Doctoral Dissertation Research: International Law and Indigenous Land Claims in Eastern Nicaragua

自1990年康特拉战争结束以来，地图在尼加拉瓜东部大西洋沿岸地区土著和黑人土地的主张中发挥了强有力的作用。虽然这些地图赋予了对土地权利的法律承认，但它们也带来了一系列新的政治问题，特别是在不同种族群体的领土主张重叠的地方。虽然对确立土地权的基础的分析一直与记录所主张地区的“习惯使用”的能力有关，但本博士论文研究项目将研究在土地主张形成过程中作为传统而突出的政治和经济因素。本研究将对两个重叠土地要求的实例进行比较研究，以分析身份、领土和对资源的控制之间的相互作用。第一个案例检视尼加拉瓜政府为划定阿瓦斯廷尼（Awas Tingni）原住民Mayagna社群所主张的土地并赋予其所有权所做的努力。塔斯巴拉亚的米斯基托居民在20世纪60年代因国家土地改革项目而搬迁到该地区，他们也声称拥有该地区的部分地区。阿瓦廷尼人的土地权是美洲人权法院最近作出的一项开创先例的裁决的主题，该裁决命令尼加拉瓜政府划定该社区声称拥有的土地并赋予其所有权。在世界银行（World Bank）的资助下，政府正在利用此案检验最近批准的土地划界和所有权法中包含的程序。第二起案件涉及居住在塔斯巴波尼的米斯基托居民和居住在珍珠湖附近的非洲土著加里富纳群体的重叠土地要求，作为世界银行委托进行的土地权利研究的一部分，两者都绘制了其主张的地图。这两个群体都在利用他们的地图起草请愿书，要求根据新的法律承认他们对土著和黑人土地的划界和所有权要求。米斯基托人越来越多地认为，他们作为土著民族的地位应该使他们的主张优先于加里富纳人的主张，尽管事实上米斯基托人自己经常被称为非洲土著群体。该研究包括三个组成部分：(1)记录和分析与每个群体的身份和土地使用有关的口述历史；(2)对参与测绘索赔的人进行深入访谈；(3)分析以民族角度描绘该地区的殖民地图与当代土地索赔地图之间的异同。这些资料将通过分析人们的日常资源使用模式和社会关系来综合，并与地图所显示的情况进行比较，以及地图所描绘的主张是如何制度化的，从而分析该区域不断变化的地理。本项目将探讨如何通过政治动员，将种族化的剥夺与国际人权联系起来，构建土著身份。该研究将应用空间分析的种族和身份的政治问题，建立在现有的辩论人文地理学。特别地，它将分析如何使用地图来创建具有权利的主题，以在国际法和国内法框架内可辨认的方式将社会和空间类别联系起来。它还将批判性地研究，在规范应用时，这种对身份的建构理解如何既增强又限制了对它们打算维护的权利的保护。这项研究对涉及土著人民的保护和发展政策、国际人权法以及尼加拉瓜土地改革立法的执行都有影响。它还将有助于政治生态学中关于身份与资源之间联系的文献，以及有助于发展参与性制图技术和批判性制图学。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立研究生涯。

Since the end of the Contra war in 1990, maps have played a powerful role in the formulation of indigenous and black land claims in the Atlantic Coast region of eastern Nicaragua. While the maps have empowered legal recognition of land rights, they have also created a new set of political problems, particularly where claims made by different ethnic groups overlap. Though analysis of the basis for establishing rights to land has been linked to the ability to document "customary use" in the area claimed, this doctoral dissertation research project will examine the political and economic factors that figure prominently as traditions in the formulation of land claims. This research will develop a comparative study of two instances of overlapping land claims to analyze the interplay between identity, territory, and control over resources. The first case examines the Nicaraguan government's efforts to demarcate and title lands claimed by the indigenous Mayagna community of Awas Tingni. Miskito residents of Tasba Raya who were relocated to the region in the 1960s by a state agrarian reform project also claim portions of this area. Awas Tingni land rights were the subject of recent precedent-setting decision by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordering the Nicaraguan government to demarcate and title lands claimed by the community. With funding from the World Bank, the government is using this case to test of procedures included in a recently approved land demarcation and titling law. The second case involves overlapping land claims by Miskito residents of Tasbapaunie and Afro-indigenous Garifuna groups residing in the vicinity of Pearl Lagoon, both of which produced maps of their claims as part of a World Bank commissioned land rights study. Both groups are using their maps to develop petitions for recognition of their claims under the new law for demarcation and titling indigenous and black lands. Miskito groups have increasingly argued that their status as indigenous peoples should give their claims priority over Garifuna claims in spite of the fact that the Miskito themselves are often referred to as an Afro-indigenous group. The research involves three components: (1) documentation and analysis of oral history relating to the identity and land use of each group, (2) in-depth interviews with people who have participated in mapping claims, and (3) analysis of the similarities and differences between colonial maps depicting the region in ethnic terms and contemporary maps of land claims. This information will be synthesized through an analysis of peoples' everyday patterns of resource use and social relations in comparison with what the maps show and how the claims they depict are institutionalized, situating an analysis of the region's changing geography.This project will look at how indigenous identity is constructed through political mobilization linking racialized dispossession with international human rights. The research will apply spatial analytics to questions of race and the politics of identity, building on existing debates in human geography. In particular, it will analyze how maps are used to create rights-bearing subjects, linking social and spatial categories in a manner legible within the frameworks of international and national law. It will also critically examine how, when normatively applied, such constructed understandings of identity both empower and constrain protection of the very rights they were intended to safeguard. This research has implications for conservation and development policy involving indigenous peoples, international human rights law, and implementation of land reform legislation in Nicaragua. It will also contribute to the literature in political ecology on the links between identity and resources as well as to the development of participatory mapping techniques and critical cartography. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.