Thompson Sang, Guillermo Castilleja and Galio Claudio Enrique Gurdián Gurdián, and expert witnesses Lottie Marie Cunningham de Aguirre, Charles Rice Hale, Roque de Jesús Roldán Ortega and Rodolfo Stavenhagen Gruenbaum, all of them offered by the Commission in its application, to render testimony at the public hearing on the merits of the case, scheduled to be held at the seat of the Court on November 16, 2000.

56.       On October 5, 2000, the Commission submitted a brief in which it requested the good offices of the Court for the public hearing on the merits to be held at the seat of the Supreme Court of Justice of Costa Rica, given the large number of people who had shown an interest in attending that hearing.

57.       On October 20, 2000, the President issued an Order in which he informed the Commission and the State that the public hearing convened by the September 14, 2000 Order would be held at the seat of the Supreme Electoral Board of Costa Rica, starting at 16:00 hours on November 16, 2000, to hear the testimony and reports, respectively, of the witnesses and expert witnesses previously summoned.

58.       On October 26, 2000, the State sent a brief requesting the Court to reject the request by the Commission to hold the public hearing on the merits at the seat of the Supreme Court of Justice of Costa Rica, because the reasons given were “purely speculative” and were not “sufficient juridical reason to justify the transfer of said hearings”.

59.       On October 27, 2000, the Commission sent a brief with a list of 19 members of the Awas Tingni Community who would attend the public hearing as observers.

60.       On that same day, the President issued an Order in which he decided that, given the request by the State for the public hearing on the merits be held at the seat of the Court and that the number of members of the Mayagna Community who would attend the hearing, according to the Commission, was much smaller than had originally been envisioned, the reason given for holding the public hearing outside the seat of the Court did not exist, and he therefore decided that the hearing would be held at the seat of the Court, on the same day and at the same time specified in his October 20, 2000 Order (supra para. 57).

61.       In November, 2000, Robert A. Williams Jr., on behalf of the organization National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), submitted a brief, in English, acting as amicus curiae.

62.       On November 16, 17, and 18, 2000, at the public hearing on the merits of the case, the Court heard the testimony of the witnesses and expert witnesses offered by the Commission and that of the witness summoned by the Court in accordance with article 44(1) of the Rules of Procedure. The Court also heard the final oral pleadings of the parties.

There appeared before the Court:

For the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights:

Hélio Bicudo, delegate;

Claudio Grossman, delegate;

Bertha Santoscoy, attorney; and

James Anaya, assistant.

For the State of Nicaragua:

Edmundo Castillo Salazar, agent;

Rosenaldo Castro, advisor;

Betsy Baltodano, advisor; and

Ligia Margarita Guevara, advisor.

Witnesses offered by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights:

Jaime Castillo Felipe (Interpreter: Modesto José Frank Wilson);

Charly Webster Mclean Cornelio;

Theodore Macdonald Jr.;

Guillermo Castilleja;

Galio Claudio Enrique Gurdián Gurdián;

Brooklyn Rivera Bryan;

Humberto Thompson Sang; and

Wilfredo Mclean Salvador.

Expert witnesses offered by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights:

Rodolfo Stavenhagen Gruenbaum;

Charles Rice Hale;

Roque de Jesús Roldán Ortega; and

Lottie Marie Cunningham de Aguirre.

Witness summoned by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (art. 44(1) of the Rules of Procedure):

Marco Antonio Centeno Caffarena.

63.       During his appearance at the public hearing on the merits of the case on November 17, 2000, Marco Antonio Centeno Caffarena offered several documents to substantiate his testimony, and on November 21, 2000 he submitted eight documents (infra para. 79 and 95).

64.       On November 24, 2000, the Court, in accordance with article 44 of its Rules of Procedure, decided that it was useful to add to the body of evidence in this case the following documents offered by Marco Antonio Centeno Caffarena: a copy, certified by a notary public, of the February 22, 1983 certification of the entry in the Public Registry of Real Estate of the Department of Zelaya, on February 10, 1917, of estate No. 2111, and the ethnographic expert opinion by Ramiro García Vásquez on the document prepared by Theodore Macdonald, “Awas Tingni an Ethnographic Study of the Community and its Territory” (infra paras. 79 and 95). The Court also asked that the State, no later than December 15, 2000, submit a copy of the complete study, “Diagnostic study of land tenure in the indigenous communities of the Atlantic Coast”, prepared by the Central American and Caribbean Research Council.

65.       On December 20, 2000 the State complied with the request made by the Court in the Order mentioned in the previous paragraph, by providing a copy of the General framework, Executive summary and Final Report of the document “Diagnostic study of land tenure in the indigenous communities of the Atlantic Coast”, prepared by the Central American and Caribbean Research Council (infra paras. 80 and 96).

66.       On January 29, 2001, the Commission submitted a note together with three documents: comments by Theodore Macdonald on January 20, 2001, and comments by Charles Rice Hale on January 7, 2001, both in connection with the ethnographic expert opinion by Ramiro García Vásquez on the document prepared by Theodore Macdonald, “Awas Tingni an Ethnographic Study of the Community and its Territory” (infra paras. 81 and 97); and a copy of the document “Awas Tingni an Ethnographic Study of the Community and its Territory. 1999 Report”.

67.       On June 21, 2001, the Secretariat, following instructions by the President, granted the Commission and the State up to July 23 of that year to submit their final written arguments. On July 3, 2001, the Commission requested an extension until August 10 of that same year to submit its brief. On July 6, 2001, the Secretariat, following instructions by the President, informed the Commission and the State that the extension requested had been granted.

68.       In its July 31, 2001 note, the Secretariat, following instructions by the President and pursuant to article 44 of the Rules of Procedure, requested that the Commission submit the documentary evidence and pleadings to substantiate the request for payment of reparations, costs and expenses submitted by the Commission in the point on petitions in its application (supra para. 4), no later than August 10, 2001.

69.       On July 31, 2001 the Secretariat, following instructions by the Court and in accordance with article 44 of the Rules of Procedure, granted Nicaragua up to August 13, 2001 to supply, as evidence to facilitate the adjudication of the case, the following documents: existing title deeds of the Awas Tingni Community (Mayagna Community); of the Ten Communities (Miskita Community); of the Tasba Raya Indigenous Community (also known as the Six Communities), which includes the communities of Miguel Bikan, Wisconsin, Esperanza, Francia Sirpi, Santa Clara and Tasba Pain (Miskito Communities) and of the Karatá Indigenous Community (Miskito Community). These documents were not submitted to the Court.

