A/HRC/51/28/Add.1 D. Protection of indigenous human rights defenders 47. The Special Rapporteur received worrying reports about attacks on indigenous leaders and human rights defenders, especially in the south of the country, where they have been subjected to intimidation and death threats – including with firearms – and have had their homes and crops burned in the context of defending their lands, territories and natural resources, without the State having taken appropriate and culturally relevant protection measures. The most common underlying cause is indigenous people’s lack of land tenure security. 48. Social conflict has escalated after over 40 years of indigenous territories’ being occupied by non-indigenous persons without the introduction of an effective State policy on land restitution, which has led to some farmers systematically resorting to violence, particularly in the south (Cabagra, China Kichá, Salitre and Terraba). 49. Attacks on indigenous peoples have not stopped despite the action taken in response to early warnings and the international community’s continuous calls for indigenous peoples’ rights to be protected, including the precautionary measures imposed by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in favour of the Teribe (Bröran) and Bribri indigenous peoples of Salitre9. According to one report, a total of 86 acts of violence against indigenous peoples were documented in 2020.10 50. The Special Rapporteur is concerned about the murder of the indigenous leaders Sergio Rojas, in 2019, and Jehry Rivera, in 2020, along with the attempted murder of Minor Ortiz, a Bribri of the Tubölwak clan, and the numerous, persistent threats against and attempts on the life of Pablo Sibar, the leader of the Bröran people; they were all beneficiaries of the above-mentioned precautionary measures. 51. He also finds regrettable the accounts received on the continued threats, violence and acts of racism against indigenous persons involved in requisitioning land, including women and children, for example, in the territories of China Kichá and Maleku. Following the Special Rapporteur’s visit to the country, he is concerned about the information received on the attempted murder of a Cabecar indigenous leader for defending his land in Bajo Chirripo, Canton of Matina, Province of Limón, on 30 December 2021, and about the persistent threats and even attacks against persons requisitioning land in China Kichá in 2022. There is no information about the measures taken by law enforcement agencies to prevent these events from recurring or about the outcome of the investigations, prosecutions or how the judiciary has held the perpetrators to account. 52. The impunity for the murder of the indigenous leader Sergio Rojas is particularly worrying. The Special Rapporteur hopes that this impunity will not recur in relation to the murder of the indigenous leader Jehry Rivera, the trial for which was set for October 2021 but, to date, has not taken place. It is especially worrying that, to date, the State has not connected the murder of the two leaders with the conflict over the restitution of indigenous lands and that none of the culprits have been sentenced. Impunity fosters a climate of violence and insecurity for indigenous peoples.11 53. The Special Rapporteur also received information about a lack of adequate individual and collective protection measures that include an intercultural and gender perspective and have been the subject of proper consultations and agreed with the affected indigenous peoples. 54. A further cause for concern is the information provided to the Special Rapporteur in China Kichá about the alleged excessive use of force by the police against indigenous persons involved in requisitioning land in March 2020. 9 10 11 GE.22-11025 Precautionary measure No. 321/12, 30 April 2015. N. Chaves García, Informe de agresiones y violaciones a los Derechos Humanos contra los pueblos originarios en la Zona Sur de Costa Rica: Enero-Diciembre 2020, 1st ed. (San José, 2021), pp. 13– 31. See: https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2020/06/costa-rica-ongoing-impunity-preventseffective-protection-indigenous. 9