Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2013, published 103rd ILC session (2014)

Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169) - Argentina (Ratification: 2000)

With the report that it presented in February 2013, the Government included two judicial rulings as examples of the effect given to the Convention. One of the rulings, handed down by a court of Esquel (Chubut) on 5 October 2012, upheld the action brought by a Mapuche community to retain its wintering rights on a plot of land for which it held and exercised the right of possession. The other ruling, handed down by a court of Zapala (Neuquén) on 9 November 2012, declared irreceivable an action brought against the right of possession of a plot of land that had traditionally been occupied by another Mapuche community. The Committee invites the Government in its next reports to continue sending judicial rulings that have resolved matters of principle with respect to the rights protected by the Convention (Part IV of the report form).

Identification and regularization of the status of lands. The Committee notes with interest the detailed information sent by the Government in November 2013 on the situation regarding the land status identification process, which commenced in 2006. A total of 950 indigenous communities have been identified, of which 465 have already had the status of their territories determined. The land status identification process will apply to an estimated 9 million hectares, and identification has already been completed for almost half that total. Community/individual title to land has been recognized in the provinces of Buenos Aires, Catamarca, Chaco, Chubut, Formosa, Jujuy, La Pampa, Mendoza, Misiones, Neuquén, Río Negro, Salta, San Luis, Santa Cruz, Santa Fe, Tierra del Fuego and Tucumán. Work has been completed in the provinces of Buenos Aires (Guaraní and Toba communities), Catamarca, Córdoba, Entre Ríos, La Pampa, Mendoza, San Juan, Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego. In its observations of 2013, the Confederation of Workers of Argentina (CTA) mentions a study by the Aboriginal Pastoral Team that apparently shows that there was some delay in officially recognizing the current, traditional and public occupation of the lands. The Committee requests the Government to include information in its next report that would allow it to examine the progress that has been made towards ensuring the application of Article 14 of the Convention in each of the provinces.

Formosa. Qom Navogoh La Primavera community. Demarcation of lands. Referring to its earlier comments, the Government recalls the precautionary measures granted on 21 April 2011 by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (MC 404/10) which called for the necessary steps to be taken to guarantee the life and physical integrity of the members of the Qom Navogoh La Primavera community against potential threats, aggression or harassment by members of the national and provincial police or by other state agents. In its report received in February 2013, the Government refers to several meetings with national and provincial authorities that were attended by representatives of the CTA and of human rights organizations. In June 2011, elections were held to ratify the authority of the community leader, and in August 2011 the INAI granted the Qom Navogoh La Primavera community legal personality. The Government refers to the ongoing land dispute between the indigenous community and the national authorities of the Río Pilcomayo National Park. In August 2012, the INAI signed a framework cooperation agreement with the Institute of Aboriginal Communities of the Province of Formosa to proceed with the effective application of the Convention in Formosa. The Government also indicates that on 7 March 2012 the Supreme Court of Justice held a public audience that was attended by representatives of the government of the province of Formosa and of other parties involved, to examine the situation denounced by the Qom Navogoh community with respect to the steps that the provincial authorities had started to take to divide up and demarcate a piece of land to which the community laid claim. The CTA again raised the matter of the Qom Navogoh in the observations which were transmitted to the Government in September 2013. The Committee invites the Government to report on the ruling of the Supreme Court with respect to the matters raised by the Qom Navogoh community. The Committee hopes that its next report will contain information that will enable it to assess how the Convention’s provisions are being applied in Formosa and how the rights of the Qom Navogoh community are being protected.

Mendoza. Huarpe Micallac people. Regularization of lands. Referring to earlier comments the Government provides information on the registration of the legal personality of the Huarpe Micallac communities in the departments of Las Heras and Lavalle in the province of Mendoza and of separate meetings held in 2010, 2011 and 2012 to promote the implementation of Mendoza’s Provincial Act No. 6920 of August 2001. This provincial Act recognized the ethnic and cultural pre-existence of the Huarpe Micallac people and ordered the transfer of ownership of certain expropriated lands to the community. In November 2009 the INAI signed a framework cooperation agreement with the Secretariat for the Environment of the Province of Mendoza. In October 2012, the INAI again allocated resources to update the study of titles of ownership and to re-measure perimeters in pursuance of the Provincial Act. The INAI states that the government of Mendoza’s undertaking to apply the Provincial Act providing for the regularization of the Huarpe Micallac communities’ lands is part of the state policy of historical reparation promoted by the national Government. The INAI indicates that the government of Mendoza is in a position to carry out immediately administrative measures to effect expropriations that will highlight the determination of the provincial executive to comply with the Provincial Act. The Committee invites the Government to continue providing information so as to enable it to examine how the provisions of the Convention are being applied in Mendoza.

Neuquén. Paichil Antriao Mapuche community. Protection of social, cultural, religious and spiritual values and practices. Lands. The Committee takes note of the detailed information provided by the Government on the recognition of the rights held by the Lof Paichil Antriao Mapuche community in Villa La Angostura (department of Los Lagos) since 18 September 1902. Since 2013, the community has reorganized itself in order to defend its territorial space by submitting formal claims and instituting administrative proceedings to have the areas restored to it that were taken away during the latter decades of the twentieth century. The INAI organized an intercultural dialogue in May 2005 and is providing the community with assistance under the programme to strengthen the community and ensure its access to justice. In December 2009, an eviction ordered by a provincial judge took place and provincial police units were installed on the community lands. The Government recalls that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) adopted precautionary measures on 6 April 2011 (MC 269/08) in favour of members of the community who had requested that steps be taken to guarantee that the judicial measure protecting a sacred site known as Rewe, located on a disputed piece of land, not be lifted until the IACHR rules on the merits of the case. In the observations which were sent to the Government in September 2013, the CTA mentioned the lack of consultation of the Mapuche communities that have settled in the area of the Vaca Muerta oil field. The Committee invites the Government to provide information on developments regarding the disputed piece of land in Villa La Angostura and of the measures taken to resolve the difficulties referred to in recognizing and protecting the social, cultural, religious and spiritual values and practices of the Mapuche community (Article 5 of the Convention). The Committee hopes that the Government’s next report will contain information that will also allow it to examine the measures taken by the Neuquén authorities to ensure the application of Articles 6 and 7 (consultation and participation) and Part II of the Convention (land and minerals or sub-surface resources under the dominion of the province of Neuquén).

[The Government is asked to reply in detail to the present comments in 2015.]