70.       On August 8, 2001, the State objected to the parties being granted the possibility of submitting final written arguments and requested that, in case the Court decided to proceed with the admission of those pleadings, the State be granted an extension up to September 10, 2001, to submit them. The following day, the Secretariat, under instructions by the President, informed the State that it had been a constant and uniform practice at the Court to grant the parties the opportunity to submit final written arguments, taken to be a summary of the positions stated by the parties at the public hearing on the merits, in the understanding that said briefs were not subject to additional contradictory comments by the parties. In connection with the request for an extension of the period for the State to submit its final pleadings, the Secretariat expressed that, following instructions by the President, given the time allotted to the parties to submit their final written arguments, and so as to avoid impairing the balance which the Court must maintain in protecting human rights, legal certainty and procedural equity, an unpostponable period up to August 17, 2001, was granted to both parties.

71.       On August 10, 2001, the Commission submitted its final written arguments, which included an annex (infra para. 82).

72.       On August 17, 2001, Nicaragua submitted its final written pleadings.

73.       On August 22, 2001, the Commission extemporaneously submitted the brief pertaining to reparations, costs and expenses (infra para. 159).

74.       On August 25, 2001, the State requested that the Court not consider the brief submitted by the Commission on reparations, costs and expenses, because it was time-barred.

V

The Evidence

Documentary Evidence

75.       The Inter-American Commission submitted copies of 58 documents in 50 annexes with its application (supra paras. 1 and 29). 

76.       In its reply to the application (supra para. 37), the State attached copies of 16 documents contained in 14 annexes.

77.       During the preliminary objections stage, the State submitted copies of 26 documents.

78.       The Commission submitted copies of 27 documents during the preliminary objections stage.

79.       On November 21, 2000, Marco Antonio Centeno Caffarena, General Director of the Office of Rural Titling of Nicaragua, sent copies of 8 documents (supra paras. 63 and 64).

80.       On December 20, 2000, in response to a request by the Court, the State submitted a copy of one document (supra para. 65).

81.       The Commission submitted 3 documents together with its note of January 29, 2001 (supra para. 66).

82.       On August 10, 2001, together with the final written pleadings, the Commission submitted one document as an annex to that brief (supra para. 71).

B) ORAL AND EXPERT EVIDENCE

83.       At the public hearing held on November 16, 17 and 18, 2000 (supra para.62), the Court heard the testimony of eight witnesses and four expert witnesses offered by the Inter-American Commission, as well as the testimony of one witness summoned by the Tribunal, exercising its authority under article 44(1) of the Rules of Procedure. Said testimonies are summarized below, in the order received:

a.         Testimony of Jaime Castillo Felipe, member of the Awas Tingni Community (Interpreter: Modesto José Frank Wilson)

The witness was born in Awas Tingni on June 15, 1964, and he currently lives in the Awas Tingni Community. He is a member of the Mayagna ethnic group, and his mother tongue is “Sumo Mayagna”.

The other members of the Awas Tingni Community are also Sumo. It is true that there are persons in the Community who are not of the Mayagna ethnic group, but they are few, having come to live there or having members of the Community as spouses. They have been in Awas Tingni for over fifty years, and before they lived in Tuburús. He does not know exactly in what year the hamlet of Awas Tingni was established. They are the owners of the land which they inhabit because they have lived in the territory for over 300 years, and this can be proven because they have historical places and because their work takes place in that territory. There were members of the Tilba-Lupia Community who lived in Awas Tingni. He could indicate the persons who constitute the Community.

He was Syndic of the Awas Tingni Community from 1991 to 1996. The Syndic is the person in charge of resolving conflicts which might arise within the community, as well as of taking steps, in coordination with the communal authorities, before State entities.

During the time he was Syndic, he dealt with INRA to attain titling or demarcation of lands in favor of the Community, but those steps were unsuccessful, since there has been no response to date. On March 12, 1996, he addressed the Regional Council of the RAAN. The authorities’ response was that they were going to study his request, but he has not received any reply in that regard. At that time he submitted maps of the Community, the census of the population of Awas Tingni, and a document on the territory of the Community, prepared by Dr. Theodore Macdonald, of Harvard University.

He and the members of the Community make their living from agriculture, hunting, and fishing, among other activities. To hunt they make a 15-day trip. The Community selects what is to be consumed, so as not to destroy the natural resources.

The lands are occupied and utilized by the entire Community. Nobody owns the land individually; the land’s resources are collective. If a person does not belong to the Community, that person cannot utilize the land. There is no right to expel anyone from the Community. To deny the use of the land to any member of the Community, the matter has to be discussed and decided by the Community Council. When a person dies, his or her next of kin become the owners of those things that the deceased person owned. But since lands are collective property of the community, there is no way that one member can freely transmit to another his or her rights in connection with the use of the land.

He is not aware of whether his ancestors obtained any title deed. When an agreement was reached between the logging firm Maderas y Derivados de Nicaragua S.A. (MADENSA) (hereinafter “MADENSA”) and the Community, in 1992, the latter stated that it had a property right recognized by the Central Government and by the National Government, because the witness and the other members of the Community feel that they are the true owners of those lands, since they have lived on them for over 500 years.

The Community filed the application before the Inter-American Commission because it required the title deed which it had requested several times and the State had never replied. They hope to obtain a reply based on justice and the rights of indigenous communities. At first they intended to settle the land claim in a friendly manner, but now, having exhausted all means and having reached the level of the Inter-American Court, they await its decision to put an end to this conflict.

b.        Testimony of Charly Webster Mclean Cornelio, Secretary of the Awas Tingni Territorial Committee

The witness was born in Awas Tingni, Nicaragua, and he is a member of the Mayagna Community, which in the Mayagna language means “child of the Sun”. He held the position of Person Responsible for the Forest within the Community, and therefore he protected the forest from harm and cared for the animals. He is currently the Secretary of the Awas Tingni Territorial Committee, and in 1991 he participated, together with the other leaders of the Community, in the making of the map which identifies the territorial limits of the Mayagna Community.

The Community he belongs to has 1,016 inhabitants, and is formed by 208 families; only four families are formed by marriages of Miskito men and Mayagna women. The number of inhabitants was determined through a census taken recently by the leaders of the Community. Figures presented by the State, according to a census taken years ago, place the number of members of the Community between 300 and 400, but that is not the current number.

The struggle of the Mayagna to attain recognition by the State of their historical right to their lands goes back a long time. Recent efforts to attain respect for their lands include the drafting, without any advisory assistance, of the document “Struggling for Mayagna Sumo”, in which they ask the State to recognize their property rights. This document was made known to Alberto Escobar, who was then the INRA delegate. Subsequently they went to Managua for a dialogue with the Minister of INRA, but they did not obtain the title deed to their land.

In 1992 the Community signed a contract with the MADENSA firm, with no advisory assistance. The leaders of the Community stated to the representatives of MADENSA that they had title to those lands in the sense that they had a right to them through historical possession. Then they signed another agreement with MADENSA, with advisory assistance from and participation by MARENA, which committed itself to helping the Community in the demarcation of its territory, but this commitment was not fulfilled.

Afterwards, the State granted a concession to the firm SOLCARSA. Their disagreement with that concession is based on the fact that the State did not previously consult with the Community to determine whether the concession was advantageous, and also because the works by SOLCARSA would be on 62,000 hectares of Awas Tingni territory. Therefore, the Community reacted and a General Assembly was held, at which the decision was reached to draft a letter to denounce the State.

