Indigenous Rights and Liminality in Paraguay: Challenges and Resistance

Introduction

• Indigenous rights are an urgent and contemporary issue in the Americas.
• The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) serves as a significant judicial venue for Indigenous communities seeking redress for land dispossession and human rights violations.
• The article examines the implementation of IACtHR rulings concerning the Enxet-Sur communities in Paraguay, specifically Yakye Axa and Sawhoyamaxa.

Background Context

• Despite advancements in Indigenous rights law since the late 20th century, Indigenous peoples face growing threats from neo-extractivism, racism, and state corruption.
• Critical legislative milestones include the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007) and the OAS Declaration (2016).
• Landmark cases for the Enxet-Sur communities highlight the violation of rights related to communal property under Article 21 of the American Convention.

Legal Geography and Liminalities

• Legal geography examines the intersection of law, space, and power.
• The concept of liminality refers to states of being that exist between legal categories, where community members navigate their rights amid ambiguity and abandonment by the state.
• Liminality in legal geography highlights complex interactions between recognition and exclusion.

IACtHR Judgments

• Favorable rulings in 2005 (Yakye Axa) and 2006 (Sawhoyamaxa) mandated Paraguay to provide reparations, including land restitution.
• The IACtHR’s rulings showcase an acknowledgment of Indigenous communal property rights but face implementation challenges.

Implementation Gap and Legal Abandonment

• Implementation of IACtHR judgments has been fraught with difficulties stemming from historical dispossession and systemic neglect by state authorities.
• Legal abandonment occurs when the state fails to fulfill its legal obligations toward Indigenous peoples, maintaining their marginalization and limiting their rights despite formal recognition.
• The article challenges the notion of political will alone as responsible for the lack of implementation, instead arguing for an analysis of underlying power dynamics that favor non-Indigenous landowners.

Case Studies

• The case studies of Yakye Axa and Sawhoyamaxa illustrate different paths of resistance against legal abandonment:
  • Yakye Axa: Resides in a narrow strip of land, experiences severe resource scarcity and health crises perpetuated by insufficient legal recognition. Imposed legal limitations restrict access to traditionally used lands.
  • Sawhoyamaxa: Successfully reoccupied their ancestral land in 2013, challenging the state and private property claims, allowing for negotiation towards expropriation and reflecting a strategy of self-determination.
• Both communities exemplify the themes of resistance while navigating their social-legal terrain amidst ongoing state negligence.

Conclusions and Future Implications

• As Indigenous rights face increasing challenges, the liminal spaces and experiences of oppressed communities become sites of resistance and potential renewal.
• The efforts of Yakye Axa and Sawhoyamaxa illuminate broader struggles for recognition, rights, and autonomy not only in Paraguay but across the Americas.
• The construction of a road by the state symbolizes both hope for accessibility to lands and persisting challenges of enforcement and recognition of Indigenous rights.
• The ongoing struggles of these communities illuminate systemic issues of dispossession, discriminatory practices, and the complex legacies of colonialism.