G.O.B. Provides Update on C.C.J. Compliance Hearing

On Thursday, the Caribbean Court of Justice presided over a compliance hearing in respect of the 2015 consent order as it relates to Maya land rights.  Represented during the virtual session was the Government of Belize and the Maya Leaders Alliance.  Earlier today, the minister with responsibility for Indigenous People’s Affairs, Dolores Balderamos-Garcia says that there has to be a balance between what the claimants want and what government is prepared to do.

 

Dolores Balderamos-Garcia, Indigenous People’s Affairs

“Yesterday, there was what we call a compliance hearing.  It’s done virtually because it is with the Caribbean Court of Justice judges who sit in Trinidad and, basically, the hearing went very well.  Apparently there is good progress that is being made and we are hoping to finalize the Maya land policy and then move towards hiring a drafts person for the legislation and, I believe, the judges did say that we are making good progress.  Now, that does not mean that the proponents or the people who are claiming can get everything that they want.  There has to be a balance, there must be a balance.  The idea of government suggesting or proposing that there be a circular area where you don’t have to prove that you actually live there because your houses are there, apparently that was met with a lot of opposition.  So we said, okay we won’t use the circular proposal anymore but what we are saying is that if you wish to have communal land when the legislation is past, then you have to show that you have lived there for a certain period of time and we are working on the threshold.  What the government has proposed is that you would have to produce an occupation for at least thirty years.”