The National Toshaos Council (NTC) has observed that setting up the Land Rights Commission of Inquiry (CoI) without full and informed consent of the indigenous peoples constitutes a direct breach of the United Nations’ Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
President David Granger; Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo; and Vice President and Minister of Indigenous People’s Affairs, Sydney Allicock, with elected officials of the National Toshaos Council and other members of the Cabinet
Vice Chairman of the NTC, Lennox Shuman, has pointed out that Article 19 of this international agreement provides for indigenous people to be integrally involved in consultations before changes affecting their lives are made.
“…if I were to go back a little bit further as it relates to the commission of inquiry, we don’t have an issue with the President using his mandate to establish commissions and those things; but Article 19 of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples states that indigenous people have a right to be consulted on everything that affects their lives and their livelihood”, Shuman declared.
Explaining that the CoI on lands with have a direct impact on the lives and livelihoods of indigenous peoples, Shuman said, “We were never consulted on the formation of the commission; the composition of the commissioners, or the commission itself; or the drafting of the ToR (terms of reference).”
He declared that according to Article 19 of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, there must be consultation and cooperation in good faith with the indigenous peoples concerned, through their own representative institutions, in order to obtain their free, prior and informed consent before adopting and implementing legislative or administrative measures that may affect them.
“So these are things we take issue with. If we (have signed) on to the United Nations’ Declaration, we must respect the documents that we signed on to… The NTC has sought engagements with the Government, nothing came of that; so we are still open to dialogue with the Government,” Shuman explained.
“We are still open to dialogue, and resetting the park and (restarting) the process so that everything gets addressed.
But we must also make clear that these are two separate issues that need to be addressed,” he added.
Shuman stressed that the NTC has no qualms with the Government determining the ancestral lands of African Guyanese. According to Shuman, “We have no issue with repatriation; what we have issue with is lumping the two together.”
Consultations
President David Granger had previously justified the existence of the CoI. He has said that any claim to the effect that there was no consultation in its setting up is inaccurate.
“The proposal to establish a body was announced by me in August last year at the National Toshaos Council meeting. I think there had to be some consultation, and persons who are on that commission are from a wide section of the community. There was consultation,” he has been quoted as saying.
To further support his claim that consultation had informed establishment of this CoI, the President has alluded to the presence of Attorney David James, a former Legal Adviser to the Amerindian People’s Association (APA), as a commissioner on this CoI. Nevertheless, the APA itself has come out in criticism of the Government’s land CoI.