To attain respect for the territory of the Community, its leaders made a map. The Community has 13 kilometers in the mountains, and is located 21 kilometers from Puerto Cabezas, alongside the municipality of Waspám, and according to the map its borders are within the following boundaries: from Caño Cocolano going by Kisak Laini, by Suku Was, Kalwa, Kitan Mukni, Kuru Was, Kiamak, Caño Turuh Wasni, Caño Rawa Was, Tunjlan Tuna, to Kuah Sahna. This map shows the area they are claiming. The leaders of the Community have referred to its territory, and have not talked about hectares. The witness is not aware that doctors Anaya and Acosta requested a title deed to 16,000 hectares for the Community in 1993. The State, in turn, has argued that the extent of the territory claimed by the Mayagna is excessive, bearing in mind the number of members of the Community determined by the official census, and that the area claimed by this Community is not in proportion to the area it effectively occupies. The Mayagna have had some conflicts with the communities of Francia Sirpi, Santa Clara and Esperanza regarding land claims, which have been settled peacefully. According to the State, part of its territory is claimed by groups in the Eighteen Communities and in the Ten Communities, who have stated that they possessed it before the Mayagna arrived, and that they had allowed them to settle in their territory as a sign of good will. In face of this statement, the witness points out that the territories of these communities are far away from those of Awas Tingni and that, therefore, he does not understand why there is talk about a conflict over land, when there is no such conflict.

The witness explained that to go from the hamlet of Awas Tingni, where most of the Community is concentrated, to Tuburús, also inhabited by members of the Mayagna Community, they have to travel in “pipantes”, a type of canoe driven by oars, and in dry weather this takes a day and a half, and during the rainy season two days and a half.

The territory of the Mayagna is vital for their cultural, religious, and family development, and for their very subsistence, as they carry out hunting activities (they hunt wild boar) and they fish (moving along the Wawa River), and they also cultivate the land. It is a right of all members of the Community to farm the land, hunt, fish, and gather medicinal plants; however, sale and privatization of those resources is forbidden.

The territory is sacred for them, and throughout the territory there are several hills which have a major religious importance, such as Cerro Mono, Cerro Urus Asang, Cerro Kiamak and Cerro Quitiris. There are also sacred places, where the Community has fruit trees such as pejibaye, lemon, and avocado. When the inhabitants of Awas Tingni go through these places, which go back 300 centuries, according to what his grandfather said, they do so in silence as a sign of respect for their dead ancestors, and they greet Asangpas Muigeni, the spirit of the mountain, who lives under the hills.

c.         Testimony of Theodore Macdonald Jr., anthropologist

He has been in contact with the Awas Tingni Community. He has visited the Community three times, in March and July of 1995 and in January of 1999. The purpose of those visits was to study the relationship between the people of the Awas Tingni settlement and the land they utilize, and this required a socio-political and historical study, as well as other research. He started work on this study thanks to a project funded by the World Wildlife Fund. They hired the University of Iowa, which in turn hired him for this study.

The results of his study on the Awas Tingni Community were documented, first as a preliminary report, in 1996, in which he included a map with the lands of the Awas Tingni settlement, and then in another report in January of 1999. The purpose of the latter report was to expand on that of 1996, since it had been a preliminary report, and furthermore upon returning he found that there were many things he wanted to learn about the history of the Mayagna Community. There are no contradictions between those two reports, but the second one entered into greater ethnographic depth, and more details were obtained to support the study.

The Awas Tingni Community prepared a map, roughly in 1992, without his advisory assistance; they made it on their own and showed it to him when he began the study of the witness. According to the Mayagna, this map represents the territory which belongs to them. In that map one can see the boundary, the place where the main community is located, where other communities are located, the sacred places, and other, older places where they lived before. One can also see the Wawa River, which runs westward toward the Atlantic Coast.

There are two other maps, made by the witness. The first of these maps was made in 1996 with a computer system called Geographical Information System (GIS). What he did was enter the data and information gathered by the Community to determine the complete extent of the territory. In this map one can see the settlement of the Awas Tingni Community, the Wawa River, Tuburús, the sacred places, and also the boundary. The second map, drawn in 1999, is almost the same. The main difference is that it is hand drawn, but both maps are based on the same information.

The methodology used to make the map was as follows: first he began in the Awas Tingni Community with a Geographical Positioning System (GPS), which operates based on satellites. During the first stage, he went up the Wawa River with five members of the Community, to gather data on the use of the land throughout the territory and to corroborate the information received from the Community. During the second stage, after being trained by the witness, members of the Community traveled the territory with the GPS equipment. They recorded more than 150 reference points during those visits.

To carry out the work of locating reference points so as to make the map, two young members of the Community were trained. In this way, fieldwork for the map was carried out by indigenous people of Awas Tingni. Once this information is included in the point positioning system, there is no way to manipulate it.

The reference points obtained were reflected on a basic map, prepared by a professional cartographer (a law student at Harvard University, who had learned to operate the Geographical Information System -GIS- and who was a computer expert).

To refer to the Mayagna as a community, one has to see everything as a process. Currently it is a group with its own leadership, its own form of social organization, and it recognizes itself as an indigenous community.

As regards current land tenure in the Awas Tingni Community, the witness believes that first one must talk about history. The Community has identified itself as a Mayagna community, but gradually, through demographic growth and also continuous communication with people from other areas, it came to identify itself as an independent community, around its spiritual leaders called caciques. In this way it took shape and strengthened its feeling of community, with its own limits and boundaries.

There are two Miskito communities in the territory of Awas Tingni, as can be seen on the map. One of them is Esperanza, which was formed in two stages: in 1971, after the war between Honduras and Nicaragua, and in 1972 after the hurricane that year, when other communities arrived. One of the five communities established in the territory is called Tasba Raya, Esperanza, and it is located toward the north of the Wawa River. They arrived there upon orders by the State at that time, and they were accepted by the Awas Tingni Community. The other, called Yapu Muscana, rather than a community was merely a refuge; it was a Miskito family which had established itself independently on the southern side. There is no evidence that those communities were there before the Awas Tingni Community; instead, a member of Francia Sirpi, which is the community neighboring Esperanza, stated to the Witness that Awas Tingni arrived there before.

Currently there are some conflicts with neighboring communities, especially due to the presence and lack of understanding with the SOLCARSA firm, as members of neighboring communities want to take over their lands, with the idea that those who own the land will benefit from the works to be undertaken.

A history and an ancestral possession has been constructed with indigenous people from different ethnic groups. The Community’s perception of its boundaries has been strengthened through interactions with their neighbors. The only evidence that can be used to determine the existence of the Community before 1990 is oral tradition. There are research studies on the history of the Community, and some experts were also consulted at Harvard University, in the United States, and in Central America, and no data were found that contradicted the oral tradition on which his study is based.

