A/HRC/43/3/Add.1 66. In November, 49 workers of the “Las Delicias” coffee farm in El Tumbador, San Marcos, reached an out-of-court settlement with owners of the farm, and will move off the property within three months. Workers and their families had lived on the premises for generations in a situation of servitude as worker tenants, without enjoying their minimum labour rights. The settlement does not fully and adequately provide compensation for various human rights violated. 67. OHCHR documented cases of labour exploitation, as well as cases possibly involving trafficking in persons, child labour and forced labour in the agricultural sector, particularly in oil palm plantations in the northern departments, coffee plantations in San Marcos and sugar cane plantations in Retalhuleu. 68. OHCHR identified patterns in which several agricultural companies resort to recruiters to avoid the employer-employee relationship and paying minimum wage, work benefits and compensation. For example, 889 workers recruited for the Chiquibul palm oil company were in a situation of labour exploitation, given that the company had not recognized its obligation to pay workers the minimum wage and provide other legal entitlements.64 69. OHCHR continued to assist the General Labour Inspectorate to strengthen its capacities for inspecting compliance with labour rights, particularly in rural areas. In 2019, the Inspectorate collected 5 million Guatemala quetzales ($650,000) as the result of 362 fines issued to employers for not complying with labour standards. 65 An additional 4,258 fines for labour law violations were still pending notification to employers for payment. VI. Equality and non-discrimination A. Indigenous peoples 70. In May, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination issued its concluding observations to Guatemala (CERD/C/GTM/CO/16-17). It emphasized that the high levels of inequality, poverty and social exclusion were pernicious effects of racism and historical and structural racial discrimination faced by indigenous peoples and afrodescendants in the country. OHCHR provided technical assistance to 43 indigenous organizations for the preparation of their joint alternative report to the Committee. 71. In March, the Constitutional Court issued a historic decision in favour of the estimated 90,000 midwives in the country, following an injunction filed by indigenous midwives (case No. 3362-2017). The Court ordered the Ministry of Health to adopt nine measures to guarantee access to sexual and reproductive health rights for indigenous women, with cultural appropriateness. This includes access of midwives to public hospitals to attend to their patients and measures to ensure respect for their traditional medicines for care throughout a woman’s life. 72. With the support of OHCHR, some progress was made in the implementation of two court judgments from 2016 and 2017 pertaining to the rights of indigenous peoples: • The National Council of Weavers, together with some indigenous members of Congress, advocated for the development of a law to protect the collective intellectual property rights of weavers. This followed a judgment of the Constitutional Court, in 2017 (case No. 2112-2016), which recognized the cultural rights of indigenous women weavers over their textile designs and protected them from appropriation by third parties. • Following a community-led process in Santa Catarina Ixtahuacán, Sololá, the Ministry of Education adopted an agreement outlining measures to include multicultural and intercultural bilingual education in the local curriculum, together with a related budget. This followed a judgment of the Constitutional Court, in 2016 64 65 Information provided to OHCHR by the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, R-1601-0197-2019, 20 March 2019. Information provided to OHCHR by the Labour Inspectorate of the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, IGT4442-2019/JALA/egss. 13