This means that Free, Prior and Informed Consent and the UNDRIP should be respected in Guyana. Some officials
may try to insist that the Declaration does not mean anything for Guyana, that it is just a political document, but we
need to remind them and remind them again that by signing it, they made a real commitment that must be taken
seriously!
Guyana’s national laws and policies likewise include many protections for Amerindian rights. Only a few mention
consent directly — The Amerindian Act and the Low Carbon Development Strategy – but we can also use others to
support our right to say “Yes” or No” to projects or policies that will affect our traditional territories. For example:
•
The Constitution protects the cultural heritage and way of life of Amerindian Peoples. It also sets out the
rights of all citizens to land and security;
•
The Amerindian Act recognises Amerindian villages as having an important degree of self-governance and
autonomy. And Section 48 of the Act requires medium-scale and small-scale miners to get the consent of the
village council before they will be allowed to mine on titled lands;
•
The Mining Act recognises “all lands” occupied and used by Amerindians for our quiet enjoyment, as lawful
(Section 112); and
•
The Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) states that Amerindians will not be required to opt-in to
the LCDS unless they give their Free, Prior and Informed Consent. The LCDS is a national strategy that will
directly impact Indigenous Peoples. It is the first time that a national development policy has stated that it
will respect the right of Indigenous Peoples to FPIC.10
However for our right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent to be fully respected, certain problems with laws and
policies in Guyana need to be overcome. They include that:
•
The full size of the lands our people have traditionally occupied or used have not been titled under the
Amerindian Act and the State Lands Act. Some communities still do not have any land title at all;
•
Under the Mining Act (1989) and the Forest Act (2009) the government may declare any area a “Mining
District” or “State Forest,” and then give out our territory as concessions to mining and logging companies.
The new Forest Act also appears to severely reduce the rights of Indigenous Peoples to the use our untitled
traditional lands, which under the law are state land (Part 2, Section 5.2);
•
Regulations issued under the Environmental Protection Act (1996) may restrict Amerindian subsistence and
other rights;
•
The Low Carbon Development Strategy only applies Free, Prior and Informed Consent to our titled lands.
The rest of our traditional territories are automatically included under the LCDS; and
10 We can find some of these documents on the Internet at the following addresses: 1) Constitution: http://www.parliament.gov.gy/
constitution/constitutionindex.php and 2) LCDS: http://www.lcds.gov.gy
For copies of other laws you may have to go the responsible government office and pay a small fee for a paper copy.
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Free, Prior and Informed Consent