The indigenous peoples have the right to communal ownership of land of sufficient area
and quality to conserve and develop their characteristic way of life. The State shall provide
them with these lands, free of charge, and such land shall be immune from seizure,
indivisible, inalienable, non-transferable, inalienable, and ineligible for guaranteeing
contractual obligations or lease; furthermore, they shall be exempt from taxes. Removal
or transfer from their habitat, without their express consent, is prohibited.
5.
Article 109 of the National Constitution establishes that:
Private property is guaranteed, and its content and limits shall be established by law,
based on its economic and social function, in order to make it accessible to all.
Private property is inviolable.
No one can be deprived of his or her property unless this is based on a judicial decision,
but expropriation is permitted for reasons of public utility or social interest, which will be
determined by law in each case. The law will ensure the prior payment of fair
compensation, established contractually or by judicial decision, except in the case of large
unproductive estates earmarked for the agrarian reform, in accordance with the
expropriation procedure to be established by law.
6.
Meanwhile, Article 137 establishes:
The supreme law of the Republic is the Constitution. The Constitution, the international
treaties, conventions and agreements acceded to and ratified, the laws enacted by the
Congress, and other legal provisions of a lower rank that are approved in consequence,
together constitute national positive law, in the said order of priority.
Whosoever attempts to change the said order, without respecting the procedures
established in this Constitution, shall be guilty of offenses to be defined and punished by
the law. […]
Any provision or action of authority contrary to the provisions of this Constitution shall be
invalid.
7.
The subjects protected by the right to property include both the indigenous
people of the Xákmok Kásek Community and the other indigenous peoples and, in
general, all citizens, under the principle of the equality of all individuals, established
in Article 46 of the Constitution, which stipulates: “All the inhabitants of the Republic
are equal in dignity and rights. Discrimination is not allowed. The State shall remove
the obstacles and prevent the factors that maintain or promote it.”
8.
“The protective measures established in relation to unfair inequalities shall
not be considered discriminatory, but rather egalitarian factors.” Those who should
receive positive discrimination, in the Paraguayan context, include at least 2,000
indigenous families of the Chaco and 2,000 families of the Eastern Region, who lack
land, as well as some 90,000 families of landless peasants, living in extreme poverty.
In my opinion, it is in this context that the provisions of the American Convention
should be interpreted.
9.
Law 904/81, enacted in 1992 prior to the Constitution, regulates the access of
the indigenous communities to the communal ownership of land. Its article 8
establishes that, following compliance with the established procedures, “the legal
personality of the indigenous communities that existed before the promulgation of
this Law shall be recognized, as well as of those communities composed of
indigenous families that regroup in communities in order to obtain its benefits.” In
the latter case, the minimum number of indigenous families is 20 (Article 9).
Regarding the settlement of the indigenous communities, Law 904 establishes:
Article 14. The settlement of indigenous communities shall be based, insofar as possible,
on the actual or traditional possession of the lands. The free and express consent of the
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