31
113.
In the petitioners’ view, Decree 4705/08 violates the indigenous communities’ rights,
insofar as it does not allow for their participation or that of their advisors, it recognizes the Provincial
Executing Unit (PEU) as the authority in charge of applying the Proposal, it subjects the transfer of the
lands to agreements between the parties, without providing solutions for the cases in which such
agreements are not achieved, and does not refer to the transfer of the lands in the modality of a single
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title.
On April 7, 2009, the Provincial Executing Unit sent the Lhaka Honhat Association a
communication summoning its affiliated indigenous communities to a meeting on April 28, explaining that
“the objective of the meeting is for the Indigenous Communities to express, through their traditional
authorities and with full respect for their forms of organization, the manner in which they wish to
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implement the transfer of the lands that they occupy in Fiscal Lots 55 and 14.”
114.
On April 16, 2009, the representatives of the indigenous communities affiliated to the
Lhaka Honhat Association responded this summons by the PEU, through a letter that was also forwarded
to the IACHR, expressing its view that “the strategies for land distribution, titles to property or modes of
transfer – which are the subjects of the meetings programmed and summoned by the technical team - are
not viable, insofar as they detract from the demarcation and titling guidelines established by the standards
set by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ jurisprudence.” At the same time Lhaka Honhat
expressed it openness to dialogue in order to explore all possible routes to reach a just solution that
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recognized its rights.
115.
In relation to the same summons letter, the representatives of the petitioners argued that
the PEU was inviting the communities to express their position on the form of adjudication of the lands,
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“when it has not even established the area that the State has recognized;” and that “at the same time
that the PEU was inviting the indigenous communities to the April 28 meeting, it was summoning the
creole families who inhabit the area for April 29 and 30, in order to ‘advance in the presentation of the
certificates required for granting the public deeds’, arguing that they would thus be able to receive the
lands they inhabit, which correspond to the indigenous ancestral territory that is the subject-matter of the
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claim.” For this reason they requested, once again, that the IACHR adopt a merits report in the present
case.
Report on the land regularization process, submitted by the Province of Salta in May, 2011.
116.
On May 3, 2011, the State sent the IACHR a detailed report, drafted by the Provincial
Executing Unit, on the “Process of land regularization in Fiscal Lots 55 and 14”, between October 2008
and April 2011. The contents of this report are of critical importance in understanding the current posture
of the case.
(a) First, the Provincial Government describes the legal provisions on the grounds of which the
Provincial Executing Unit was established (Resolutions 65/06 and 804/07, and Decrees 2786/06
and 4705/08), and it explains that “the advances made in the land regularization process of Fiscal
Lots 55 and 14, and in relation to the technical-environmental and methodological requirements to
obtain the Agreements between the Parties (on the final location of the territories claimed by each
sector), led the members of the PEU, together with the local organizations, to undertake tasks
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Communications from the petitioners to the IACHR received on October 20 and November 14, 2008, transmitted to the
State through note of February 2, 2009.
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Letter attached to the communication by the petitioners to the IACHR received on May 13, 2009, and transmitted to the
State by the IACHR on May 20, 2009.
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Letter attached to the communication by the petitioners to the IACHR received on May 13, 2009, and transmitted to the
State by the IACHR on May 20, 2009.
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Letter attached to the communication by the petitioners to the IACHR received on May 13, 2009, and transmitted to the
State by the IACHR on May 20, 2009.
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Communication by the petitioners to the IACHR received on May 13, 2009, and transmitted to the State by the IACHR
on May 20, 2009.