1.5 FPIC and the rights of Indigenous Peoples in Guyanese law
The rights of Indigenous Peoples (also referred to as Amerindian peoples) are also protected under Guyanese law.
Some of these rights come from international law and the treaties that the Government of Guyana has ratified. They
include the:
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International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;
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International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; and
•
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
According to Article 154a (1) of the Constitution of Guyana, every citizen is “entitled to the human rights enshrined”
in these treaties and others listed at the bottom of this page.5 It also makes it clear that “such rights shall be
respected and upheld by the executive, legislature, judiciary and all other organs and agencies of Government.”6
The international committee that monitors how Guyana is meeting its obligations under the Convention on the
Elimination of Racial Discrimination has made some important recommendations that support the right of Indigenous
Peoples in Guyana to FPIC. It is called the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, or CERD for short.
In 1997, CERD issued General Recommendation 23, which called on countries who had committed to the Convention
to “ensure that members of indigenous peoples have equal rights in respect of effective participation in public
life and that no decisions directly relating to their rights and interests are taken without their informed consent.”7
In 2006, in its Concluding Observations to Guyana, CERD specifically expressed concern about the failure of the
state to recognise the land rights of Indigenous Peoples. It urged Guyana to “recognise and protect the rights of all
Indigenous communities to own, develop and control the lands which they traditionally occupy, including water and
subsoil resources.”8 This is important because the current law in Guyana says the state holds the rights to all mineral
resources.
While the Convention itself is legally binding on the Government of Guyana, the recommendations and concluding
observations that come from CERD are generally not. However, they can still be powerful, and we can use them to
add weight to our concerns and demands by saying, “the United Nations says Guyana is breaking international law.”
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples also strengthens our positions because
it was signed by the Government of Guyana. UNDRIP isn’t the only treaty that supports our right to FPIC, but it
includes more protections for FPIC than any other. In 2007, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordered
the Government of Suriname to uphold the rights of the Saramaka People to Free, Prior and Informed Consent.
This legally-binding ruling is important for Guyana because even though Suriname only signed UNDRIP and has no
national laws at all to protect Indigenous Peoples, it is still obligated to protect Free, Prior and Informed Consent.9
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Schedule 4 of the Constitution of Guyana lists the following treaties that the Parliament of Guyana has agreed to be bound by: 1)
Convention on the Rights of the Child; 2) Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; 3) Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; 4) Convention Against Torture and Other Inhuman or Degrading Treatment
or Punishment; 5) Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; 6) Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; and 7) InterAmerican
Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women.
The Constitution (including 2003 revisions) is available on the website of the Parliament of Guyana at http://www.parliament.gov.gy/
constitution/constitutionindex.php. Paper copies can be bought for a small fee at the Parliamentary Library in Georgetown.
See United Nations. Office of the High Commission for Human Rights. General Recommendation No. 23: Indigenous Peoples. August 18,
1997. The full text is available at: http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/73984290dfea022b802565160056fe1c?Opendocument
See United Nations. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Concluding observations of the Committee on the Elimination
of Racial Discrimination: GUYANA. April 4, 2006. The full text is available on the Internet at http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/898586b1dc
7b4043c1256a450044f331/c7d1cd668afb4a0ec125714c00311bbb/$FILE/G0641177.pdf
Indigenous Peoples can take cases to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights if
local remedies, like the courts, in their own countries are not protecting their rights. Some of the main points in the Saramaka ruling can
be found in the following document: Weitzner, Viviane. “Missing Pieces: An Analysis of the Draft Environmental & Social Impact Reports for
the Bakhuis Bauxite Project, West Suriname.” The North-South Institute. November 23, 2008, Page 5. Available from the Internet at http://
www.nsi-ins.ca
A practical guide for Indigenous Peoples in Guyana
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