The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (UN CERD) has written to Guyana requesting that it provide a response, no later than July 15, 2022, to allegations of various rights violations relating to the indigenous community of Chinese Landing and the Wapichan people.
In the April 29, 2022 letter addressed to Chargé d’ Affaires of Guyana at the United Nations Office in Geneva, Kerrlene Wills, Chair of UN CERD, Verene Shepherd highlighted the complaints that the Committee received as well as Guyana’s non-response to various letters requesting information.
UN CERD’s Chair said, “…the Committee profoundly regrets the State party’s lack of reply to its letters of 17 May and 14 December 2018, regarding this situation.” It added “The Committee regrets that the State party has yet to submit its reply to the list of issues prior to submission of the fifteenth and sixteenth periodic reports that are overdue since November 2021. In this regard, the Committee requests the State party to submit the overdue reply as a matter of urgency.”
The letter highlighted that it considered information received under its early warning and urgent action procedure, related to the situation of the Chinese Landing and the Wapichan indigenous peoples at its 106th session. It added that according to the information before it, the Carib community of Chinese Landing in Region One (Barima-Waini) is contending that the government granted a medium-scale mining concession to W Vieira in its titled lands without consulting or seeking the consent of the community.
The UN CERD’s Chair noted that the information indicates that the indigenous community obtained title to these lands under the former Amerindian Act of 1976 and that the title was reissued in 1991 under the State Lands Act and in 2018 pursuant to the Land Registry Act.
“The information further indicates that the Amerindian Act of 2006 requires medium-scale miners to sign an agreement with a village council before they begin mining activities in its lands and that under the Mining Act mining rights could be conferred over a specified area “save and except all lands lawfully held or occupied”.
“It is reported that, in spite of these legal provisions, in September 2021, the High Court of the Supreme Court of the Judicature of Guyana dismissed the claim filed by the Chinese Landing indigenous community against the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission and Mr W. Vieira concerning the mining concession, without allowing the case to proceed to trial,” the letter stated.
UN CERD went on to inform that the Chinese Landing community is contending that the High Court’s ruling has led to an increase in unwanted mining which poses a risk to its traditional way of life and its environment. It is further alleged that the judicial decision has also resulted in an upsurge of a series of incidents of intimidation and assaults on residents of the community, by miners and members of the Guyanese Police Force.
Wapichan
Dealing with the allegations from the Wapichan nation, the UN CERD said that it is related to mining projects on Marudi Mountain and its impact on Wapichan indigenous peoples. The letter stated that the Committee received, on 17 November 2021, information that the Government of Guyana concluded an agreement with the company Romanex Guyana, Aurous and the Rupununi Miners Association allowing for the expansion of mining activities at Marudi Mountain, without consulting and seeking the consent of the Wapichan indigenous peoples. It is alleged that the mining activities at Marudi Mountain, a sacred area for the Wapichan people and also critically important as several rivers originate in this zone, pose an imminent and grave threat to the cultural heritage and livelihood of the Wapichan indigenous peoples.
“These allegations, if verified, could amount to a breach of the State party’s duty to protect the rights of the Chinese Landing and Wapichan indigenous peoples to their lands and territories and the right to be consulted. In this regard, the Committee recalls its general recommendation No. 23 (1997) on the rights of indigenous peoples, in which it calls upon States parties to ensure that no decision directly relating to the rights or interests of indigenous peoples is taken without their informed consent,” the letter informed.
The UN CERD also reminded Guyana of its recommendations in 2006 and reiterated its concerns and recommendations contained in the letters sent on 17 May and 14 December 2018, under its early warning and urgent action procedure.
On December 14, 2018, the Committee urged the government to consider revoking the draft Environmental and Social Impact Assessment for the Marudi mining projects; conduct an environmental and social impact assessment with the full participation of all indigenous peoples affected by the mining project on Marudi Mountain; and consider the suspension of the mining project on Marudi Mountain until free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) is granted by the Wapichan indigenous people following the full and adequate discharge of the duty to consult.
Response
In its latest letter, UN CERD gave the government until July 15, 2022, to address the allegations of rights violation against the Wapichan Nation and Chinese Landing. It identified a number of areas for the government to take measures on.
These include: Consider suspending or revoking the mining concessions that affect the lands, territories or resources of the Chinese Landing and the Wapichan indigenous peoples until FPIC is granted by these indigenous peoples; refrain from approving projects and granting mining permits or concessions within the lands of indigenous peoples, whether titled or not; ensure that Indigenous Peoples have access to effective and prompt judicial and other remedies to seek protection for their rights; prevent and investigate incidents of threats and violence against residents of the Chinese Landing indigenous community by miners and by members of the Guyanese Police Force; incorporate the principle of FPIC consent in domestic legislation, including by amending the Amerindian Act of 2006, with indigenous peoples’ participation, and to fully and adequately guarantee the right to consultation of indigenous peoples; and Consider ratifying ILO Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention (No. 169).
Chinese Landing
Meanwhile, in a letter to this newspaper, the Village Council of Chinese Landing called for the government to implement the Committee’s recommendations and cancel the mining licences that were issued on its lands. It said that the government sold part of its customary lands in the 1990s although it formed part of its title.
“The mining that has been happening on our lands has been destructive and caused numerous environmental, health, and social issues in our community. We have, over the years, endured intimidation and abuse from the miners for trying to assert our rights. During the past year, some of that intimidation has escalated into physical assaults on villagers.
“We have learned the hard way that the courts in Guyana do not respect our rights as indigenous peoples. In a series of court decisions, the courts have continued to protect the interests of the miners and ignore our rights. They have said that we have no control over the mining concessions that were handed out before the Amerindian Act came into effect, ignoring the fact that Chinese Landing actually got title before those mining concessions were granted. They have also dismissed our most recent case without allowing it to proceed to trial,” the Village Council said.
It noted that UN CERD confirmed that the government violates the rights of indigenous peoples when it grants mining concessions in their lands without FPIC. It added that the UN CERD’s report also “validated our feeling that court decisions in our country are incompatible with international laws and standards and that we as indigenous peoples are denied the right to effective judicial remedies in our country.”
“These recommendations strengthen the calls indigenous peoples have been making for revision of the Amerindian Act to better protect our rights,” the Chinese Landing Village Council said while calling for the cancellation of mining concessions granted without FPIC and for full reparations for all villages who have been faced with the same rights violations.
The UN CERD letter came just days after disclosure that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has recommended that the Government of Guyana adopt the necessary measures to ensure that the Region Seven Amerindian village of Isseneru and its members receive “full reparations for the material and immaterial damages they suffered on the account of the violation of their human rights.”
