Cabinet Met To Create Draft Maya Land Tenure Policy

And, as Minister Garcia urges those communities to keep the peace, on Tuesday, Cabinet met with a host of senior government officials to develop a draft Customary Land Tenure Policy. The policy is a crucial part of government’s obligations under the Caribbean Court of Justice’s Consent Order. Among its purposes, the Customary Land Tenure Policy is meant to outline the land rights of the Maya people. Cristina Coc, spokesperson for the Maya Leader Alliance and the Toledo Alcaldes Association, in speaking on the importance of this policy, has noted that it will form the basis of draft legislation related to Maya land tenure. In January 2022, Minister Garcia announced that the government had until February of that year to submit a draft policy to the C.C.J. Today, more than a year later, she announced that they are hoping to submit the draft policy to the C.C.J. by the end of July.

Dolores Balderamos Garcia

Dolores Balderamos Garcia, Minister of Indigenous People’s Affairs

“I can go ahead and tell you that this week on Tuesday Cabinet was considering what we call the Customary Land Tenure Policy you know we had all our top people. We had our senior council, we had our commissioner, we had our CEO and our advisor, the deputy, solicitor general. And we had a very extensive and good discussion, in cabinet, especially in relation to how we are going to pass the legislation to try to marry the two issues of private land ownership and the communal land ownership that is claimed under the Caribbean Court of Justice ruling, which by the way is eight years old now, but I must say it to all of the media and to all the Belizean people, that it is a complex issue. The court realizes that it’s a complex issue. We have been trying our best to see how we move the process along, but it’s not an overnight thing. The legislation and the whole framework of legislation and administration is something that government will have to work on very, very assiduously. Let me clarify, the proposed draft of the Maya Customary Land Tenure Policy was considered by Cabinet, and what basically we are saying is that we are just asking Cabinet to look at the draft in order that we can commence the consultations. No decision has been taken yet.  I should have clarified that we have to consult because the appellants in the case, um, do have a right to be heard in terms of the whole input. And then we are hoping that the policy can be submitted, to the Caribbean Court of Justice around the end of June or the end of July.”