Nicaraguan indigenous people have suffered numerous attacks, some fatal, while the natural resources in their territories are exploited without the consent of their people, the UN Committee Against Racism denounced on Tuesday in a report on the situation in the Central American country.
The committee expresses its particular concern at the numerous attacks that have been perpetrated against indigenous peoples in the Mayangna Sauni As territoryin the Bosawás biosphere reserve, and expressed his fear that the attacks could go unpunished, given the apparent lack of investigations.
On the other hand, the absence of demarcation in some indigenous territories has caused “attacks and illegal invasions by settlers and non-indigenous peoplegenerating serious conflicts and violence around access to land and natural resources”.
The report also denounces irregularities in the granting of licenses for the exploitation of natural resources and development projects in indigenous territories, often without prior consultation with these minorities, or using unauthorized persons as supposed representatives of these peoples.
“The committee is seriously concerned that the Grand Interoceanic Canal project, which affects the territory of the Rama indigenous people and the Afro-descendant Kriol communities and the territory of the Creole community of Bluefields, has not been duly consulted with the affected peoples,” said the official. committee.
Various extractive agro-industrial and infrastructure projects are seriously affecting the livelihoods and ways of life of indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples, “generating food crises, forced displacement and health problems for the affected communities,” added the United Nations document.
state absence
The report denounces the excessive use of force against these minorities, including deaths in custody of members of the communities, and points out that they are also victims of the increase in generalized repression in the country since the social and political crisis broke out in April 2018.
The committee, made up of 18 experts and chaired by the Jamaican Verene Albertha Shepherd, also lamented the “lack of cooperation and interaction of the State with the regional and universal systems for the protection of human rights.”
Something that resulted, for example, in the non-appearance of the Nicaraguan State in the session of the Committee dedicated to Nicaragua, on August 10, after which the report published this Tuesday was prepared.
The committee’s report also criticizes the lack of updated information on the demographic composition of the population of Nicaragua, where a national census has not been carried out since 2005.
