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specific authority to INRA to grant title to indigenous communal lands” and points
out that it is possible that the existence of “legal ambiguities has […] contributed to
the pronounced delay in the response by INRA to indigenous demands for communal
titling”. That diagnostic study adds that
[…] there is an incompatibility between the specific Agrarian Reform laws on the
question of indigenous lands and the country’s legal system. That problem brings with
it legal and conceptual confusion, and contributes to the political ineffectiveness of the
institutions entrusted with resolving this issue.
[…]
[…] in Nicaragua the problem is the lack of laws to allow concrete application of the
Constitutional principles, or [that] when laws do exist (case of the Autonomy Law) there
has not been sufficient political will for them to be regulated.
[…]
[Nicaragua] lacks a clear legal delimitation on the status of national lands in relation to
indigenous communal lands.
[…]
[…] beyond the relation between national and communal land, the very concept of
indigenous communal land lacks a clear definition.
126. On the other hand, it has been proven that since 1990 no title deeds have
been issued to indigenous communities (supra para. 103(s)).
127. In light of the above, this Court concludes that there is no effective procedure
in Nicaragua for delimitation, demarcation, and titling of indigenous communal lands.
b)
Administrative and judicial steps:
128. Due to the lack of specific and effective legislation for indigenous communities
to exercise their rights and to the fact that the State has disposed of lands occupied
by indigenous communities by granting a concession, the “General diagnostic study
on land tenure in the indigenous communities of the Atlantic Coast”, carried out by
the Central American and Caribbean Research Council, points out that “ ‘amparo
remedies’ have been filed several times, alleging that a concession by the State
(normally to a logging firm) interferes with the communal rights of a specific
indigenous community”.
129. It has been proven that the Awas Tingni Community has taken various steps
before different Nicaraguan authorities (supra paras. 103(ñ), (o), (p), (r), as follows:
a)
b)
on July 11, 1995, they submitted a letter to the Minister of MARENA in
which they requested that no further steps be taken to grant the
concession to the SOLCARSA corporation without a prior agreement
with the Community;
in March, 1996, a request was filed before the Regional Council of the
RAAN to ensure their property rights to their ancestral communal
lands, in accordance with the Constitution of Nicaragua, and for the
Regional Council of the RAAN to prevent the granting of concessions
for the utilization of natural resources in the area without the assent of
the Community.
The latter submitted several proposals for