The Maya Leaders Alliance says it does not regard Thursday’s ruling by the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) as a ‘setback’ but that the Belize government ‘is now more firmly on notice that it needs to adhere to the relevant standards and not just exercise its imaginations’.
Nearly a decade after the CCJ’s landmark ruling on Maya customary land rights , attorneys representing the Maya were seeking more clarity on the 2015 consent order.
But the court dismissed the application, saying the process it ordered is already underway and that the parties must continue working through the commissioned review panel. That panel is expected to help resolve several outstanding issues, including the identification of customary lands.
Following the virtual hearing, CCJ President , Justice Winston Anderson, said ‘we think that process is now underway and that it should be given every allowance to complete its journey. ‘We therefore do not think we ought to intervene at this point in the way asked for by the applicants and instead would encourage the parties to continue the parties towards the culmination of the product that we have all look toward for so very long.’
Senior Counsel Andrew Marshalleck so far a working draft of a document has been produced and there’s a review panel constituting two members appointed by the government, two members from the Mayas.
He said that the government is now seeking to add a representative from the third party, landowners.
‘That panel is supposed to review the draft, make recommendations on how to make it better and hopefully get the draft to a point where then it can be circulated to the wider public for consultation and input, and then eventually taken to the National Assembly.
‘So we’re at an early stage in the process where the comments on the draft are only taken from, directly from stakeholders involved, but the process also contemplates that after that it goes to everybody, so everybody can say what they think about it.’
Marshalleck said he doubts that there’ll ever be a situation where everybody is 100 per cent in agreement with it, given the nature of what is being dealt with.
‘There will, there’ll always be some unhappiness about it. There’s not complete happiness. You won’t reach that ideal, but it’s about reaching something that works for everybody,’ he added.
The spokesperson for the Maya Leaders Alliance, Cristina Coc, said that while did not get the ruling it asked for on Thursday, the court deliberations were able to moved their cause forward.
Coc said Maya communities have spent the last 11 years pressing for the CCJ’s consent order to be fully implemented, and she believes the court-appointed review process has stalled.
But she said that the court hearing reinforced one key point in that government cannot define Maya customary land rights on its own.
‘And I think that the justices, particularly Justice (Peter) Jamadar made it clear to them that this is not just about you imagining what Maya customary land tenure is. It exists. There’s a system there. Who best to know that system than the people who practice it themselves?
‘So I’m happy…I think that they are on notice. They know that they can’t just imagine for us what they think is best for us. I repeat my call to the ministers of government who are responsible for legislative drafting. You need to take an active role. ‘
She said that the Mayas want to have discussions with those doing the drafting, restating that the proposal of five acres per person is rejected ‘outright.
‘That is not our custom. That is not how we use land. What we propose to you is we have now completed a majority of our boundaries. We’ve harmonized our boundaries among each other. Are you prepared to come and validate that and see the evidence of our use and our land use patterns?’