CEJUDHCAN: Indigenous Land Rights NGO

Lush Spring Prize 2018: Established Project Award
Nicaragua
Organisation founded: 2003
What is CEJUDHCAN?

CEJUDHCAN is a not-for-profit profit, NGO thatprovides educational programs, legal support andpractical assistance to indigenous peoples andafro-descendant communities on the Caribbean
Coast of Nicaragua. CEJUDHCAN assists theseoften threatened communities with confirming
and protecting their communal land rights, andtheir rights for self-determination and autonomous
governance. This includes a focus on identificationand titling of communal lands and indigenous
territories, linking this to practical training inparticipation and agroecology.

CEJUDHCAN’s work links high level legal, policy andimplementation work to on-the-ground practical training

Key Project Information (at 2018):• November 2013, the legal procedure manual for Law 445
was agreed with the 23 territorial governments, communal
authorities, State institutions (National Police, National
Army, Public Registry of Real Property, Supreme Court ofJustice, CONADETI, Attorney General of the Republic at
the Regional level) and Civil Society.
• Law No. 392 for promotion of the comprehensive
development of youth, to be implemented as a norm for the
Wangki Maya Territory.

The importance of combining:• high level work to confirm and protect indigenous peoples’
rights to land through international courts and national law;
• practical training on bio-intensive agriculture, women’s
empowerment and youth leadership.

“Before I did not know the rights of women … Now we know
our rights, we know the mechanisms of how to defend andhave our rights respected. We participate … so that justiceis done in the face of any type of violence and we makean impact when we visit the city of Waspam to defend ourrights.”Organisation name: Center for Justice and Human Rights of
the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua.
Location: Caribbean coastal territories of Nicaragua.
Climate: predominantly tropical.
Key words: indigenous land rights; women; youth; biointensive agriculture/agroecology.
Primary Beneficiaries: indigenous and african-descendant
peoples and communities; women; youth.
Core education activity: indigenous and ethnic peoples’ rights; Zayda Perez: a Beneficiary Story
women’s empowerment and participation; youth leadership;
Zayda Pérez, originally from the indigenous community of
bio-intensive agriculture.
Uhry, Municipality of Waspam Río Coco. Zayda states that
Reach: 124 communities, across 9 local government districts. the most significant change for her is the strengthening of her
capacity as a young leader, who now stands out in defence ofthe rights of children, adolescents and young people:
CEJUDHCAN’s Education Lessons

High Level Outputs & Outcomes:• 325 Indigenous and afro-descendant communities,
belonging to 23 territories on the Caribbean coast ofNicaragua, have won their communal land title throughLaw No. 445, The Law of the Communal Property Regimeof the Indigenous Peoples and Ethnic Communities of theAtlantic Coast Autonomous Regions of Nicaragua and of
the Coco, Indio and Maiz Rivers.
• Law 445 defines the legal mechanisms necessary forrecognising and creating the entities that will provide
follow-up and lead the process. There is a crosscutting
precept in the law requiring a search for equitableprocesses for the region’s population.

An IPEN Case Study“In the community ... when a projectis executed for the common good,the leaders and authorities give us
space to work with them, where
we take care of the supervision
to guarantee that the project iscarried out properly. Currently, in
our community a nice school isbeing built and at the end of thework, there will be a saving ... [and]the community will decide its [own]investment.”

International Permaculture Education Network (IPEN)
IPEN Case Studies have been enabled by the Lush Spring Prize

Case Study date:
December 2018

Sedy Pitanel’s Story – Community of Saklin“I have never had the opportunity to work with orchards at my home before, only
working at large farms. I am happy with my garden. I take care of it as if it were aprecious possession. I dedicate exclusive time for the garden every day and the
produce that I get from my garden has changed my way of life. My food is more
nutritious and I have knowledge of how to make my garden productive.”
Sedy was one of 50 indigenous women trained by CEJUDHCAN to establish
mixed vegetable gardens in the communities of Bilwaskarma, Saklin and Tuskru
Sirpi of the Wangki Maya Territory.

CEJUDHCAN’s early and current story:

Sedy Pitanel, 63 years old from thecommunity of Saklin

Lottie Cunningham Wren, an
Indigenous Miskito attorney who
founded CEJUDHCAN in 2003.

