the detriment of the Yakye Axa indigenous community of the Enxet-Lengua people, by failing to provide the community with comprehensive assistance during the processing of their traditional territory claim, by failing to conclude the administrative processing of their bid to recover those lands, and by preventing them from conducting their traditional subsistence economic activities — hunting, fishing, and gathering. 20. The petitioners claim that the Yakye Axa indigenous community belongs to the EnxetLengua people, that they are hunter-gathers, and that they have historically pursued those activities in their traditional habitat. They add that the community comprises 47 families 3 and that, since 1996, they have been living at Km 80 along the road from Pozo Colorado to Concepción, opposite Estancia Loma Verde, in Presidente Hayes department, where the territory they claim as ancestral lands or traditional territory is located. 21. With respect to the bid to recover their ancestral territory, they say they began the relevant administrative and judicial procedures in 1993, but that the proceedings are nevertheless still pending, even though the Paraguayan Constitution recognizes the existence of indigenous peoples, which are defined as cultural groups predating the creation and organization of the Paraguayan State, and stipulates that it is the duty of the State to provide indigenous peoples with free community property “of an amount and quality adequate for the conservation and pursuit of their particular ways of life.” 4 22. In their complaint they maintain that the place where the indigenous community is currently located is inadequate for its component families to live in. They say that automobile exhaust fumes and the dust stirred up by the permanent flow of traffic has had a serious impact on the community’s most vulnerable members: its children and old folk. Most of the community’s children suffer from respiratory ailments, which are not attended to because of the lack of medical assistance and health care. This situation is made worse by the food shortage—the courts have ordered the community’s members to refrain from hunting and fishing on the ancestral lands they claim, which prevents them from supplying their families with basic foodstuffs. Four members of the community have died from bronchial and respiratory diseases. 23. The community’s serious nutritional and health situation was recognized by the State of Paraguay on June 23, 1999, in Decree Nº 3789/99, which declared the community to be in a state of emergency and ordered its members to be provided with medical and nutritional assistance for as long as their land claim was being processed. 24. The petitioners point out that the deplorable conditions in which the indigenous community’s members live were noted by the IACHR during its on-site visit to Paraguay in 1999. 5 25. Despite the State’s express recognition, in the aforementioned decree, of the indigenous community’s emergency situation, the “provision of medical and nutritional assistance” ordered by the President of the Republic for the community’s families has been scant and insufficient. 3 Presidential Decree Nº 3789/99, of June 23, 1999 which declared a state of emergency for the Yakye Axa Community, indicates that the community is composed of 57 families. 4 Article 64 of the Constitution of Paraguay. 5 During its 1999 on-site visit to Paraguay, “the IACHR visited Pozo Colorado district [...] in order to speak with the Yakye Axa and Sawhoyamaxa indigenous communities of the Enxet people. The Commission was able to see the deplorable situation of these peoples, who live alongside the national highway, without services of any kind, waiting for the authorities to allocate them the land they need. The Commission appreciates the importance of Presidential Decree Nº 3789 of June 23, 1999, which declared these indigenous communities to be in a ‘state of emergency’ on account of the extreme conditions they face. In spite of this, the Commission was told that the effective measures ordered by the executive decree for the immediate provision of medical and nutritional assistance to the families that make up that community have not yet been adopted. Similarly, the Commission will closely follow the results of the efforts that have begun to provide the indigenous communities with the land they need.” IACHR Press Release 23/99. 4