Forms of land use in the Awas Tingni Community are based on a communal system, in which there is usufruct by individuals, which means that no one can sell or rent this territory to people outside the Community. However, within the Community, certain individuals use a plot, a certain area, year after year. In this way, the Community respects usufruct rights but does not allow this right to be abused. This usufruct right is often acquired through inheritance, passed on from one generation to the next, but mainly it is granted by Community consensus. It can also be transferred from one family to another. Those who benefit from this usufruct have the possibility of excluding other members of the community from the use of that land, the utilization of those resources.

The hills located in the territory of the Community are very important. The “spirits of the mountain”, jefes del monte, which in Mayagna are called “Asangpas Muigeni”, live in them, and it is they who control the animals throughout that region. To make use of those animals, one must have a special relationship with the spirits. Oftentimes the cacique, who is a sort of “chaman” called Ditelian, can maintain such a relationship with the spirits. Therefore, the animals’ presence and the possibility of hunting them is based on their cosmovision and has much to do with the boundaries, because according to them these masters of the mountain own the animals, especially the wild boars which move in packs around the mountains. There is then a strong tie with the surroundings, with those sacred places, with the spirits that live within, and the brothers who are members of the Community.

There are two sacred places in the border areas: cemeteries, which are currently visited often by members of the Community, and are located along the Wawa River; these are old settlements which they visit when they go hunting. To go hunting is, to a certain point, a spiritual act, and it has much to do with the territory with they utilize. The second type of sacred area are the hills.

d.        Expert opinion of Rodolfo Stavenhagen Gruenbaum, anthropologist and sociologist

He knows about the situation of the indigenous peoples of the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua by reference, not directly. His knowledge comes from the ethnographic and anthropological literature on Nicaragua and from reports by specialists on the situation of the peoples of the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua, who have traditionally been marginalized from central power and linked to certain economic or international interests, but very aware of their cultural identity, of their social self-perception, as social groups with a historical continuity, ties to the land, and their own economic activities and forms of organization which have set them apart from the rest of the population of Nicaragua.

The indigenous peoples of various countries in our continent suffer problems of discrimination. The situation has been modified over the last several years, due to legislative and constitutional changes, public opinion and the complaints and claims made nationally and internationally by indigenous organizations.

Indigenous peoples are defined as those social and human groups, culturally identified and who maintain a historical continuity with their ancestors, from the time before the arrival of the first Europeans to this continent. That historical continuity can be seen in their forms of organization, in their own culture, in their self-identification, and in the use of a language the origin of which is pre-Hispanic. These peoples are known in our countries because they maintain forms of life and of culture which set them apart from the rest of society, and they have traditionally been placed in a subordinate and marginal position by discriminatory economic, political, and social structures, which practically have kept them in a condition of second-class citizenship, despite the fact that in legislation, in formal terms, indigenous people have the same rights as non-indigenous people. But in reality, that citizenship is as if it were imaginary, because they continue to suffer structural forms of discrimination, social exclusion, and marginalization.

For many years, the Nicaraguan State has carried out policies of incorporation, of integration of these peoples of the Atlantic Coast to the National State, with some positive results in terms of national integration of the country, but there have also been tensions between the indigenous population of that region and the rest of society, especially because those processes of incorporation violate some fundamental rights of these indigenous populations and endanger their survival as social groups identified with a collective personality and a specific ethnic identity.

A fundamental theme in the definition of indigenous peoples is how they relate to the land. All anthropological, ethnographic studies, all documentation which the indigenous peoples themselves have presented in recent years, demonstrate that the relationship between indigenous peoples and the land is an essential tie which provides and maintains the cultural identity of those peoples. One must understand that the land is not a mere instrument of agricultural production, but part of a geographic and social, symbolic and religious space, with which the history and current dynamics of those peoples are linked.

Most indigenous peoples in Latin America are peoples whose essence derives from their relationship to the land, whether as farmers, hunters, gatherers, fishermen, etc. The tie to the land is essential for their self-identification. Physical health, mental health, and social health of indigenous peoples is linked to the concept of the land. Traditionally, indigenous communities and peoples of the various countries of Latin America have had a communal concept of the land and of its resources.

In lowlands, indigenous peoples have traditionally practiced shifting subsistence agriculture, especially in tropical forests. They often combine this shifting subsistence agriculture with other activities which require an economic space relatively larger than the specifically agricultural plot. The space in which the indigenous population moves, sometimes almost as semi-nomadic groups, is a collective space. The local authorities in each community have their own mechanisms, customs and habits, customary law to distribute egalitarian access among the household communities. According to technology, productivity, ecological sustainability and productive capacity, this rotation can take years, since as a community moves it occupies other spaces before returning to the original place. This happens a lot in the lowland areas, and is very different from the densely settled highlands. Nicaragua’s indigenous communities follow the lowland model.

There are two concepts of collective land: the territory, generally, which the community considers common, although internally there are mechanisms to allocate temporary occupation and use by its members and which does not allow alienation to persons who are not members of the community; and the areas which are only used collectively, the “commons” which are not divided into plots. Almost all indigenous communities have a part used collectively as “commons”, and then another part which can be divided and allocated to families or domestic units. Nevertheless, the concept of collective property remains, even if it is disputed by others, often the State itself, when there is no title. When there are problems, the need for property titles arises because the community risks losing everything. The history of Latin America has been one of almost constant dispossession of indigenous communities by external interests.

There are pressures for those having usufruct or occupation rights within the communities to obtain a deed title to those plots in one way or another, but when the State recognizes it as private property, it can be sold or rented, and this breaks with the tradition of the community.

The history of the practice and of the policies of the States in Latin America, as regards the indigenous peoples, is a protracted and dramatic one. Before conquest and colonization and before the creation of the national States, the indigenous peoples and their lands were a whole, a unique whole. The National State was superimposed on this, and in most countries it takes over property rights to land which in terms of ancestral rights belonged, and still belongs, to the indigenous peoples. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the States declared large geographical spaces of the territory of the hemisphere to be wastelands, national lands, and they took upon themselves the right to make their will on those lands, without taking into account the original rights, the historical rights, and the physical presence of indigenous peoples organized in different ways on those lands from the times of their ancestors. Problems arise when the States decide to issue deed titles to those lands or to grant concessions or to allow the clearing of those lands, to authorize the use of those lands for other purposes determined by various economic interests. That is when many indigenous peoples realize that juridically speaking they are not the authentic owners of the territories which they have occupied traditionally.

In recent decades, indigenous peoples have begun to organize, as they have realized that they have to do something to juridically protect and safeguard these lands. What is generically called indigenous customary law is not a structured body of law, much less a codified one; it is a series of real practices which are carried out in different ways in various communities, to solve a number of problems of administrating justice, addressing conflicts, keeping internal order, regulating interpersonal complaints, managing relations with the outside world, etc. Under customary law, the land is seen as a spiritual place, insofar as it is linked to human beings, since it has sacred places, the forest, etc. This linkage of humans with the territory is not necessarily written down, it is something lived on a daily basis.

