A/HRC/45/34 indigenous peoples, particularly when they defend their collective rights to their lands, territories and natural resources, has drastically increased in the last few years.10 Thus, the Special Rapporteur has focused her efforts, through the communications procedure as well as in her country visits, on addressing these gross human rights violations and calling for prevention, justice and reparation. Her continuing attention to these issues has yielded positive changes. 14. The Special Rapporteur met with members of indigenous communities in jail for defending their rights to lands and to the exercise of their justice systems, during her country visits to Guatemala and Ecuador. 11 That was the case in April 2018, when she visited several indigenous human rights defenders in prison in Guatemala, including Abelino Chub Caal. Mr. Chub Caal was fully acquitted of all charges in April 2019, 11 months after the Special Rapporteur’s visit. The attention that the Special Rapporteur drew to his case was an important factor that contributed to securing his acquittal. 15. Another emblematic case of criminalization of indigenous human rights defenders in Guatemala was in 2015. That year, six human rights defenders, including Mayan Kanjobal authorities from Huehuetenango department, opposed to hydroelectric dams on indigenous collective lands, were detained on different charges including kidnapping, belonging to a criminal gang, threats and obstructing justice. They were held in preventive detention for several months. In May 2016, the Special Rapporteur, jointly with other special procedures, sent a communication requesting the Government to clarify the basis for the criminal charges, as well as how the preventive detention complied with fair trial guarantees.12 On 22 July 2016, High Risk Court A in Guatemala City ordered the immediate release of seven human rights defenders from Huehuetenango, including the six mentioned in the communication. In four of the cases, all charges were dismissed. 13 16. The Special Rapporteur sent a joint communication regarding a land dispute between an indigenous community and the Chinese sugar cane company Hengfu Sugar in Preah Vihear Province, Cambodia, in September 2018.14 Subsequently, in June 2019, the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction in Cambodia set up a “measurement team” to measure and demarcate the land of indigenous communities, in support of their collective land title application. However, the land demarcation depends on the resolution of the land dispute. Sugar-related economic land concessions across the country, including in Preah Vihear, have resulted in thousands of people being dispossessed from traditional lands of spiritual significance. Between 2014 and September 2019, 15 indigenous community members and 2 staff members of non-governmental organizations were charged and put under judicial supervision in relation to this land dispute. Community members who have been particularly outspoken and active in this case have expressed concerns about having been targeted. In February 2020, the Hengfu Sugar company reportedly stopped operating. 17. In 2011, the Yanacocha S.R.L. mining company filed a case against Maxima Acuña de Chaupe, an indigenous Quechua woman in Peru who opposed the mining project and refused to leave her lands. She was charged by the company, which runs an open-pit gold and copper mine in the area, with trespassing on her own lands. Due to her opposition to the mining activities, she suffered several attacks, intimidation, attempted evictions and judicial harassment, in spite of the fact that precautionary measures for her protection had been awarded by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in 2014. The Special Rapporteur, together with other special procedure mandate holders, sent a series of communications relating to Ms. Acuña’s case between 2014 and 2016. Ms. Acuña was 10 11 12 13 14 A/HRC/39/17, para. 4. Visit to Guatemala: A/HRC/39/17/Add.3. The report on the Special Rapporteur’s mission to Guatemala was considered as one of the bases for the European Parliament resolution on the situation of human rights in Guatemala (RC-8-2019-0182, para. P) requesting that Guatemala, inter alia, comply with the recommendations of the Special Rapporteur (para. 8). Visit to Ecuador: A/HRC/42/37/Add.1. GTM 5/2016. This communication, and the other communications from special procedures referred to in the present report, are searchable at https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/Tmsearch/TMDocuments. See www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/case/environmental-and-indigenous-rights-defendershuehuetenango-released-0. KHM 6/2018. 5