CEJUDHCAN’s Goals
Vision: The Indigenous Peoples andethnic communities of the Caribbean
Coast of Nicaragua enjoy freedetermination and guarantee of theirindividual and collective rights, withgender and generational equity andwith access to social, economic andenvironmental justice in the defence
and protection of their territories.
Mission: Facilitate and contributeto territorial governance, justice andenvironmental safety of indigenous
peoples and ethnic communities of the
Caribbean Coast, through actions that
promote and ensure the protection ofcollective rights, and the enjoyment of
their natural resources with gender andgenerational equity.

CEJUDHCAN contributes to these
SDGs (Sustainable Development
Goals) being achieved:

In 1997, the International Human Rights Law Group created an office in the
Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua with the objective of strengthening local action
and supporting activists in defense and promotion of their human rights. Theirmandate was established in September 2003 through a transition to create alocal NGO called the Center for Justice and Human Rights of the Atlantic Coast ofNicaragua (CEJUDHCAN) with a focus on protection and promotion of the rights ofIndigenous Peoples and Ethnic Communities of the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua.
CEJUDHCAN has achieved significant outcomes since 2003, yet its continuing
work is as critically important now as it was then. In the last three years illegal
settlers, known as ‘colonos’, are accused of carrying out armed attacks on atleast 12 Indigenous communities that resulted in at least 34 Indigenous people
being murdered, 44 physically injured, 22 abducted and four people reported as
missing, plus homes and crops being burnt to the ground, and forest-fires, started
maliciously, displacing entire communities. International corporations are also said
to be systematically wreaking ecological damage that is severely impacting thecommunities’ land and natural resources including government-backed projects inmining, monoculture farming, hydroelectric dams and the controversial interoceanic
canal that is planned to cut through the country to link the Atlantic and Pacific.
“Massive deforestation, plus the destruction and contamination of the water
resources, is compromising the integrity of the territories’ natural resources and thecultural survival of the Indigenous communities … mega-project initiatives, often
pushed by international investors, represent a new form of colonisation. To gain
full compliance with the laws that protect Indigenous rights, especially the territorial
rights, indigenous governance and management of their natural resources for the
benefit of the communities and their residents, we have demanded the NicaraguaState complete the Saneamiento, which means clearing the land of third parties,
both illegal settlers and unsanctioned companies, which is the final phase of thetitling process. The Government has blocked the implementation of this final step,
so thus our struggle continues.”
Lottie Cunningham Wren, attorney and founder of CEJUDHCAN.

Good Practise: What CEJUDHCAN Has Done

CEJUDHCAN’s education and training activity has focused on:• Indigenous peoples and ethnic communities’ rights• Womens equality, empowerment and participation in community, legal andgovernmental processes• Youth leadership programmes• Bio-intensive agriculture training for women
In more detail:• CEJUDHCAN is battling for the peoples’ land rights in national and international
courts - at the request of 23 Indigenous Territorial Governments and people of
African descent, CEJUDHCAN and a consortium of civil society organizations
has created a forum for dialogue between the indigenous leaders and regional
authorities, including agreed processes for securing their territorial rights.
• Improving the situations of indigenous women within their homes, communities
and territories: supported by CEJUDHCAN’s work, indigenous women have moved
into decision-making positions in community activity and territorial government andhave shown their ability to promote issues of importance to their communities toorganizations, institutions and the authorities, for the benefit of their community.

• CEJUDHCAN is training Miskito women, who felt unsafe
farming at a distance from their homes, in bio-intensive agriculture(agroecology methods) so they can work safely on smaller lots ofland closer to the community. They delivered to the women tools,
tubers, vegetable seeds and training on how to establish homegardens. There are now more than 100 family gardens in sevencommunities of the Wangki Maya Territory.
• With the support of Diakonia and the European Union,
CEJUDHCAN developed a training program for 50 young
people (27 women and 23 men) on decision-making structuresand processes, including democratic leadership with a gender
perspective, social auditing methods and the forming of anddiscussion of Agendas and Risk Plans.
Among CEJUDHCAN’s most important initiatives are that it has:
• Led a Caribbean Coast region and national campaign todenounce the presence of national and international private
sector companies that have demonstrated bad practices in the
exploitation of natural resources.
• Organized and run a space for civil society to monitor legislativecompliance on the collective rights of indigenous peoples, within
regulations on the Observance of the Autonomy, to put pressure
on public institutions to advance the agreed legal process ofremoving illegal settlers from indigenous territories.