As regards ancestral occupation of the land, continuity is established in terms of the historical continuity of a group which for centuries has maintained an identity from which, precisely, stems its current situation in the given country. The fact is that due to historical changes, economic depressions, violence, civil wars, and pressures by the economically dominant system, which for centuries has applied pressure on the indigenous peoples and restricted them to those areas which the first invaders, the settlers and then the large corporations, have not been interested in, indigenous groups have been forced to seek new habitats, so as to maintain that historical continuity without the intervention of alien forces, so as to maintain their freedom and their right to live according to their own understanding of life. There are many examples of communities which have moved from one place to another in relatively recent historical times.

All this is part of the indigenous worldview, which currently is being reflected in substantive law, and an international indigenous law is being constructed. This process includes work by the United Nations, in the Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; by the Organization of American States, in the Project on Indigenous Rights; by the International Labor Organization, in Covenant 169. Up to now, recognition of indigenous rights has been merely formal, as it has not been possible to attain progress in the development of regulations on those rights. The ILO Covenant reflects them in general terms and poses the challenge of translating those norms into effective national regulations.

The report prepared by professor Theodore Macdonald fulfills all the requirements of a methodologically responsible ethnographic research study, based on multiple sources and on concepts from various disciplines: anthropology, history, geography, economics, etc. It is clear from reading the study that the researcher has traveled extensively throughout those areas, interviewed many people, obtained direct information, which is what anthropologists generally do, and he has also resorted to the critical analysis of a large amount of documents that are not always easy to obtain, so as to substantiate his findings.

In certain historical contexts, the rights of the human being can only be ensured and fully exercised if there is a recognition of the rights of the collectivity and of the community to which this person has belonged since he or she was born and of which he or she is a part, and which gives him or her all the necessary elements for a feeling of complete realization as a human being, which also means a social and cultural being. The counterpart to this statement is that, by violating the rights of a community to continue to subsist as such and to its reproduction as a unit and identity, a number of basic human rights are violated: the right to culture, to participation, to identity, to survival; this has been shown in a large number of studies on indigenous peoples and communities in Latin America.

The international community and human rights law face the challenge of developing new concepts and new norms which, without in any way damaging or curtailing the individual’s human rights, are able to enrich the way of life of indigenous peoples by recognizing the social and cultural reality in which those rights are breached.

e.         Testimony of Guillermo Castilleja, Special Projects Director for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF)

In 1993, as Forestry Policy Officer of the World Wildlife Fund for Latin America, he began a project in connection with the Awas Tingni Community in Nicaragua. The main objective of that project was to support the Government of Nicaragua in the establishment of a contractual arrangement for the sustainable use of the “broad-leafed” forests of the Atlantic Coast, specifically the Awas Tingni forests. This project was a response to an explicit initiative by Nicaragua requesting advisory assistance.

Since 1991, the World Wildlife Fund has played an advisory role in Forestry Policy, specifically with the Natural Resources Institute (IRENA), as it was called at that time, which currently is MARENA, the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources. The immediate background of the Awas Tingni project was a concession made by the State to a Taiwanese company called EQUIPE, covering an area of roughly one million hectares on the Atlantic Coast. This generated a substantial conflict, which was ultimately resolved through cancellation of that concession by Nicaragua. A lesson learned from the EQUIPE concession was the need to develop forest utilization models which were truly viable and could be sustainable on a long-term basis.

In the case of the Awas Tingni Community, it had initiated a contractual agreement with a company called MADENSA, Maderas y Derivados de Nicaragua, of Dominican capital, which established the basis for what might be a form of logging which involved participation by inhabitants of that region.

Basically, what is not used, what is not claimed, what is not appropriately managed, is open, in the specific case of the Coast, to invasion by settlers, to transformation of the forests into agricultural areas, and that is how Nicaragua and other countries in the region have unfortunately lost many of their forests.

For conservation of resources through logging activities it is necessary for three things to happen. First, the logging operation has to be technically sustainable, in other words, extraction must not exceed the forest’s capacity to regenerate naturally. Second, there must be the necessary elements for the operation to be economically profitable, that is, economically viable. Third, specifically in the case of the forests of Latin America where there are many rural population groups living around them, it is necessary for it to be socially viable, there must be the social support and legal framework required to ensure that these operations, even if they are technically successful and economically viable, do not harm the rights that the communities inhabiting those forests may have.

For all these reasons, the World Wildlife Fund found that the case of this contractual relationship between Awas Tingni and MADENSA was a very interesting possibility to show that this type of forest management can be done. The fact that MADENSA had from the start accepted the presence of the community was significant progress as compared to the case of a concession previously granted to a Taiwanese company, in which the fact that there were indigenous communities in the area was simply not recognized.

Before beginning the project, the following government officials were contacted: Dr. Jaime Incer, then the Minister of MARENA; Roberto Araquistain, the Director of the National Forestry Service; Eng. Brady Watson, in charge of the Administration of Forests on Public Lands (ADFOREST), and James Gordon, the Delegate of IRENA, now MARENA, in Puerto Cabezas. In the framework of discussions with other officials, the starting point was that while the Community did not have formal title to the land, implicit ownership was recognized due to occupation of those lands, which would eventually have to be formalized. In other words, it was known that at least a part, if not all the area covered by the management plan of MADENSA, was communal land of the Awas Tingni Community. There was also the recognition that as a result of this process, demarcation of that communal land would take place, because a clear legal framework is one of the fundamental conditions for sustainable management.

The first contact the witness had with the Community was in early 1993. They were accompanied by representatives of IRENA and of the National Forestry Service. They held meetings at Puerto Cabezas with some leaders and members of the Community. Afterwards they traveled to Awas Tingni to get to know the rest of the Community and the conditions under which they lived, as well as to hear people’s opinions directly. By talking with the leaders of the Community at Puerto Cabezas and with members of the Community, they became aware of two main concerns. One was the contract which the Community had signed with MADENSA, a 25 year contract, which made them feel trapped, and the second concern, the main one for them, was the uncertainty they felt with regard to land tenure. The Community was not so much interested in exploitation proper of the forest or in the resources it could provide, but rather in obtaining funding for the necessary studies to finally be able to carry out the demarcation of their lands. These were their main concerns.

It was agreed with MADENSA and with IRENA that the 25 year contract that Awas Tingni had signed with the former would be renegotiated. For this, technical and legal advisory services would be required, because they had been requested by the Community, so as to negotiate better conditions.

The role of the World Wildlife Fund was to ensure that such support be provided to the Community. The WWF helped set up a technical legal team, which began with participation by James Anaya, from the University of Iowa, and Hans Ackerson, a forestry expert who had provided advisory services to Nicaragua in the area of forestry.

