E/CN.4/2003/90 page 10 been annexed affecting important grazing and watering points previously used by pastoralists. Moreover, the Keiyo indigenous people in Kenya also reported that they have been forcibly evicted from their land without compensation, because of mining activity there.24 Despite judicial appeal to the country’s High Court (which was dismissed on technical grounds) and international concern, the Basarwa people in Botswana had their water supply cut off and have had no choice but to leave their traditional hunting grounds in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve for resettlement villages, to make way for Government-sponsored development activities in the area.25 24. Evictions or involuntary displacements are a common feature resulting from major development projects. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights concluded that forced evictions are prima facie incompatible with the requirements of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The term “forced evictions” is defined as “the permanent or temporary removal against their will of individuals, families and/or communities from the homes and/or land which they occupy, without the provision of, and access to, appropriate forms of legal or other protection”. Oftentimes, forced evictions occur in the name of development.26 25. Conflicts over development projects on the lands of indigenous peoples lead to further violations of human rights. For instance, forced evictions from their traditional lands may lead to breaches of civil and political rights such as the right to life, the right to security of the person, the right to non-interference with privacy, family and home, and the right to the peaceful enjoyment of possessions.27 The Special Rapporteur has received reports about the arrest and harassment of indigenous persons involved in protests against destruction brought by the building of dams, and other extractive activities including logging and mining. 26. For example, people in Penan (Malaysia) have reportedly been arrested because they were blockading roads trying to stop loggers destroying their traditional forests.28 Philippine indigenous peoples have allegedly been physically abused and detained by mining companies and the police in the process of peaceful picketing against mining activities on their traditional lands.29 Sometimes, as in Southern Africa, the strict enforcement of environmental conservation laws prevents indigenous farmers from farming their traditional land or using traditional resources, thus turning them into offenders who may be jailed for attempting to subsist.30 According to a recent report, oil workers in the Upper Pakiria River region of south-eastern Peru forced the Kugapakori to move deep into the Amazon and threatened to arrest and decimate the community with diseases if they refused to leave their home.31 The Cucapá people in northern Mexico have been restrained by the authorities from practising their subsistence fishing because of environmental concerns, but the National Commission of Human Rights found that their human rights were being violated and recommended to the Government in April 2002 that the Cucapá become participants in the planning and execution of programmes for their own social development, including the fishing of protected species for their subsistence.32 Also in south-eastern Mexico, indigenous squatters have been evicted from a biosphere reserve on environmental grounds, but NGOs refer to the various kinds of business interests wishing to invest in the area. (See case study below on the Puebla Panama Plan.)33 27. Major development projects often entail serious health hazards for indigenous peoples. Environmental degradation, toxic chemical and mineral wastes, the destruction of self-sustaining