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Autonomous Tribal Grazing Arbitration Tribunal

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The Autonomous Tribal Grazing Arbitration Tribunal (Iradi: Uruk-aralık Jayloo Biyler Sotu, "inter-clan pasture court of the biys") is the body that settles grazing disputes between clans in the Autonomous Tribal Regions (ATR) of Irad. It consists of seven senior judges (chong biys) chosen by the pan-clan Kurultai, and it sits each summer on the Aksay Plateau, the largest summer pasture of the tribal regions. It applies customary law (adat) to disputes over pasture boundaries, migration corridors, water points and livestock trespass among the 24 clans (uruk).[1][2]

History

Iradi tradition holds that the Aksay Plateau was long a neutral ground where rival groups met to make truces and fix pasture boundaries. Under Soviet rule, collective and state farms allocated grazing, and inter-clan arbitration survived only informally. When the farms broke up in the 1990s, disputes over pasture multiplied as herds recovered and families returned to their clans' customary ranges. Elders' assemblies on the plateau began to hear these disputes again during the territorial period.[3] After the 2007 partition, the kurultai that constituted the Iradi Freedom Society (IAC) in late 2007 established the tribunal as a standing body with a fixed membership, and it has sat every summer since 2008.[1]

Composition

The seven judges are chosen by consensus at the Kurultai from among senior biys. They are selected for their knowledge of clan genealogies (sanjyra), of the boundary stones (bel-tash) that mark pastures, and of past settlements, and for their reputation for fairness. By custom the larger clans, among them the Tanıp, Sarybagysh, Naiman and Karakoyun (see Clans of the Autonomous Tribal Regions), are represented, and the remaining seats rotate among the smaller clans. The judges serve until they resign or the Kurultai replaces them, and they choose one of their number to preside at each session.[2] Bektur Zhumabek uulu, the IAC's principal spokesman, holds no seat on the tribunal. Cases are prepared by the pasture affairs division of the Iradi Freedom Society Chancellery.

Procedure

The tribunal holds its annual session in August, during the Kurultai, in a large white felt yurt (chong boz üy) at the assembly grounds on the plateau. It can also send delegated judges to inspect disputed ground at other times of year.[1]

  • Hearings are public and oral. Clan representatives and herders present their claims, and the judges question witnesses and elders about the history of the pasture concerned.
  • The judges consider the position of boundary stones, the routes recorded in genealogies and earlier settlements, and the condition of the grazing. Since the 2010s they have also been shown satellite vegetation maps supplied through the Food and Agriculture Organization and the United Nations Mission in Irad.[4]
  • Decisions are reached by consensus among the judges and announced at the assembly.

Remedies

The tribunal's decisions aim to restore agreement between clans and to protect the range from overgrazing. They include:[2]

  • Pasture rotation orders, which set opening and closing dates for high pastures in the Talas Alatau and the Chatkal Highlands;
  • Boundary rulings, which confirm or move boundary stones and fix the corridors along which herds may cross another clan's land;
  • Compensation (kun), assessed against clans whose livestock have grazed another lineage's pastures, payable in sheep or Chongtor yearlings;
  • Water compacts, which divide access to springs (bulak), streams and wells between clans.

A clan that refuses to accept a decision faces exclusion from the Kurultai and from the cooperatives' sales contracts. Such cases are rare, according to UNMI.[3]

Notable disputes

The tribunal's best-known case concerned spring pastures in the Chatkal Highlands claimed by the Sarybagysh and the Naiman. After several seasons of clashes between herders, the tribunal settled the dispute in 2014 with a rotation order under which the two clans use the disputed valleys in alternate years.[2] Disputes over boreholes and grazing trails near the western desert frontier have also come before it, including after the 2018 Border Demarcation Clashes with Uzbek border guards.

Criticism

Smaller clans have complained that the larger lineages dominate the tribunal. Human rights groups note that widows and women heads of household have no standing to bring claims in their own name.[5] Researchers have reported that the tribunal's caseload has grown since the 2000s as herd sizes recovered, and they link part of the increase to drier summers and the retreat of glaciers, which have reduced the water available on the high pastures.[4]

References

  1. ^ Iradi Freedom Society Chancellery (2022). Compendium of Customary Law (Adat) and Pasture Demarcations. Aksay Plateau.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2018). Clan and Kurultai: Governance in the Autonomous Tribal Regions. Talas, pp. 88–131.
  3. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2019). Customary Institutions in the Autonomous Tribal Regions. Report to the Secretary-General, Talas.
  4. ^ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2023). Transhumant Pastoralism and Rangeland Management in Central Asia. Rome, pp. 88–102.
  5. ^ Human Rights Watch (2022). Civil Liberties and Judicial Dualism in Divided Irad. New York, pp. 45–62.
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