An important obstacle in the negotiation of this process was the lack of legal precedent to serve as a reference point for this type of arrangements. Another obstacle throughout the negotiation was the issue of land tenure, since to have a management plan there had to be a well-defined area.

Another task undertaken by the World Wildlife Fund was to ensure that there be a process to which the various parties would adhere. In addition, once the negotiations had begun, the WWF contributed to hiring a facilitator to help “unblock” the negotiation. The result of these negotiations was an agreement among the three parties, with participation by the Awas Tingni Community, the State through MARENA, and the MADENSA corporation. It was a five-year, renewable agreement, setting the terms for the sale of timber by the Community and bought by the corporation; the terms under which MARENA recognizes land tenure, ownership of the land; the terms of activities for yearly extraction, and the monitoring system which this operation would require.

Several parts of the agreement refer to land tenure. One of them considers the community as if it were “the owner of these lands”. Furthermore, Nicaragua undertook the commitment to facilitate the titling process and to not undermine the Community’s aspirations as regards their territorial claims. While the contract stated that the State would facilitate the process of land titling, the witness does not recall having heard how this would be done. He recalls a discussion on this matter, because the process of land titling which was known up to then was that carried out by INRA, the Nicaraguan Agrarian Reform Institute, which at that time distributed 50 manzanas of land per family. However, the National Forestry Service was very emphatic that such a process was inadequate in this case, arguing that what they wanted to promote as land use was forestry, while the INRA process promoted agricultural land use. They feared that the model of agricultural land distribution would unleash a wave of deforestation. He does not recall MARENA establishing a path for the Community to request land titling, since they were also confused as to what the process should be.

As of 1994, he had less contact with the project and no direct knowledge of what was happening. He heard of State plans to grant a concession to the SOLCARSA corporation through a letter sent by the Community, through its representatives, to Minister Milton Caldera. He held a conversation with Minister Caldera at the time in connection with the concession to SOLCARSA. That official knew that the land claimed by the community included most of the area included in the concession, and that the Community objected to it. The Minister’s reaction was that the agreement that MARENA had signed with the Community and with MADENSA was an agreement which he did not agree with, and regarding the Community’s claims, he said “they are too many”.

The State has had two policies in granting the concession to MADENSA, first, and subsequently to SOLCARSA. One was a recognition of the acquired rights of the communities, and that they should be taken into account in those forest management contracts; the other was that as long as there is no title deed, there is no basis for thinking that the communities have acquired rights and, therefore, concessions on public lands can be granted to third parties.

f.         Testimony of Galio Claudio Enrique Gurdián Gurdián, holder of a licentiate degree in philosophy, a specialist in social anthropology and development studies, especially relations between States and indigenous peoples.

He lived in the Northern Atlantic Region of Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990, from 1996 to 1998, and sporadically in 1999 and the year 2000.

He was one of the three main researchers and the general coordinator of the General Diagnostic Study on land tenure among the indigenous communities of the Atlantic Coast, carried out by the Central American and Caribbean Research Council. The diagnostic study had two main objectives. The formal part sought to cartographically reflect what the communities or some of the communities of the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua considered to be their communal lands and their uses. The tacit purpose was modernization of the land registry. It also sought to define the boundaries of the territories of indigenous communities, to further clarify which were the national lands on which the State could act. The diagnostic study was carried out in the course of implementing an agreement between Nicaragua and the World Bank.

The diagnostic study had five chapters. In the first chapter, called General Principles, it recommended that, given the history of the Nicaraguan State’s relations with indigenous communities, it issue a statement expressing its willingness to solve such problems. Another recommendation was to complete the diagnostic study carried out by the Central American and Caribbean Research Council, as it was estimated that there are between 280 and 300 communities on the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua, and the diagnostic study only covered about 50% of that total universe. To attain a comprehensive view of the claims, of the overlaps, of the land tenure problems generally, it was necessary to complete the diagnostic study. A third aspect of the chapter on General Principles was to deliver the results of the diagnostic study to the communities which had supplied the information. This is something which is not usually done, and it is a key aspect to begin a process of demarcation and land titling.

A second chapter, called Conflict Resolution, was very important because of the existing overlaps in the area. Overlaps are areas where several communities’ use and possession of the territory coincide.

The key recommendation to deliver the results of the diagnostic study to the communities, through a massive workshop, was never carried out, nor have the measures required to implement the recommendations of the diagnostic study been taken. It was suggested that the State should resort to customary law and to existing relations among the communities, through their traditional authorities, to seek a solution to the conflicts. For this reason it was essential that solution of the conflicts take place within a framework in which the Nicaraguan State were no longer judge and party, which has been its historical role in this regard, for it to become instead a facilitator State. The State did not follow up on the recommendations made in the diagnostic study. Two bills were submitted by the executive branch of government in 1998 in connection with the communal lands of the indigenous communities of the Atlantic Coast, but none of those two projects was a response to what had been reflected in the diagnostic study.

Nicaragua consulted with the indigenous communities about the preliminary draft of the Land Titling Law for their lands. These consultations were attained through pressure by the indigenous peoples. A proposal was submitted by the two Regional Councils in September, 2000, and the existing perception at the national level is that this proposal will not be approved, because the political will to do so does not exist.

The former INRA, currently the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, has no authority for demarcation or titling of communal lands of indigenous communities. There has been no titling of indigenous communities since 1990, the formal power of land demarcation and titling has not been exercised.

If an indigenous community wants to attain titling of its land, there is no State institution or mechanism they can resort to. The only title that is found is that of the Ten Communities, granted by the Harrison-Altamirano Treaty Commission between 1905 and 1917. Territory of the other communities has not been titled. There is one other titling, as a result of the border conflict between Nicaragua and Honduras, which took place in the early sixties, in favor of the communities along the Coco River, but that titling is not in accordance with the needs and land use possession patterns of the communities in that territory. Interruption of land titling by Nicaragua may be due to the State seemingly responding to crisis situations. In other words, titling during the 1980s, essentially due to the war, was part of the strategy to turn a military conflict into a political discussion. So after the elections and with the climate of peace which came to be established, the State seems to have no incentive to solve the historical claims of the communities.

One of the two consolidated maps included in the diagnostic study corresponds to the Northern Atlantic Autonomous Region, and it summarizes the problem of overlaps. All the communities, a total of 116, presented their claims as a block and they have the characteristic of overlapping. Only the Tumarín Community does not have this feature. The phenomenon of overlaps is more complex in the Awas Tingni Community, in the area between that Community and the Ten Communities.

The area claimed by Awas Tingni is roughly 90,000 hectares. The communities argued that their cartographic projection based on oral history has to do with the ethnography of the territory. Thus, bibliographic sources up to the 19^th century state that the Miskito communities, which received title deeds from the Harrison-Altamirano Treaty, are on the coast. The rest, from the coastal area inland, are Sumo Mayagna communities, so the presence of Awas Tingni in that territory is not an anomaly, it is not an exception, but rather represents the settlement pattern of the Tuasca, Panamascas, and Wuga Communities. It is precisely because of the expansion of the coastal communities and of the banana and logging companies, in this case, that the communities withdrew toward the sources of the rivers. The presence of Awas Tingni in this territory, in the upper basin of the Wawa River, is part of the settlement pattern of the Mayagna communities in the territory.

