66
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implement those procedures in practice ; and it has explained that it is not sufficient, to meet the
requirements established in Article 25, for there to be legal provisions that recognize and protect
indigenous property rights – there must be specific procedures, clearly regulated, for matters such as the
titling of lands occupied by the indigenous groups or their demarcation, in view of their particular
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characteristics , and that such procedures must be effective in practice to allow for the enjoyment of the
right to territorial property – that is, that in addition to the formal existence of the procedures, they must
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yield results or responses to the violations of legally recognized rights.
247.
In the instant case, the IACHR considers that the analysis of those obligations should be
done analyzing, first, the formal existence of a procedure for the titling, demarcation, and delimitation of
the collective property rights of the Kuna indigenous people of Madungandí and the Emberá indigenous
people of Bayano that has the characteristics indicated above. Second, one should consider whether the
remedies pursued by the Emberá people of Bayano under Law 72, adopted December 23, 2008, were
resolved in keeping with Articles 8 and 25 of the Convention.
248.
As for the first aspect, the IACHR observes that, as indicated, Article 127 of the 1972
Constitution of Panama recognizes the collective property rights of the indigenous communities and
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establishes that the specific procedures for their recognition shall be determined by law.
The IACHR
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finds that the domestic legal order has included a similar provision since the 1946 Constitution.
249.
Nonetheless, up until the adoption of Law 72, the procedure available in the Panamanian
legal order that would allow for the practical application of such constitutional recognition was to be
designated a “comarca” through a statute adopted by the Legislative Assembly. In the opinion of the
IACHR, that entailed a lengthy process for pressing the claim that was mainly political in nature – and
inherently discretional – that the indigenous peoples and their members had to pursue to win recognition
of their territorial rights. As the IACHR has noted in the previous section, five comarcas were created from
1938 to 2000, leaving out numerous indigenous communities which, though sharing the ethnic origin of
the peoples favored by statutes creating comarcas, were not included in them.
250.
In the case of the Kuna of Madungandí and the Emberá of Bayano, as the IACHR
considers has been shown, the process of claiming territorial rights began no later than 1976 and 1975,
respectively, with the signing of the first agreements with the State. Given the breach of these initial
agreements, the alleged victims, through their representative institutions, have for more than three
decades taken innumerable steps vis-à-vis state authorities at the national, provincial, and local levels
aimed at obtaining legal recognition for their territories; the Commission considers this period excessive.
251.
The IACHR notes that the lack of a clearly regulated suitable and effective procedure for
access to indigenous property rights on occasion led the indigenous peoples to adopt measure that would
allow them to gain sufficient notoriety and muster enough political pressure to have their claims
addressed. The IACHR observes that based on the facts proven, on repeated occasions those actions
resulted in the State adopting new commitments or taking measures that did not provide a
comprehensive and sustainable response to the underlying claims with the objective of putting an end to
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I/A Court H.R.. Case of the Mayagna (Sumo) Awas Tingni Community v. Nicaragua. Merits, Reparations and Costs.
Judgment of August 31, 2001. Series C No. 79, para. 115.
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I/A Court H.R.. Case of the Mayagna (Sumo) Awas Tingni Community v. Nicaragua. Merits, Reparations and Costs.
Judgment of August 31, 2001. Series C No. 79, paras. 122, 123.
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I/A Court H.R.. Case of the Xákmok Kásek Indigenous Community v. Paraguay. Merits, Reparations and Costs.
Judgment of August 24, 2010, Series C No. 214, para. 140.
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That provision provides as follows: “The State shall guarantee the indigenous communities reservation of the lands
necessary and collective property rights in them for attaining their economic and social wellbeing. The Law shall regulate the
procedures to be followed to attain this aim and the corresponding delimitations within which the private appropriation of land is
prohibited.”
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Article 94 of the 1946 Constitution; Article 116 of the 1972 Constitution; Article 123 of the 1972 Constitution, amended
in 1978, 1983, and 1994; and Article 127 of the 1972 Constitution amended in 2004.