Ngobe Indigenous Communities v. Panama

Report No. 75/09

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights held that petitioners' claim, alleging that the State ordered the construction of a hydroelectric dam on Ngobe ancestral land without consent, resulting in damage to the land and the Ngobe way of life, admissible as an alleged violation of Articles 5, 7, 8, 13, 19, 21, 22, 23, and 25 of the American Convention on Human Rights. Articles 5, 7, 8, 13, 19, 21, 22, 23, and 25 of the American Convention recognize the right of American peoples to humane treatment, personal liberty, fair trial, freedom of thought and expression, rights of the child, property, freedom of movement and residence, participation in the government, and judicial protection, respectively.