41
According to the law in Nicaragua, compliance with the decisions of the Supreme
Court of Nicaragua in the case of amparo remedies must be within 24 hours.
However, compliance with the decision of the Supreme Court on the aforementioned
remedy did not occur within that period, but rather in approximately one year.
While compliance with the order of the Supreme Court of Nicaragua was still
pending, the witness heard that the company was fined for felling precious wood
trees, among other things. It was a 1,000,000 cordoba fine. She also knows that
the General Comptroller’s Office approved that fine and that the Comptroller’s Office
punished the official authority in charge once again. The Comptroller’s Office
determined that the sanction should be at least twice the amount of that fine, and
requested that the Minister responsible pay it individually for not having enforced the
law, but the Minister never made the payment; furthermore, this Minister has
recently had problems with the Comptroller’s Office again in connection with the
felling of precious wood trees in Nicaragua.
In her opinion, there is no other judicial procedure which has proven to be effective
in Nicaragua for enforcement of Constitutional norms in connection with indigenous
peoples. To improve the functioning of the judicial system as regards the indigenous
communities, it would be necessary to modify Law No. 49 on the amparo remedy,
which indicates the procedures for filing this remedy, a procedure which must be
established in such a way that it is simple, agile, and effective, for indigenous
communities to have access to justice; the Organic Law of the Judiciary must also be
modified for it to be in accordance with the Constitutional framework and to establish
that judicial authorities can act ex officio in petitions filed by indigenous communities
regarding their territorial right; and the Law on Demarcation and Titling of
Traditional Lands of the Waspam Indigenous Communities and Waspam must be
enforced, be published and be effective, for those communities to have access to a
procedure to resolve their claims on territorial rights. The bill was supported by the
two Regional Autonomous Councils and officially submitted to the National Assembly.
Article 18 of the Statute on Autonomy of the Autonomous Regions is especially
interesting, as it establishes that the administration of justice must be subject to
special regulations, taking into account the cultural specificities of the indigenous
communities and ethnic communities.
On the other hand, the witness attests to the ancestral nature of possession by Awas
Tingni since this is an indigenous community with its own language, its own culture,
and historically established possession in its territory. She is aware that the Awas
Tingni Community requested titling of its land through administrative procedures,
that they exhausted all such procedures, and nevertheless the Community has
received no response from the administrative authorities.
As an attorney she is familiar with the concept of administrative procrastination. It is
constituted in accordance with the will of the authorities. Once it has occurred, and
when the administrative path has been exhausted, the communities have no other
option than to resort to the judiciary, in other words, the only procedure is the
amparo remedy in light of omission by the authorities. The period to file an amparo
remedy is 30 days after notification of the act or omission by the authorities.
Through an amparo remedy, the Awas Tingni Community requested titling of its
ancestral lands via the judiciary. The witness knows of actions carried out by Awas
Tingni before the Courts to promote its rights.
Regarding the request that the logging concession be suspended, the amparo remedy
filed by the Awas Tingni Community was rejected due to the State’s constant