State guilty of abusing Indigenous rights at Isseneru—IACHR Report

Jun 06, 2024 News

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By Rehanna Ramsay

Kaieteur News – The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR)– an autonomous organ of the Organization of American States (OAS) based in Washington DC, has found that Guyana is responsible for several rights violations committed on the Indigenous community of Isseneru -Cuyuni Mazaruni Region Seven.

In a report released on April 24, 2024, the Human Rights body spoke to several violations that were committed against the largely Akawaio community in Region Seven including government’s failure to adequately issue title to the Indigenous peoples.

According to the report, the State violated the Indigenous people’s right to collective territorial property under Article XXIII of the American Declaration, because it has failed to grant Isseneru a property title over its entire ancestral territory, even though the community demonstrated that it is a primarily Akawaio Indigenous community, it is geographically set within Akawaio ancestral lands, the territory it claims corresponds to that of the ancestors and grandparents of its current members.

The organisation concluded that the State also violated the right to indigenous collective territorial property, insofar as the provisions of its Mining Act fail to properly incorporate the human rights guarantee of prior consultation in cases of small- and medium-scale mining projects.

These rights, according to the IACHR, are interconnected rights to health, water, food, cultural integrity and a healthy environment. However, the rights body pointed out that in relation to the Isseneru community, the State has failed to properly implement its legislation requiring the conduction of prior environmental social and impact assessments before the initiation of any mining operation in Indigenous territories.

The IACHR highlighted that, if any permits, concessions or licenses are issued for mining, forestry or any other extractive activity within the untitled parts of Isseneru’s ancestral territory, before said territory is duly titled, demarcated and delimited in its full extent, the State of Guyana would incur in a violation of international law, in particular of the right to collective property under Article XXIII of the American Declaration.

As a result, IACHR recommended that the State adopt the necessary measures so that the Isseneru community and its members receive comprehensive reparations for the material and non-material damages they suffered due to the violation of their human rights, as stated in the previous section.

Such reparations, the human rights body said should include compensation, satisfaction and any other 86 measures that may be appropriate in accordance with Inter-American standards, including the provision of the required health services to the members of the community affected by the environmental contamination.

Additionally, the IACHR recommended the State should mend its legislation in order to ensure that the provisions of laws and regulations related to Indigenous territorial property are in harmony with the American Declaration, in accordance with international law in accordance with this merits report.

With full respect for the Isseneru community’s right to autonomy and free management of its natural resources, the right body said the State should adopt the necessary measures to support Isseneru and its members in the due fulfillment of their own duty to preserve and protect the environment, particularly in relation to the mining operations that they themselves carry out in their ancestral territory.

The case of Isseneru vs Guyana is historic.  Isseneru Village Council (IVC) first filed a domestic legal case against mining operators working within ancestral lands back in 2007.  Previous rulings stated that Isseneru had no jurisdiction over this territory. Guyana’s High Court ruled that third parties operating in the area, for instance Platinum Mining Inc. and other mining groups, had purchased licences prior to Isseneru obtaining title in 2007 and the coming into operation of the Amerindian Act of 2006, Guyana’s primary legislation on Indigenous matters. Thus, the Court held that village councils had no authority to stop operations and no means of protecting their land. Appeals to the Court of Appeal were postponed indefinitely in 2009 due to the failure of the High Court judge to submit written reasons for their decision and this still has not been heard today.

After filing a petition in 2013 to the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR), an autonomous organ of the Organization of American States (OAS) based in Washington DC, the case has been reviewed.

As reported in the press, IACHR has ruled that Guyana is responsible for at least sixteen violations of the rights of the community and its members, as a result of which Guyanese law will have to be amended. In its previous letter to the Guyanese Minister of Foreign Affairs, IACHR gave Guyana two months to provide information on how it intends to comply with the decision. The Commission has concluded that the state failed to grant community titles over ancestral lands, that equality of law was violated, and that mining concessions were granted without consultation from village representatives. The Commission also concluded that the right to health, food, water, as well as the rights of children and mothers, had been violated.

 

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• Guyana, Isseneru, Isseneru -Cuyuni Mazaruni, Region Seven, the Organisation

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