Minister: Toughest Part of Carrying Out CCJ Ruling Lies Ahead

Dolores Balderamos-Garcia

During Thursday’s House Meeting, Minister of Indigenous People’s Affairs, Dolores Balderamos-Garcia gave a statement on the progress this present government has made in relation to the implementation of the C.C.J.’s Consent Order that was made in 2015. That consent order recognized the Maya people’s rights to customary land tenure, and required the Government of Belize to take steps to protect and enforce those rights. Minister Balderamos-Garcia told the media that they have made significant strides over the past three years, but she did admit that the hardest part is yet ahead.

Dolores Balderamos-Garcia, Minister of Indigenous People’s Affairs

“We have made significant progress and that was acknowledged by the Caribbean Court of Justice at the recent hearing on the 30th of November, Madam Justice Reginald Lee of the CCJ, um, made a very complimentary statement that she believes that even a couple of months ago, we may not have reached to this point. But now that we have, there is progress. And of course, we have to continue. And please, it is not, um,  Boasting in any way. I mean, there is still a lot more work to do. There are issues on the ground that we have to work out. Um, but what I basically said in the report is that we managed to Prepare and file the free prior informed consent protocol so that consultation can happen with the Maya people of the south and all the villages when there is any kind of, um, proposal. Now we have had a lot of good use of it since it was filed. And, um, I can give you the example of some electricity grids. We have consulted with the communities, also the U.S. Capital Corporation that wish to do the seismic testing to test for presence of oil on the ground. Um, five out of the seven villages that have been consulted under the FPIC protocol have signed on to an agreement that they, um, are, are okay, or they’re, they agree to the seismic testing. to be done by U. S. Capital Corporation. And I really want to commend the village leaders who came out and brought their people to ask all the questions that were asked. Questions were asked about  how much land can we claim in terms of occupation? What would be the length of occupation in order to claim communal land rights? A huge amount of issues came out in the consultations. We’re heading into the harder part now. And that harder part is  After we have an accepted Maya policy, Maya land, customary land tenure policy,  how do we instruct the people who will draft the legislation? Because remember that the legislation will have to recognize private landowners,  the legislation will have to recognize corporations, existing Leases and titles on the ground, but also not taking away the right of each village to say whether they want the customary land tenure and title or not. Because if a village gets together and says yes, it’s a yes. If it is gets together and says no, it’s no. But what percentage of your village would you want to be able to vote? All of those issues.”