CONCURRING OPINION OF JUDGE A.A. CANÇADO TRINDADE
1.
I have concurred with the adoption of this Judgment which has been recently
rendered by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the Case of the Indigenous
Community Yakye Axa v. Paraguay, wherein the Court asserts the obligations of the
respondent State with the Yakye Axa Community regarding “the definite transfer of
the traditional territories to the Yakye Axa Community” (para. 34). I basically agree
with the decision adopted by the Court and I highlight its consideration in that the
possession of their traditional territories is “permanently” marked in the “ancestral
memory” of the members of said Community, who have adopted “an identity of their
own related” to their traditional territorie; furthermore, “such ancestral memory and
identity of their own should be particularly considered when identifying the territory
to be given “ (para. 23). Regarding such consideration, in this Opinion I feel obliged
to express my personal line of reasoning as the basis of my position.
2.
Firstly, I must stress the relevance which, in circumstances such as those of
the Case of the Yakye Axa Community, I ascribe to the definite transfer of the lands
to the members of such Community. The Court has determined in the exercise of a
power which is inherent thereto and pursuant to the provisions of Article 63(1) of the
American Convention on Human Rights. With said transfer in circumstances such as
those of the cas d’espèce, the principle of the effectiveness of norms (effet utile) is
met under the terms of Articles 21 and 22 of the American Convention.
3.
It ,may be recalled that, as a matter of fact, in the leading case of the
Community Mayagna Awas Tingni v. Nicaragua (Judgment of August 31, 2001), in
the application filed before the Court, the Inter-American Commission of Human
Rights (ICHR) claimed for the first time in the history of the Court, the lack of
demarcation of the lands possessed by such Community, as well as the lack of an
effective procedure in Nicaragua for the demarcation of such lands. The Court
ordered in its Judgment the creation of “an effective mechanism for the delimitation,
demarcation and titling of the property of indigenous communities, in accordance
with their customary law, values, uses and customs” (operative paragraph No.
3).That judgment forms part of the specialized juridical bibliography and constitutes
a landmark in the Court´s jurisprudence regarding the question at issue..
4.
Immediately afterwards, in the Case of Moiwana Community v. Suriname
(Judgment of June 15, 2005), the victims´representatives argued that the violations
of the right to property (Article 21 of the Convention) by the State are “continued”,
to the detriment of the “indigenous and tribal communities that have been forcibly
displaced from their traditional lands,” and that the State has not established the
legal mechanisms for the victims to “assert and secure their rights of tenure” (para.
122). In turn, the Court, after establishing its jurisdiction to render judgment
regarding “the continued displacement of the community from its traditional
territories” (para. 126), stated that the failure to “carry out an effective
investigation” of the events occurred in the cas d’espèce “has prevented the
members of the Community from living once again in safety and peace in their
ancestral lands” (para. 128).
5.
In the same case, the Court stated its understanding that in the case of the
members of indigenous communities “the mere possession of the land should suffice