On August 3, the government of Paraguay officially returned almost 9,000 hectares of ancestral lands to the Indigenous community Kelyenmagategma of the Enxet people in response to a petition the filed before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in 2004.
The community filed their petition because they were displaced by force from their ancestral land, had been subject to living in deplorable conditions, and their personal safety was in imminent danger. In October 2004, the commission granted precautionary measures (calls for the government to take action) in favor of the Kelyenmagategma community to protect lives and physical integrity, to provide humanitarian support to displaced persons, and guarantee their return to their lands. The action this month was in belated response to those precautionary measures. Read the July 24, 2007 Admissibility Report here.
The recovered property is located in the district of Villa Hayes and community leaders say the reclaimed territory is only a small part of what has been lost.
Source: Servindi and IACHR
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