The violations of the Chiquitano Indigenous People rights: a case for protection by the Inter-American System of Human Rights

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the agrarian conflict in the traditional lands inhabited by Chiquitano Indigenous Peoples on the Brazil-Bolivia border. It seeks to determine whether there are human rights violations and whether the Chiquitano case fulfils the necessary requirements to be analysed by the Inter-American System of Human Rights (IASHR). In the first section of the paper we present an ethnographic study conducted between the years 1970 to 2017, in order to understand the agrarian conflict that occurs in Chiquitano lands. In particular, the paper focuses on four Chiquitano communities: Fazendinha and Acorizal, Vila Nova Barbecho, Nossa Senhora Aparecida, and the Aldeia Urbana Aeroporto Hitchi Tuúrrs. The second section introduces the international norms of human rights protections related to Indigenous Peoples, as well as the competencies of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. In the final section, the paper analyses the potential for the IASHR to adjudge the violations against Chiquitano human rights.

Keywords

• inter-american system of human rights
• inter-american court of human rights
• rights of indigenous peoples
• chiquitano