victim of threats or harassment and the State does not provide the necessary guarantees to
enable that person to move about and reside freely in the territory in question, even when
the threats and harassment come from non-State actors.265
176. In addition, the Court observes that the said Guiding Principles establish obligations
for the States regarding the return, resettlement and reintegration of internally displaced
peoples, inter alia:
Principle 28(1). Competent authorities have the primary duty and responsibility to establish
conditions, as well as provide the means, which allow internally displaced persons to return
voluntarily, in safety and with dignity, to their homes or places of habitual residence, or to resettle
voluntarily in another part of the country. […]
Principle 28(2). Special efforts should be made to ensure the full participation of internally
displaced persons in the planning and management of their return or resettlement and
reintegration. […]
Principle 29(2). Competent authorities have the duty and responsibility to assist returned and/or
resettled internally displaced persons to recover, to the extent possible, their property and
possessions which they left behind or were dispossessed of upon their displacement. When
recovery of such property and possessions is not possible, competent authorities shall provide or
assist these persons in obtaining appropriate compensation or another form of just reparation.
177. Also, in keeping with its consistent case law on indigenous matters, in which it has
recognized that the relationship of the indigenous peoples with the land is essential for
maintaining their cultural structures and for their ethnic and material survival,266 the Court
considers that the forced displacement of indigenous peoples outside their community or
way from its members, can place them in a situation of special vulnerability, which “owing
to its destructive effects on the ethnic and cultural fabric […], generates a clear risk of the
cultural or physical extinction of the indigenous peoples.”267 Hence, it is essential that the
States adopt specific measures of protection268 considering the particular characteristics of
the indigenous peoples, as well as their customary law, values, practices and customs269 to
prevent and reverse the effects of that situation.
B.1.
The continuing displacement of the community of Río Negro
178. As previously established (supra para. 82), the members of the Río Negro
community were forced to flee their ancestral lands after the massacres perpetrated against
them in 1980 and 1982. In addition, the Court has accredited that most of the individuals
who survived the said massacres and the subsequent persecution by the State were
resettled by the Government, as the State itself has recognized (supra para. 17(g)), in the
265
Cf. Case of Valle Jaramillo et al. v. Colombia. Merits, reparations and costs. Judgment of November 27,
2008. Series C No. 192, para. 139, and Case of Chitay Nech et al. v. Guatemala, supra, para. 142.
266
The Court has determined that the culture of the members of the indigenous communities corresponds to
a specific way of being, seeing and acting in the world, constituted on the basis of their close relationship with their
traditional lands and natural resources, not only because these are their main means of subsistence, but also
because they constitute an integral component of their cosmovision, religious beliefs and, consequently, their
cultural identity. Cf. Case of the Yakye Axa Indigenous Community v. Paraguay, supra, para. 135, and Case of
Chitay Nech et al. v. Guatemala, supra, para. 147.
267
Ruling 004/009 issued on January 26, 2009, Constitutional Court of Colombia, part 4, p. 11. Available at:
http://www.acnur.org/biblioteca/pdf/6981.pdf.
268
Cf. Guiding principles on internally displaced persons, supra, Principle 9.
269
Cf. Case of the Yakye Axa Indigenous Community v. Paraguay, supra, para. 63, and Case of Chitay Nech
et al. v. Guatemala, supra, para. 147.
67
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