Topic: Indigenous Land Rights
Country: El Salvador
Delegate Name: Christopher Roberts
School: Flint Northern High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All El Salvador position papers GLIMUN 2009 committees
Indigenous land rights in El Salvador are not fully secure. The government isn’t doing anything to solve El Salvador’s land right problems. The government is trying to deal with the problem of a densely populated and highly urbanized country. But the Farmers in El Salvador are suffering such high production cost, which forces them to have to sell their land. In 1996 The National Association of Salvadoran Indians participated in an UN-sponsored conference on the development of forest resources. Their involvement in the conference highlighted the growing international presence of Salvadoran indigenous organizations. Unfortunately, there is very inadequate information available on these groups.
El Salvador’s constitution gives and safeguards the right of its citizens to own private property. In my perspective, the land rights in El Salvador are in the process for change; because the land rights have not been fully addressed. When I did my research I found out that there are approximately 600,000 or 10 percent of Salvadorian peoples who are indigenous. The majority of the El Salvador indigenous population is Nahua-Pipil, and the live southwestern region in the states of Sonsonate in El Salvador. And I read that all of El Salvador's indigenous people speak Spanish language but a few Pipil still speak the Nahuat language so that they follow their traditional ways of life. And in The Guatemalan border, is where the traditional groups mainly live in. Very few indigenous Pipil now wear traditional dress, such as the huipiles (skirts worn by women). But El Salvador Indigenous land rights still needs better attention because the farmers shouldn't be losing any money and shouldn't be in any high debt and cultures and religions should have better respect.
