A/HRC/33/42/Add.2
concerned to protect their lives, personal safety, lands and cultures. Particular
attention should be paid to the situation of indigenous women, children and young
people.
91.
Indigenous peoples that might be affected should be consulted on anti-drug
policies and operations that involve the presence of national or foreign police or
armed forces and guarantees should be given that the lives, cultures, lands and
natural resources of the indigenous peoples are not violated as a result of such
operations. Abuses committed by drugs squad officials must be investigated and
punished. In the case of the massacre in Ahuas (para. 26), the necessary measures
should be taken at the national and international level to ensure that the victims and
their families obtain justice and fair and appropriate compensation.
92.
The Special Rapporteur recommends that, in regions with large indigenous
populations, justice officials should be given more training in the rights of indigenous
peoples and in the local indigenous languages and cultures. Measures must be
developed, in cooperation with the indigenous peoples of those areas, to facilitate the
appointment of justice officials, preferably from indigenous communities, and the
activities of such officials should be subject to oversight by the indigenous peoples
themselves.
93.
She also recommends legislative or other measures to recognize indigenous
systems of justice and courts and to develop mechanisms for coordination between
indigenous and ordinary courts.
Land, natural resources and governance
94.
Honduras should redouble its efforts to respond to existing requests by the
indigenous peoples with regard to the delimitation, demarcation, registration,
expansion and upgrading of their lands. It should comply with the commitments
agreed with the Chortí people with regard to the acquisition and registration of lands
and meet the requests of the Garífuna, Tawahka and Tolupán peoples, among others,
for the expansion of their registered lands (paras. 35-44). As stated in ILO Convention
No. 169, article 13 (2), recognition of their lands should include not only the areas in
which they are settled but also the “total environment of the areas which the peoples
concerned occupy or otherwise use”. Moreover, the indigenous peoples have the right
to participate in the use, management and conservation of the natural resources
pertaining to their lands (art. 15 (1)).
95.
Judicial and agrarian institutions and the Office of the Special Prosecutor for
Ethnic Groups and Cultural Heritage should take coordinated action to develop and
strengthen specialized permanent mechanisms to enable the indigenous peoples to
lodge their claims and obtain compensation for violations of their rights over their
lands and natural resources, in accordance with articles 12 and 14 of ILO Convention
No. 169 and articles 27, 28 and 40 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples. This should include measures for the prompt settlement of cases
in which third parties have been granted title to indigenous lands and for the
prevention and punishment of the break-up and illegal sale of indigenous lands.
96.
Prompt and effective measures should be taken to upgrade registered
indigenous lands and to investigate and punish persons responsible for the occupation
and environmental degradation of indigenous territories. In addition, the agreement
signed with the Auka community should be implemented immediately and in full in
order to avoid a deterioration in this divisive situation.
GE.16-12632
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