A/HRC/27/52/Add.1 represented in the process and that the project will have an impact on the environment and will block access to certain areas within Naso territory. 48. Bayano. Indigenous representatives of the Kuna and Emberá peoples have made a number of allegations relating to the Bayano hydroelectric project, which, in the 1970s, led to the relocation of a large number of members of the Kuna and Emberá communities and the loss, according to one estimate, of 35,000 hectares of their traditional lands. Prior to the relocation phase, the Government offered to give the communities in question title to new lands, financial compensation and other benefits.34 It is claimed, however, that the communities have still not obtained legal recognition of their ownership of the lands to which they were moved and that the Government has not paid the financial compensation that it had said it would. On 26 February 2013, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights referred the case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, after the Commission had concluded that there has been an “ongoing violation of the right to collective property of the Kuna de Madungandi and Emberá de Bayano indigenous peoples and their members as a result of the State of Panama’s failure, to date, to pay the financial compensation stemming from the dispossession and flooding of the victims’ ancestral territories as from 1969”.35 B. Self-governance and participation 49. A strong protective framework exists in the country for self-government and political participation by the indigenous peoples of Panama. This framework is linked to the comarca system and, to a lesser extent, to the existence of collective lands. However, no specific protection of this type exists for these collective lands or for indigenous peoples whose territories have not been recognized. 50. As to political participation, under the Constitution of 2004, comarca inhabitants can elect parliamentary representatives, mayors, councillors and representatives of administrative districts. Currently, 7 of the 71 representatives in the National Assembly are indigenous persons (3 Ngobe and 4 Kuna), meaning that, at the national level, the NgobeBugle community is proportionally represented and the Kuna people are overrepresented. The Emberá-Wounaan comarca elects parliamentary representatives jointly with Darién Province; the inhabitants of that comarca are therefore not, in actual fact, guaranteed appropriate representation, as their votes are merged with those of the overall electorate of Darién. The percentage of other political representatives (such as mayors, councillors and representatives of administrative districts) elected by the comarcas has been nearly proportional to the size of their population. 51. Indigenous peoples enjoy a significant level of self-governance within the comarcas, which includes the election of their local leaders and control over internal affairs.36 Furthermore, as mentioned earlier, indigenous authorities enjoy formal, although not always effective, control over non-renewable resources within their comarcas and, as will be discussed below, many public economic and social development services are provided at the comarca level in coordination with those authorities. However, the Government retains control over the disbursement of public funds and over tax revenues within the comarcas. 52. The traditional governments of the indigenous peoples also enjoy a certain amount of recognition within the framework of the legally recognized collective lands located 34 35 36 GE.14-07234 See Decree No. 156 of 1971. Case No. 12.354, Kuna de Madungandi and Emberá de Bayano Indigenous Peoples and Their Members v. Panama. See Act No. 10 of 7 March 1997, chap. III. 13