19
entitled to, or on the state’s corresponding obligations. 53 In this sense, and based on the
decisions already made by this Court (supra paras. 22 and 23), the Court will analyze the
case taking into account the nature of indigenous or tribal peoples of the Garífuna Community
of Triunfo de la Cruz.
B. The process of acknowledgment and titling of the land of the Community of
Triunfo de la Cruz and its members
58.
Since the year 1950, the State of Honduras started to grant deeds in favor of the
Community of Triunfo de la Cruz and its members. A total of 615 hectares and 28.71 square
meters have been granted up to this date in “full ownership” and 128.40 hectares in the
concept of “guarantee of occupation”. Below, the Court will refer to the requests and the
acknowledgment and titling procedures for the territory of the Community of Triunfo de la
Cruz and its members from 1946 up to today.
B.1. Granting of a communal title over 380 hectares, 51 areas, and 82.68 square
meters (1950)
59.
On December 9, 1946, the Community requested a communal title over the area
occupied by it.54 On November 29, 1950, the President of the Republic approved the request,
for an extension of 380 hectares, 51 areas, 82.68 square meters, in the quality of communal
land “being [the town of El Triunfo] in the obligation to formally delimit the corresponding
boundaries to distinguish the land from the adjoining lands, forbidding them from uprooting
the forests located at less than twenty meters from rivers and water sources.”55 The
communal title was recorded on October 6, 1951 in the Registry of the Real Estate and
Mercantile Property.56
B.2. Request of allocation during the first legislation on agrarian reform (1969)
60.
On June 27, 1969, as per the Law on AgrarianReform of 1962,57 fifty members of the
Community of Triunfo de la Cruz presented a request before the Agrarian Coordinator in
charge of the Northwestern Zone for the creation of a “center of agricultural population,” in
which they stated that for 58 years some of the members of the Community or their
ascendents worked on “a national territory with an approximate area of two hundred blocks,”58
Honduras ratified Convention 169 of the ILO on March 28, 1995, which came into force for Honduras, as
stated in Article 38 of the Convention, on March 28, 1996. Additionally, Honduras approved the United Nations
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People of September 13, 2007.
53
Cfr. Claim of a national land for communal titles of the Triunfo community, filed by the auxiliary mayor of
this town José Martínez Lino before the income and customs administrator, on December 9, 1946 (evidence file,
folios 1000 to 1001). Director of the National Archive of Honduras, certification of May 18, 2006 (evidence file, folio
1008).
54
Cfr. Registry of Real Estate and Mercantile Property, certification of April 13, 1993 (evidence file, folios 1026
to 1027). Director of the National Archive of Honduras, certification of May 18, 2006 (evidence file, folio 1023).
55
56
Cfr. Registry of Real Estate and Mercantile Property, certification of April 13, 1993 (evidence file, folio 1027).
Cfr. World Bank Inspection Panel. Research Report - Honduras Land Administration Program. Report No.
39933- HN, June 12, 2007 (evidence file, folio 215). The mentioned Law inter alia defined the acknowledgment of
the property of indigenous communities over land, forests, waters, and communal lands enjoyed by them at that
time, either with a title deed or mere immemorial occupation.
57
Cfr. Request for the creation of an agricultural population center, of June 27, 1969 (evidence file, folios 1030
to 1031).
58