A/HRC/36/22
53.
The Office supported the implementation of reparation measures, including through
health programmes and housing, ordered in the historic February 2016 judgment of the
Sepur Zarco case, which marked the first case where crimes committed against Q’eqchi’
indigenous women, including sexual slavery during an armed conflict, were prosecuted in
the country.
54.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in
Honduras continued to support the work of the Inter-institutional Commission on the case
of Misquito divers. The Commission was established in 2012 following a case brought by
the Association of Disabled Divers Honduran Miskito, the Association of Misquito Indian
Women Mairin Asla Takanka and the Elder Council Almuk Nani Asla Takanka before the
Inter-American Court of Human Rights.3
55.
In 2016, the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines and OHCHR coorganized a workshop to reinforce the capacity of the normative framework for the
protection of the rights of minorities and indigenous peoples in Mindanao province in the
Philippines. The workshops took place in Cotabato and Davao and included government
line agencies, national and regional commissions and civil society organizations. Following
the training, OHCHR was able to contribute to the revised draft national anti-discrimination
legislation.
56.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Tunisia
provided support to an interministerial group in preparing a draft law on racial
discrimination that penalizes any discrimination on the grounds of ethnicity. The Office
also supported the national mechanism on reporting and follow-up in preparing the report to
the Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and advising civil society
organizations working on Amazigh rights with regard to their submission to the Committee.
57.
The Human Rights Committee urged Ecuador to adopt a specific legal and
institutional framework governing the division of responsibilities between indigenous
courts and ordinary courts and to guarantee respect for the rights and interests of indigenous
communities, peoples and nationalities, ensuring that all members of such communities
fully enjoy their rights under the Covenant.
58.
The Committee against Torture, in considering the report of Ecuador, expressed
concern that the bill on coordination and cooperation between the indigenous and ordinary
justice systems was still awaiting adoption by the National Assembly. It encouraged the
State party to take the legislative measures needed to establish mechanisms of coordination
and cooperation between the indigenous and ordinary justice systems, as prescribed by
article 171 in the Constitution of Ecuador, in order to guarantee fundamental rights and
freedoms (see CAT/C/ECU/CO/7, paras. 19-20).
59.
The Committee on Enforced Disappearances for the first time made reference to
indigenous peoples in its concluding observations to Colombia (CED/C/COL/CO/1). The
Committee expressed concern about reports of serious difficulties, in practice, in searching
for disappeared persons and in identifying their remains. It recommended that the State
party intensify its efforts to ensure that all actions to identify and return remains duly take
into account the traditions and customs of the peoples or communities to which the victims
belong, in particular indigenous peoples or Afrodescendent communities.
E.
Land rights and food security
60.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in
Cambodia continued to work with the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Construction
and Planning, local governments and civil society organizations to support indigenous
peoples’ efforts to apply for collective land titles and provide legal aid to communities that
have suffered from land rights violations. The Office also collaborated with the Ministry of
Rural Development and the local authorities of Koh Kong Province on the registration of
3
Available at: https://www.cidh.oas.org/annualrep/2009sp/Honduras1186-04.sp.htm.
9
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