A/HRC/30/41/Add.1 peoples while the adjudication process is under way. Those activities could have severe effects on the families living in isolation. 25. The Special Rapporteur also met with the legal representatives of Yaguareté Porá Ltd., one of the private companies that owns land in the claimed area, according to whom the company does not want to leave and is proposing as a solution the establishment of a permanent private protected area, the Yaguareté Porá Natural Reserve, 9 to serve as a biological corridor and passageway between the lands in question for use by peoples living in isolation. The company, while saying that it wishes to reach a solution through dialogue, has continued to file claims with the courts (including one in which it requests cancellation of the Natural and Cultural Heritage Lands designation). The company is reportedly still operating in the disputed territories on the basis of the environmental permits issued by the Secretariat for the Environment, even though those permits have been repeatedly revoked by the courts. 26. Another source of concern is the situation of the Cheiro Ara Poty community of the Mbyá Guaraní people (Caaguazú Department), who submitted a lan d claim in 1981 that was approved by the National Assembly in 1989. An order for the expropriation of the lands in question from the Sommerfeld Komitee company was issued. Following a series of claims and appeals before the courts which were won by INDI and that community, Sommerfeld Komitee has still not withdrawn the funds deposited by INDI to pay for the land. As a result, no transfer agreement has been signed and it has not been possible to transfer title to the community. 27. The situation of communities whose lands are in the process of being officially recognized is also a source of concern. For example, the Avá Guaraní community of the Y’apo people submitted a claim for 5,000 hectares, part of its traditional territory, in 1999. Those lands, including Laguna San Antonio, a sacred place for the community, currently belong to the company Laguna Ltd. The community says that the company’s private security firm constantly harasses them in an effort to make them leave their current settlement. According to reports brought to the attention of the Special Rapporteur, there was an attempt to forcibly expel the community in May 2014, followed by an attack one month later during which 50 armed civilians invaded the community, wounding, robbing and firing upon the residents. Despite the rapid response of the authorities following that attack, it is worrisome that no measures for protecting this are currently in place. B. Access to justice 1. The legal system and indigenous rights 28. The Paraguayan Constitution recognizes the right of indigenous peoples to “freely apply their political, social, economic, cultural and religious systems and to be bound of their own free will by their customary laws in matters relating to their own communities” (art. 63). Article 268, which deals with the Public Prosecution Service, establishes that its duties include the pursuance of public legal action in order to, inter alia, defend “the rights of indigenous peoples”. 29. These constitutional provisions have been elaborated upon in other laws and public policies. The Code of Criminal Procedure outlines the procedures to be followed for the prosecution of punishable offences related to indigenous peoples. The Ethnic Rights Directorate of the Public Prosecution Service is responsible for ensuring __________________ 9 8/24 See Decree No. 11726 of 11 January 2008. GE.15-13734