Home News Chinese Landing issue: Govt respects IACHR decision; to send team to meet...
…reminds that Govt has to respect CCJ ruling
Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo has said the Guyana Government would respect the decision of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) on the Chinese Landing issue. He noted that a team would soon be sent into the Region One (Barima-Waini) community to meet with residents there.
On July 21, the IACHR issued Resolution 41/2023, through which it granted precautionary measures in favour of members of the Indigenous Carib Community of Chinese Landing, who it said are currently at “serious, urgent risk of suffering irreparable harm to their human rights”.
According to a statement from the Organization of American States (OAS), a “petition indicates that the members of the Indigenous Carib Community of Chinese Landing are facing threats, harassment, and acts of violence in the context of their opposition to mining activities in their lands.
“The representatives alleged repetitive incidents of threats and harassment, which would occur “daily”, or “regularly”; informed on acts against persons in particular vulnerability, such as aggression to a young man, attempted rape of a minor, and threat with a knife against an elder person; as well as the extensive use of firearms, with firing incidents.
“The beneficiaries have also received collective death threats, reportedly perpetrated by mine workers. For example, the toshao, who is the leader of the community, was allegedly warned that if the village wins its lands back, the miners would not leave easily and people would die.”
GGMC/CCJ ruling
Reports are that at the centre of this issue is a mining permit that was granted by the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) to a miner/company to operate within the boundaries of the village’s titled land, sometime in the 1990s. However, the village has been up in arms over this approval, which they said did not have the consent of the Village Council.
When the GGMC had taken steps to issue a Cease Work Order (CWO) to the miner/company, however, the case had been taken to the High Court, which has ruled in favour of the miner/ company. The High Court decision was subsequently overturned by the Court of Appeal. However, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) reversed this in 2017.
At a press conference on Thursday, VP Jagdeo reminded that Government had taken steps to deal with the issue, but it has to respect the ruling of the CCJ. In addition to that miner/ company, Jagdeo said, the village was granted permission to conduct mining activities, and there are also illegal mining activities ongoing in the area.
Nevertheless, he said, the Government would respect the ruling of the IACHR, and would be sending a team to the area to conduct such assessments.
“We intend to respect the ruling of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. So, we are going to once again send in another team to visit the area, and that would be a multifaceted team, dealing with environment, social issues, mining rights, everything, to meet with the community and then prepare our report, which we will then submit to the IACHR.
“We ourselves are very concerned, the community is our primary concern. We believe that any transgressions there of a social, environmental, mining nature should be penalised heavily…but it’s very complicated…every time the Toshao and others come to speak to us, you have another group from the village that will come and say they don’t agree with it, they support the miner, and all sorts of things.”
Jagdeo said that, hopefully, one meeting with the entire village can help solve the issue. He acknowledged that there are problems affecting the community, but noted that an assessment would need to be done to separate fact from fiction.
“There are a lot of public relations surrounding some aspects of this issue that I don’t agree with…we have to check it on the ground first, address the real concerns and the real issues, and separate it out from the fiction,” he said.
The IACHR is a principal and autonomous body of the OAS, whose mandate stems from the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The Inter-American Commission has the mandate to promote the observance and defense of human rights in the region and acts as an advisory body to the OAS on the matter.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (UNCERD) had in May last year written the Government of Guyana regarding the issue in Chinese Landing. (G11)