A major fear of some communities is that, despite having
legal titles, they will not be able to exercise their rights
of possession and use, to manage their territories andresources. They point to the need for state policies that
support: programs of co-management of protected areas;transparency in financial transfers; phased removal ofillegal settlers; financial support for the territories andtheir communities to develop sustainable programs; anddevelopment of communities’ negotiating skills.
CEJUDHCAN works to ensure that public institutions
implement the legal basis and process for removing illegal
settlers from indigenous territories, in a definitive and lastingmanner. This requires territorial restructuring by the State ofNicaragua, in accordance with the requirements establishedby Article 59 of Law 445. Until now, the Government has
progressed the defining and titling of these territories, but not
an interagency strategy to conclude the legalization of theterritories of Indigenous and African Descent Peoples.

OUTCOMES Achieved

CEJUDHCAN programmes have strengthened community
leadership capacities for understanding and adopting
the legal framework that supports the territorial rights ofindigenous peoples and peoples of African descent, to enable
them to be more effective in their engagement with public
CEJUDHCAN’s Ways of Working
institutions and other social actors.
CEJUDHCAN has facilitated this process through complementary
Awas Tingni Legal Victory: In August 2001 CEJUDHCAN,
actions that work together to effect change, such as:
together with other NGOs, attained a judgment in favour
Womenof the community of Awas Tingni vs State of Nicaragua,• Providing training to women, especially young women, in how
through the Inter-American Court’s human rights system. Thisto overcome conditions of inequality in their community and family importat judgment concluded that the State of Nicaragua had• Raising awareness within communal and territorial authorities of violated the rights of the Awas Tingni Mayangna community,
the importance of including women in decision-making bodies
by granting a concession for the exploitation of forest
resources in their traditional territory, without the prior consent• Training in developing home gardens as a strategy to reduceand by neglecting the constant demands of the Awas Tingni
intra-familiar violence and a vehicle for women’s economic
community for the demarcation of their territory.
independence.
CEJUDHCAN facilitated the negotiation between the Awas
Communities
Tingni community and the State of Nicaragua, for the• Raising awareness of ways to increase economic
implementation of the Court ruling, and legally represented
independence for individuals and communities
the community of Awas Tingni to the State of Nicaragua, to• Providing information about communal land rights anddesign a proposal for the process of defining and titling of thestrategies for defense of these rights
territory of AMASAU. The judgment resulted in the creation ofYoutha mechanism for defining and titling of indigenous territories• Facilitated workshops in all aspects of community leadershipin the Autonomous Regions of Nicaragua: Law No. 445,
• Distributed workbooks and information on communal land rights The Law of the communal ownership of Indigenous Peoples
and demarcation of territorial land boundaries
and Ethnic Communities of the Autonomous Regions of• Training on asserting human / communal rights in defence of
the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua and the Bocay, Coco, Indioindigenous territory
and Maiz rivers. The judgment established the need for the
Nicaraguan State to adopt a law that creates procedures to
In particular, CEJUDHCAN has achieved these outcomes by:define boundaries and entitle indigenous lands traditionally• Collaborating with other civil society organisations
occupied by these Peoples, to effectively protect their• Working through the Inter-American Court for Human Rights
communal property.
• Targeting its efforts at key groups, including: 124 community
Law No. 445 was adopted in 2003. This Law reflects thegovernments, in 9 district governments (covering 124
way in which the collective lands are owned and occupied
communities).
by indigenous communities and afro-descendent, under
Ongoing Challenges: among the challenges faced are advancing
a Community scheme in accordance with their customs
full implementation of and compliance with Law 445, such as:
and traditions, for the collective management of future• Completing the removal of illegal settlers to complete the titling
generations. Law 445 recognizes the traditional communal
process, which is complex due to the number of unlawful settlers
authorities and provides them with a leading role in thein the territories and, in most cases, their lack of recognition ofprocess of defining the boundaries of their traditional
indigenous and afro-descendants rights and the representative
communal lands.
organisations of these communities.