The diagnostic study did not include the land claim by Awas Tingni because their case was being dealt with legally, and another study was being carried out by doctor Macdonald, with a very similar methodology, which ensured the quality of that work.

The overlaps between Awas Tingni and the communities of Francia Sirpi, the Eighteen Communities and the Communities of Puerto Cabezas, were all part of the same pattern; there was nothing special, and the diagnostic study sought to establish the characteristic features of those overlaps. What was most important in the diagnostic study was to summarize all those overlaps, and not to focus on a single case which had the same overlapping characteristics, which was not very different from what happened in other areas, and where a study was being conducted with the same qualities as that being carried out for the diagnostic study. The land conflict between Awas Tingni and the group of Ten Communities was not documented in the diagnostic study, nor was the conflict between Awas Tingni and the Kukalaya Community, Esperanza Community, Santa Clara, and Francia Sirpi.

According to oral history, the Awas Tingni Community migrated. The settlement pattern of the communities is a pattern of territorial migration. One of the grounds of the State for denying possession rights to the territory has been to argue that these communities are nomadic. The Awas Tingni Community migrated from the traditional settlement of the Mayagna communities and also of the Miskito communities, seeking better conditions for their subsistence.

Since 1990 the State, through its corresponding agencies, has not given any title deeds to the communities.

g.         Testimony of Brooklyn Rivera Bryan, an indigenous leader

He is a member of one of the Miskito communities, Lidaucra Sandy Bay, and he lives in the city of Bilwi, in the Northern Atlantic Autonomous Region in Nicaragua. When he held the position of Minister-Director of the Nicaraguan Institute for the Development of the Autonomous Regions (INDIRA), he coordinated development and social action plans of the State, at an institutional level, in the autonomous region where most of the indigenous communities of Nicaragua are located. At that time, he was aware of the policies and practices of other State institutions regarding the indigenous communities, specifically those of MARENA and the Nicaraguan Institute of Agrarian Reform (INRA).

In connection with the situation of indigenous peoples and the titling of their lands, he points out that when he was Minister-Director of INDIRA he took steps to oppose the granting of concessions. He first addressed MARENA, in charge of deciding on such concessions. Since he did not obtain an appropriate response, he sent a communiqué to all the other Ministers, who at that time showed no interest. The situation was not dealt with.

INRA limited its work to addressing land claims by the cooperatives and landless peasants, granting them a plot of land, 50 manzanas per family, accompanied by technical assistance. INRA did not undertake any responsibility toward the indigenous communities, arguing that the law did not empower them to deal with their claims, and there was no other specific agency to deal with them. INRA transferred the claims of the indigenous communities to INDIRA, but the law did not give it the authority to deal with those specific claims, nor did it do so with MARENA, so the State lacked a legal instrument to address those claims.

When there were claims by the indigenous communities, he addressed the authorities at INRA to see how they could be dealt with, and he discussed the matter with high officials in the Cabinet. Even though INRA claimed that it had no authority, it issued certificates of land granted to former military, army and police entities, and the Nicaraguan resistance, lands which were within the territories of most indigenous communities.

Subsequently, INDIRA sought other mechanisms, based on the activities of the communities themselves, for which purpose it cooperated in the establishment of the Organization of Indigenous Syndics, who are the legal administrators of the lands of the communities. The Organization of Syndics of the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua (OSICAN) was born. This organization prepared a bill through extensive consultation with the indigenous communities, and it was submitted to the National Assembly in 1996. As a result of that initiative, it was decided that the National Committee for Demarcation of Lands of the Indigenous Communities should be set up, and this was done in 1996, but it was not able to attain progress in the tasks entrusted to it.

Establishment of the National Demarcation Committee remained as a legacy to the Government which took office in 1997. During that Government there were some meetings between representatives of the States and indigenous peoples, who requested that indigenous representation be broadened; that request led to a bill which was submitted to the National Assembly on October 13, 1998.

When the State granted the concession to the SOLCARSA corporation, the witness held the position of Minister, for which reason he knows that, while MARENA was considering that concession, some representatives of the indigenous communities of Awas Tingni, Kakamuklaya, and others came to their offices to object, arguing that their territorial rights were being violated, since the area of the proposed concession coincided with their ancestral territories.

Together with representatives of the communities, he contacted the higher authorities at MARENA to state their concerns and demands. However, the position adopted by that Institution, as by the Government, was that empty areas or wastelands belonged to the State, that the indigenous communities had no title to the land, and that the concession would bring benefits because it would generate employment and income. These concerns were raised directly with the Minister of MARENA, first Milton Caldera, then his successor Claudio Gutiérrez, and then Roberto Araquistain y Láinez, who were directly in charge of policies pertaining to concessions.

To grant a concession to a firm, first the criteria and policies for the country’s forest development had to be established; however, that had not yet been done, so concessions were granted without well adjusted criteria to ensure indigenous property rights and protection of the environment. MARENA only required the firm to submit a forest management plan. The witness noted that some of MARENA’s officials participated in the consultancy groups that prepared the management plans, so there was a conflict of interest.

The indigenous communities of the region were never consulted on whether the concession to SOLCARSA was convenient, nor was any inspection carried out in the area. Neither was there a concrete commitment to investigate and appropriately address their complaints.

Under Law No. 14, 28 indigenous communities that benefited from the agrarian reform were given titles. The witness knows that a draft Indigenous Communal Property Law was submitted to the National Assembly, and there were consultations to analyze that bill.

The Awas Tingni Community, which was the one directly affected by the concession, has possession which goes back to the time before the creation of the Nicaraguan State, and like most indigenous communities it has a historical right to the lands it occupies and its resources. The concession to SOLCARSA damages them, as the logging would take place in their territory, which the community have traditionally occupied to live on and to carry out cultural, economic, and social activities. Maps and studies effectively support the right they have, as communities, to those areas and to their ancient places.

h.        Testimony of Humberto Thompson Sang, a member of the Lanlaya indigenous community 

He is a Nicaraguan national. He has lived most of his life in the Lanlaya Community, of the Miskito ethnic group, which he is a member of, close to the city of Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua. He has been a member of the Regional Council, and in 1998 he was elected for a four-year period. He is also a member of the indigenous organization YATAMA.

On March 29, 1996, he filed an amparo remedy against the State, with the objective of suspending the concession made by the State to the SOLCARSA corporation. The remedy was requested by the communal leaders of the Awas Tingni Mayagna Community. Almost a year went by before the Court decided on the remedy. The decision cancelled the concession to the firm and ordered that it be suspended. Despite that, the firm continued its operations.

Engineer Jorge Brooks, who was a MARENA official, took some steps to promote the SOLCARSA concession.

