GOB Makes Amendments to Proposed Maya Land Right Draft Policy

A deadline of October 2025 has been set for the passage of Maya land rights legislation through the National Assembly. The government’s recently proposed draft policy was met with strong objections from Maya communities in the Toledo District. G.O.B. has since returned to the drawing board and has decided to omit the section limiting automatic communal lands to one kilometer from the center of each community. With the amendments, Maya communities will be able to apply for any amount of space. Marshalleck noted that those applications will have to be backed up by some evidence.

 

Andrew Marshalleck, Attorney

“That approach ahs been done away with, met with a very strong negative reaction, though conceptually I thought it was not a bad idea given the reactions to it we have rethought it and there will no longer be an use of it.”

 

Justice Anderson, President, Caribbean Court of Justice

“In its stead you have what?”

 

Andrew Marshalleck

“You could apply for any space, no automatic recommendation of any space and certain threshold evidence needs to be met to see if the application is to be granted or not and it is setting that threshold requirement that discussion not center, on exactly what it will be.”