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Respect for the Rights of
Indigenous Populations
55. Agrarian reform not only
helps to solve the problem of latifundia, but is also
very valuable in supporting policies which ensure that the rights of indigenous
populations are recognized and respected.
The very close relationship
between land and the models of culture, development and spirituality of these
populations means that agrarian reform is a decisive component of the
systematic and co-ordinated plan of action that
governments must draw up in order to protect the rights of indigenous
populations and guarantee respect for their specific identity.
An agrarian reform must allow for
the identification of equitable and rational ways of dealing with the problem
of restoring land traditionally occupied by indigenous populations to them,
especially that taken away through various forms of violence or discrimination,
sometimes very recently. In this case, the reform has to lay down criteria for
recognizing the lands they occupied and exactly how their use is to be restored
to them, guaranteeing effective protection for their rights of ownership and
possession.
The reform must ensure their
access to production and social services, thus giving them the means for
pursuing the development of their land and benefitting
from treatment equal to that received by other sectors of the population.
In a word, the agrarian reform
must help indigenous communities in various ways: to protect and reconstruct
the natural resources and ecosystems on which their survival and well-being
depend; to preserve and develop their identity, culture and interests; to
uphold their aspirations for social justice; and to ensure an environment that
allows for active participation in the social, economic and political life of
the country.
56. Two conditions must be
respected if agrarian reform programmes are to fulfil all these aims.
a) Adequate attention must be paid to the necessary
but delicate balance between the need for the preservation of common ownership
and that of land privatization. Traditional systems of land possession based on
common ownership — a form of ownership unsuited to the use of modern inputs and
technological innovation — tend gradually to shift to individual ownership as
agriculture develops. There are valid reasons to expect a policy of individual
assignment of land ownership to develop also in the case of indigenous peoples.(52)
b) The communities concerned must participate and
co-operate in drawing up and implementing reform programmes.
Agrarian reform must, on the one hand, guarantee indigenous communities access
to productive and social services that they judge suited to their social
organization and their view of environmental issues, and, on the other hand,
provide a fresh orientation for economic and social factors that can otherwise
be drawbacks.
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