Summary
The Sawhoyamaxa Community has historically lived in the Paraguayan Chaco. In 1991, the Community started a domestic claim to regain its lands after being forced to leave them. On May 15th, 2001, ESCR-Net Member, Tierraviva, submitted a petition to the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights. The Commission referred the case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on February 3rd, 2005. While the Community was waiting for a decision, the community had no access to basic essential services like water, food, school or health services, and the Community’s members and their traditional means of livelihood were in imminent danger. In March 2006, the Court found various violations of the American Convention on Human Rights, specifically art 8 and 25, (right to a fair trial and judicial protection), art 21 (right to property), art 4(1) (right to life) and art 3 (right to recognition as a Person before the Law), all of them in relation to art 1(1) (the obligation to respect rights).
The Court ordered the Paraguayan government to adopt all necessary measures to return their ancestral lands to the Community within three years, to create a development fund for the Community in the amount of one million US dollars administered by a committee, and to pay compensation for non-pecuniary damages, costs and expenses within one year. In addition, an amount of 20,000 US dollars was to be paid to the families of the 19 persons who died as the result of the forced displacement of the Community. The Court also ordered the government to deliver basic goods and services and implement an emergency communication system as long as the Community remained landless. The Government was also required to publicize the judgment in its national gazette and through a radiobroadcast. (Case of the Sawhoyamaxa Indigenous Community v. Paraguay)
Keywords: Sawhoyamaxa, indigenous rights, land.