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Urgent Action Victory! 200 Families No Longer at Risk of Forced Eviction (Paraguay: UA 137.18)

Families from the Guahory Community, Eastern Paraguay, are no longer at imminent threat of forced eviction. The implementation of the Joint Action Plan for Punishable Actions for Trespassing on Property has been suspended in their community.

On 13 July, 200 families from the Guahory Campesino Community in Eastern Paraguay were at imminent risk of a forced eviction due to the decision to implement the Joint Action Plan for Punishable Actions for Trespassing on Property in their community. This led to the deployment of about 400 police officers in the area. Following the release of the Urgent Action, the implementation of the Joint Action Plan was suspended, and the police officers left the community.

The Joint Action Plan for Punishable Actions for Trespassing on Property (Plan de Acción Conjunta para Hechos Punibles de Invasión de Inmueble Ajeno) is an agreement between the Attorney General’s Office, the Ministry of the Interior and the National Police which sets out the actions these three bodies would take to stop the potential trespass on property. Amnesty International has identified that this procedure leads to veiled forced evictions, carried out without due safeguards to respect and protect the right to decent housing.

Furthermore, after meetings between the Director of Human Rights of the Public Ministry, the Deputy Minister of Security of the Ministry of the Interior, the Director of Human Rights of the Ministry of the Interior and Amnesty International, an interinstitutional working group was created to review the Joint Action Plan. On 31 October, this working group held its first meeting, and it is expected to hold at least two more meetings in which Amnesty International, the Paraguayan Coordination of Human Rights (CODEHUPY – Coordinadora de Derechos Humanos del Paraguay) and the United Nations will be invited to present their positions on the plan.

We will continue to monitor the status of these discussions to determine whether further action is required.

Thank you to all those who sent appeals. No further action is requested from the UA network.

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