After the decision by the Supreme Court, SOLCARSA covered the expenses to set up a meeting in Puerto Cabezas, including the cost of taking all the Councilmen of the region from the municipalities to Puerto Cabezas. After the meeting in Puerto Cabezas, Jorge Brooks offered each of the Council members 5,000 cordobas to vote in favor of the concession to the SOLCARSA corporation.

On January 22, 1998, the witness filed another remedy for the concession to be cancelled. Eight months later, the Court cancelled the concession. However, the situation of indigenous land titling or demarcation remained as before. The State did nothing about it.

The Atlantic Coast has an autonomous status which has been recognized since 1987 by Law No. 28, according to which any concession granted by the State has to be consulted with the indigenous communities and also with the Regional Council.

The witness knows of an unconstitutionality remedy filed against the concession to SOLCARSA, in which the Awas Tingni Community was a party to the suit, and as a result of which the concession was declared unconstitutional. He also knows that MARENA ordered the concession to be suspended shortly after being notified by the Supreme Court of Justice that this concession was unconstitutional.

He has no knowledge of the Management Plan, which is a prior requirement to begin logging, being approved by the State for SOLCARSA. He knows that MARENA, in Ministerial resolution No. 02-97, fined SOLCARSA for illegal logging outside the area of the concession.

The Awas Tingni Community occupies ancestral lands, is an indigenous community, and “historically it is their territory, it is their land, no one can take it away (from them), and the State is well aware of this, totally, this territory belongs to the Awas Tingni Community.”

i.         Testimony of Wilfredo Mclean Salvador, a member of the Awas Tingni Community

The witness was born in the Awas Tingni Community. He belongs to the Mayagna ethnic group. Within the Community, he holds the position of Person Responsible for the Forest. He is also the Person Responsible for the School Center at Awas Tingni.

He attended a meeting held at the Presidential House in February, 1997. The Syndics, Community delegates and their advisors also attended the meeting. That time they stated to the President of Nicaragua their request for territorial demarcation of Awas Tingni, and they informed him that the SOLCARSA logging firm was entering into Community territory. The President said that he understood they have rights to those lands, and that he would resolve the case, and he then organized a meeting with the Minister of MARENA. That same day the Minister received them at the Ministry. At that meeting, they were told that they would go to the Community to investigate.

Subsequently, the SOLCARSA concession was declared unconstitutional. However, the State officials never went to the Community to seek to resolve to their request for demarcation of the land.

Between March 28 and 30, 2000, they attended another meeting in Managua, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Community requested a hearing with the authorities due to its concerns about demarcation of their lands. Twelve delegates of the State attended that meeting. Doctor María Luisa Acosta, the representative of the Community, was the only one of their advisors who was allowed to be present at that meeting. They did not allow international advisors to be present; they stated that it was not necessary to go before the Inter-American Court, and that it was better to solve the case in Nicaragua.

The State told them that it was better to find a solution to the case between the government and the indigenous group. The representatives of the latter showed the delegates of the State the map which represented the demarcation of the lands belonging to Awas Tingni, according to the claims of the Community. The State’s delegates answered that they did not recognize that demarcation, as it had not been done together with the State authorities. The representatives of the State offered to give the Community title to 12,000 hectares of land, with more than 50 head of cattle and other resources and materials for their development. The legal advisor was not present at the time the representatives of the State made this proposal. The State arrived at this figure because according to the Agrarian Reform Law, each family was granted 58 hectares, and therefore, given the population of the Awas Tingni Community, that was the corresponding area. the Community did not accept the deal, because the offer was not in accordance with its land title claims, according to the map submitted by the Community.

As regards the request for land titling made to the Executive, the answer they received was when they visited the President and the Minister, who said that they would study it, but they did not go to give them a title deed. The indigenous group did not request land titling from the Courts of Justice after they received no response from the Executive.

The Awas Tingni Community has been struggling for a long time, requesting that Nicaragua provide a solution to their case, requesting demarcation of their lands.

j.         Expert opinion of Charles Rice Hale, anthropologist specializing in indigenous cultures.

His work has concentrated on the study of indigenous cultures, especially in Central America and more specifically in the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua. To carry out these studies, he has lived roughly five years in the Atlantic Coast. The studies he carried out in that coastal region, during the first three years, were ethnographic studies based on anthropological methods. Subsequently, he also carried out studies and mapping in the context of a diagnostic study on the claims of the indigenous peoples of the Coast. He speaks Miskito, which is one of the main languages used by the indigenous peoples. He lived mainly in a town called Bluefields, and the community where he conducted more intensive fieldwork is called Sandy Bay Sirpe, which is located to the North, at the mouth of the Río Grande. In the context of the diagnostic study he also traveled throughout the Atlantic Coast and spent more time working more intensively in the extreme northern area, near the border with Honduras, at Río Guanqui, Río Coco.

The general diagnostic study on land tenure in the Atlantic Coast communities, which the State has referred to in its reply to the application by the Commission, is a study begun in 1997 in which he was directly involved as coordinator of the research. This diagnostic study included an ethnographic study and the mapping of some 128 indigenous and black communities. It was based on two key questions: what are the claims of these communities as regards their rights to communal land, and how do they justify their claims. The study was conducted community by community, using a consistent methodology to answer those two questions in connection with the communities included in the research universe.

The indigenous peoples of the Atlantic Coast are primarily three: the Miskito, the Mayagna, and the Rama. There are various groups which have existed since before the Europeans arrived. The groups surviving to the present day are the Mayagna, of whom there are three important groups: Panamaca, Tuaca, and Urba, who at the time of the arrival of the Europeans settled in the area of land use and possession, which is the same until now.

The three key land tenure characteristics are an extensive use of the land, the environment, and its resources. There is a place of land use and possession and, depending on economic activities, they move to other places to carry out their economic activities.

There have been few concrete actions by the State regarding recognition, titling, and endorsement of communal rights to the land. Only twice has there been land titling more or less in accordance with what the community was claiming; that was in 1987, for two Mayagna communities, out of roughly 300 communities in all. Since 1990 there has been no action directed toward that goal.

In some cases, land titles are agrarian allocations which are less than the community’s claims. Agrarian allocations are a step prior to legal titling, and in many cases the process is incomplete, leading to a statement of intent, but without legalization nor the guarantees that the community requires to protect its lands from third parties. There is no evidence of actions tending to ensure use and possession by the communities.

INRA is seen by the indigenous communities as a hostile actor, representing a vision which is not in accordance with their demands nor with the understanding of indigenous culture itself. Its main actions have been for the benefit of immigrant peasant farmers in the Western part of the country. The MARENA office which has had a greater presence in connection with the indigenous communities is the one which until 1998, if it has not changed its name, was called ADFOREST, which was in charge of granting concessions. In the perception of the indigenous communities, it is an entity which has been granting concessions to lands and resources which belong to them, for which reason it is seen as a threat to their interests.