Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2004, published 93rd ILC session (2005)

Indigenous and Tribal Populations Convention, 1957 (No. 107) - El Salvador (Ratification: 1958)

1. The Committee refers to its observation. It notes the brief report submitted in May 2003, replying to some of the questions raised in its earlier comments.

2. Article 2 of the Convention. Development. The Committee noted previously that the Government planned to produce a study that would serve as the basis for development of governmental policy in favour of indigenous peoples for the purpose of providing a national development plan for them. The Government indicated in its reply that this study was to be published in June 2003, and that it represented the consensus of the indigenous populations of El Salvador, with the support of the National Council for Culture and Art [Consejo Nacional de la Cultura y el Arte] (CONCULTURA), and the United Nations Fund for Children (UNICEF). Please communicate a copy of this study, and indicate whether a national development plan for indigenous populations has now been drawn up.

3. As concerns preservation of the cultural heritage of the indigenous populations, the Government has provided information on a number of activities, including the convening of the V National Conference on Ethno-linguistics, and the financing of a school for the Nahuat language - which the Government indicated is not yet functioning regularly. It indicates that other activities are also carried out regularly to preserve the cultural heritage.

4. The Government also refers in its report, in general terms, to holding several seminars and other activities on indigenous populations, including some that concerned the role of indigenous women. Please indicate, as previously requested, whether proposals were made at these seminars and meetings to improve the situation of the indigenous peoples and the measures taken as a result of such proposals.

5. As the Government has provided no information in reply to its request for indigenous peoples on a number of points, the Committee repeats them hereafter:

7. In the absence of a reply from the Government, the Committee requests once again information on the impact on the indigenous communities of the programmes financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), one to expand and rebuild the national road network and the other to assist small-scale coffee growers.

8. Articles 11 to 14. In its previous comments, the Committee noted that large landholdings (over 245 hectares) were being divided into smaller plots and transferred to peasants and rural workers. In this respect, the Committee asks once again for information on the number of indigenous communities which have benefited from this initiative. It also requests more information on the special land fund mentioned in the report, including the mechanisms for its application to indigenous communities.

9. The Committee once again requests information on the number of indigenous cooperative societies that have participated in the rural credit schemes and agricultural production assistance available for micro-enterprises and small-scale producers. It also requests once again information on the practical impact on indigenous communities of the special regime relating to the possession of land belonging to the communal rural cooperatives and any beneficiaries under the agrarian reform legislation.

10. The Committee repeats its previous request for information on any progress made in respect of the draft reform of the Agrarian Code and on any measures taken or envisaged to include representatives of the indigenous communities in the consultation process.

11. The Committee notes the reference in the concluding observations of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD, A/50/18, paragraphs 460-498, of 22 September 1995) to the establishment of the Office of the Procurator for the Protection of Human Rights, the Presidential Commissioner for Human Rights, the Department of Human Rights within the Supreme Court of Justice and the Commission on Justice and Human Rights under the Legislative Assembly. The Committee requests the Government to supply information on the activities of these institutions in respect of indigenous populations.

6. The Committee hopes the Government will reply to these questions in its next report, in which it should also provide a more general appreciation of the situation of the indigenous populations in the country and the way in which the Convention is applied.