Permaculture Ethics &Principles in Action

Although it is currently not directly
involved in permaculture education,
CEJUDHCAN fully embodies the ethics
of Earth Care, People Care and Fair
Share, from local to national levels.
Permaculture principles in action in
CEJUDHCAN’s work include:
Design from pattern to detail understanding the need for legal
recognition and frameworks at global
region level through the Inter-American
Human Rights Court that enable
indigenous and ethnic communities toprotect and secure their rights at the
local level.
Small and slow solutions - buildingon each step and on small successes,
locally, regionally and in the LatinAmerican global region.
Integrate rather than segregate CEJUDHCAN works together with othercivil society organisations, creating
strength to achieve their mutual goals.
Make a small change for the largest
effects - whilst the law on indigenous
peoples’ land rights is ‘no small feat’, asa single change, secured from within a
global human rights system, it can bring
potentially huge benefits.

From Inspiration to Action The Difference arisingfrom the Lush Spring Prize
CEJUDHCAN should be a fantastic
example to the permaculture world,
inspiring us to learn from its example.
We can be inspired and seek to emulate
in our own projects and movements:• an organisation and movement using
established systems of internationallaw and human rights to protect andempower community rights from local
to national levels;• providing practical training to womenand young people that enables themto meet their needs more effectively.
What experience from CEJUDHCAN
could help your project, community or
network:a) Linking high level working onprotecting human rights throughinternational and national law
more directly to practical training inagroecology methods?
b) Training young people and women toparticipate in local and regional decision
making and local government systems?
c) Like CEJUDHCAN, being willingto take on a big vision, big opposition
and big challenges, whether nationally,
regionally or locally?

CEJUDHCAN is using the £25,000 in
funding from the Established Projects
Award to address food and water
security issues, advance ecologicalconservation and help complete the final
phase of titling, to see the communities
given the rights to their land andboundaries set.
Both financially and in terms of thewider sense of recognition and support,
the Prize helps CEJUDHCAN in its
continual work in the Atlantic coast
region of Nicaragua to: a) establish thelegal basis and process for securing
idigenous peoples’ land rights; b) tomaintain bottom-up and top-downpressure for the full implementation of
the laws to protect these rights; andc) to deliver training and information
which enables indigenous and Africandescent peoples to be more effective inensuring that their rights and needs aremet, whether that be through women’s
and young people’s participation in local
decision making, or through growing
healthy organic food close to home.
To support and keep up to date with
CEJUDHCAN’s work, visit the centre’s
website at www.cejudhcan.org

Legal Status, Structure & Size - project start date: 2003: CEJUDHCAN is a registered

Nicaraguan NGO who mission is to advance the human and ecological rights of indigenous Nicaraguans. It is an indigenous
and women-led organization comprised of twelve staff, including five lawyers.

Funding, Finance, Resources: CEJUDHCAN is funded by international foundations, partner organizations,generous individuals and awards - such as the LUSH Spring Prize - who believe in the rights of indigenous people to theirancestral lands and as the guardians of the remaining tropical forests. CEJUDHCAN was a Lush Spring Prize Established
Project Award winner (£25,000) in 2018.

Potential Areas for Collaboration with Project (Local, Regional, National or International)
Project Needs: donations to support CEJUDHCAN’s work at: www.cejudhcan.org
Collaboration Opportunities: seeking international partners who can contribute work, wisdom and funding to thelegal, landscape and leverage strategies that indigenous Nicaraguan communities are employing to secure their future.
Specifically, we seek partners to assist with web development, communications, radio programming, photo and video
documentation, legal and financial research, and much more. Please contact us if you would like to discuss a collaboration.

Contact Information
Website: www.cejudhcan.org Email: cejudhcan@yahoo.com
Address: Centro por la Justicia y Derechos Humanos de la Costa Atlántica de Nicaragua (Center for
Justice and Human Rights of the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua), New Jerusalem Neighborhood, Puerto
Cabezas, RAAN, Nicaragua

International Permaculture Education Network (IPEN)
Increasing the effectiveness and coherence of permaculture education internationally
IPEN Case Studies have been enabled by the Lush Spring Prize
IPEN website: https://www.permaculture.org.uk/ipen