3 days ago
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The Ministry of Constitution and Religious Affairs, Indigenous Affairs, and Transportation today, launched an educational campaign surrounding the Caribbean Court of Justice’s 2015 Consent order. The campaign, titled “Community Perspectives on Communal Land Rights” kicked off today in Belmopan at the George Price Center, and brought numerous stakeholders together to discuss how certain sectors are affected by the Consent Order. The Consent order mandates the Government of Belize to create mechanisms to protect the rights of Maya people, compensate them, and also protect their land rights. Today’s launch saw representation from the Sarstoon Temash Institute Indigenous Management, Maya and Non-Maya communities, the Government of Belize, and the Private and Lease Owners in Toledo Ltd. The Maya Leaders Alliance and the Toledo Alcalde Association were also invited but declined to show up. Minister Zabaneh spoke about the importance of the Educational Campaign.
Dr. Louis Zabaneh, Minister of Constitution and Religious Affairs, Indigenous Affairs, and Transportation: “We brought all the parties affected by the consent order for the Maya Land Rights case that we’re dealing with. We have had a real representation from all of them except the MLA-TAA who decided not to participate. But it’s to give everybody an opportunity for them to share their perspectives on how the draft legislation, how that is affecting them, what has been their experiences thus far.”
Reporter: Is it frustrating that no one from the MLA TAA showed up ?
Dr. Louis Zabaneh, Minister of Constitution and Religious Affairs, Indigenous Affairs, and Transportation: “Well, we certainly would have wanted them to be here. It was a great opportunity for them to share, in fact, what they really believe in, and how that whole process unfolded up to the point of the consent order in 2015. They have their own reasons where recently they sent a letter to the CCJ for further clarifications because they don’t feel that things are going how they expect them to go.”
Reporter: Do you feel like not engaging in this way is sort of a move of bad faith especially because they have been one of the loudest voices?
Dr. Louis Zabaneh, Minister of Constitution and Religious Affairs, Indigenous Affairs, and Transportation: “Well you know we have to approach this in a very respectful and sensitive way. We hope that the application that they made to the CCJ recently would be expeditious and certainly that they can respond to questions directly as to why they made this decision. But certainly the government cannot be faulted for trying to bring everybody together. Very, very difficult matter so that we can have the public gain a better understanding of the complexity of this matter and why it is that we all need to be engaged to ensure that whatever we do at the end of the day will secure the continued cohesion within our country.”
Zabaneh also spoke about some of the work that the Government has accomplished since being elected in 2020 as it relates to trying to find common ground regarding the consent order.
Dr. Louis Zabaneh, Minister of Constitution and Religious Affairs, Indigenous Affairs, and Transportation: “The government has been accused by a number of the stakeholders who are there that we’ve been going too slowly. I believe that our government starting in 2020 really started to take some actions, engaging with the Maya Leaders Alliance and the TAA and other stakeholders. Certainly under my tenure, we have engaged as well, building on what had been done prior. And we reached the point of activating the review panel. That is a structure that was agreed to between the government and the appellants to review the draft legislation and to make inputs before it reaches the national assembly. To get back to the cabinet and to finally get the cabinet to agree to whatever inputs would be considered for debate at the House. So that we’ve had three of those meetings already. The third parties as they’re called, the private and owners, asked to be a part of the review panel. That was presented to Cabinet. Cabinet agreed to have them be a part of the review panel. We shared that with the MLA, TAA, and they then decided not to continue because they feel that it’s just to be between government and them. And then right after that, they wrote to the CCJ applying for the CCJ’s review of where things are now.”
Also present at today’s launch was the Area representative of Toledo West, Oscar Requeña. According to Requeña, he represents over 98% of Belize’s Maya Communities, so only saw it right to attend the launch in an effort to hear different perspectives.
Minister of Rural Transformation, Community Development & Local Government: “Well certainly it is very heartwarming to hear the presentations by the various panelists, you know, their perspectives. I think that that is very, very important that we get an opportunity to hear from them their perspectives. And you know, they are also making recommendations and suggestions, you know, to government. You know, they have certain concerns. And you know, as a government, it is important that we listen to everybody, including the appellants, but also the other interested parties. I am a firm believer in one nation, one people. I think that that is very, very important. The Caribbean Court of Justice made its consent order. And essentially it ruled that as Maya people, we have customary rights to our land. That is, we are not gonna take that, we recognize that, we respect the consent order of the court. We also recognize and validate the role of our indigenous people in certainly protection and preserving of our lands, our environment, their rich cultural heritage, and all the contributions that they have made to the nation building. We all recognize them, but equally so, we also have other groups, other ethnic groups, that also have rights to their land and at the end of the day, what has to happen is that through the implementation process, the government must ensure, through legislation, that we take into account the constitutional rights of all Belizeans and that we respect that process.”
We will have much more from today’s launch in tomorrow’s newscast.
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