E/CN.4/2004/80 page 15 48. Historically, indigenous peasant organizations claiming land ownership in Honduras have not met with a sympathetic response from the Government. The incarceration of union and indigenous leaders, together with the lack of access to professional legal representation and interpreters, account for the overrepresentation of the indigenous population in the penal system. According to Amnesty International, over the last decade, police officers, death squads and the military have reportedly been involved in the killings of indigenous leaders.25 49. In Mexico, the Special Rapporteur received complaints about indigenous community activists being prosecuted and jailed on “fabricated” charges of ordinary offences for their participation in social mobilization over rights issues (see E/CN.4/2004/80/Add.2). 50. During his mission to the Philippines in 2002, the Special Rapporteur was informed that indigenous organizations that defend ancestral domains and land rights or resist the encroachment of alien commercial interests on their territories are often criminalized as subversive, and their members prosecuted as “terrorists” (see E/CN.4/2003/90/Add.3, para. 49). 51. According to information provided to the Special Rapporteur during his visit to Canada in April 2003, members of First Nations who actively confront government authorities over land or fishing rights (as in British Columbia and Nova Scotia) are sometimes prosecuted and sentenced for common law offences, without due regard to the social and cultural implications of their actions. 52. The case of Leonard Peltier, a Native American Indian activist who was convicted in 1975 following a shooting incident at Wounded Knee (South Dakota), has been repeatedly brought to the attention of the Special Rapporteur. Leonard Peltier was tried, convicted and sentenced to prison over 25 years ago in proceedings which have raised serious due process concerns and led a number of distinguished personalities to seek clemency.26 The case remains an issue of serious concern for the Special Rapporteur. 53. An ominous trend in current affairs is that human rights abuses occur not only during states of emergency or in authoritarian non-democratic regimes, but also within the framework of the rule of law in open transparent societies, where legal institutions are designed to protect individuals from abuse and to provide any victim of alleged human rights violations with mechanisms for access to justice and due process. Rights abuses committed against indigenous people often happen in the context of collective action initiated to press the legitimate social claims of marginalized, socially excluded and discriminated against indigenous communities. Private vested interests and beleaguered authorities belonging to local power structures often use the law to dismantle such movements by penalizing prominent leaders either through the application of common criminal statutes and regulations or by invoking politically motivated anti-terrorist legislation. The Special Rapporteur strongly urges that legitimate social protest activity of indigenous communities not be so penalized by the arbitrary use of criminal legislation designed to punish crimes that endanger the stability of democratic societies. He urges States to use non-judicial means to solve social conflicts through dialogue, negotiation and consensus.