76
135. Once it has been proved that land restitution rights are still current, the State
must take the necessary actions to return them to the members of the indigenous
people claiming them. However, as the Court has pointed out, when a State is
unable, on objective and reasoned grounds, to adopt measures aimed at returning
traditional lands and communal resources to indigenous populations, it must
surrender alternative lands of equal extension and quality, which will be chosen by
agreement with the members of the indigenous peoples, according to their own
consultation and decision procedures.199
136. Nevertheless, the Court can not to decide that Sawhoyamaxa Community’s
property rights to traditional lands prevail over the right to property of private
owners or vice versa, since the Court is not a domestic judicial authority with
jurisdiction to decide disputes among private parties. This power is vested
exclusively in the Paraguayan State. Nevertheless, the Court has competence to
analyze whether the State ensured the human rights of the members of the
Sawhoyamaxa Community.
137. Following this line of thought, the Court has ascertained that the arguments
put forth by the State to justify non-enforcement of the indigenous people's property
rights have not sufficed to release it from international responsibility. The State has
put forth three arguments: 1) that claimed lands have been conveyed from one
owner to another “for a long time” and are duly registered; 2) that said lands are
being been adequately exploited, and 3) that the owner’s right “is protected under a
bilateral agreement between Paraguay and Germany[,] which […] has become part
of the law of the land.”
138. Regarding the first argument, the Court considers that the fact that the
claimed lands are privately held by third parties is not in itself an “objective and
reasoned” ground for dismissing prima facie the claims by the Indigenous people.
Otherwise, restitution rights become meaningless and would not entail an actual
possibility of recovering traditional lands, as it would be exclusively limited to an
expectation on the will of the current holders, forcing indigenous communities to
accept alternative lands or economic compensations. In this respect, the Court has
pointed out that, when there be conflicting interests in indigenous claims, it must
assess in each case the legality, necessity, proportionality and fulfillment of a lawful
purpose in a democratic society (public purposes and public benefit), to impose
restrictions on the right to property, on the one hand, or the right to traditional
lands, on the other. The contents of each parameter have been defined by the Court
in the Case of the Indigenous Community Yakye Axa, hence express reference to
said decision is hereby made.200
139. The same rationale is applicable to the second argument put forth by the
State as regards to land productivity. This argument lodges the idea that indigenous
communities are not entitled, under any circumstances, to claim traditional lands the
when they are exploited and fully productive, viewing the indigenous issue
exclusively from the standpoint of land productivity and agrarian law, something
which is insufficient for it fails to address the distinctive characteristics of such
peoples.
199
Cf. Case of the Indigenous Community Yakye Axa, supra note 1, para. 149.
200
Cf. Case of the Indigenous Community Yakye Axa, supra note 1, para. 149.