CCJ Reviews Maya Land Rights Implementation, Forward Operating Base Raises Concern

This morning, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) held its latest hearing to monitor the progress of the implementation of the Maya Land Rights Consent Order. This agreement, made in April 2015 between the Maya Leaders Alliance (MLA) and the Government of Belize, requires the government to establish mechanisms to recognize the land rights of the indigenous Maya people. As part of this ongoing process, the government and the MLA are required to provide regular updates to the court through these monitoring hearings. In today’s session, CCJ judges reviewed the recent reports and found the updates to be generally positive, with one notable concern raised by the MLA. The issue pertains to the government’s plans to build a Forward Operating Base in Dolores Village, Toledo. Senior Counsel Andrew Marshalleck, the government’s lead attorney, addressed the issue, explaining that the government is following the Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) protocol as it moves forward with its plans.

Andrew Marshalleck, Attorney: “The government has committed not to do certain things on any lands in which there’s a claim of Maya Customs and Land Tenure without complying with what you’ve called the FPIC protocol, without getting the free informed consent of Maya villages making that claim and the suggestion is that there should be consultations over whether or not the forward operating basis to be built in the Dolores area. But when you look at the FPIC there is of course an exception to consultation where there’s a national security interest and the national security council has invoked that exception with regard to the base. So the government’s position is that there need be no consultations on the construction of the base. Now as a matter of courtesy the village is to be informed about the base and they have been so informed so the issue is about the details surrounding it, the level of details that can be shared about. Well the court has acknowledged that there is an exception but has also indicated that as a matter of decency in so far as the information does not prejudice the operations of the base, out of courtesy it should be shared and there’s no difficulty with that. The difficulty comes in assessing exactly how far that goes.”

Reporter: Okay and then also there was Golden Stream was that just business as usual in terms of ensuring that?

 
Andrew Marshalleck, Attorney: “Yes it’s business as usual in terms of recognition and acknowledgement that the implementation of the order will involve interferences with the rights of other persons other than Maya villages who claim title to lands within the areas of these villages and how that’s to be dealt with in the interim while the legislation is being developed.”

Marshalleck noted that the government is in the process of finalizing the Maya Customary Land Tenure Policy’s draft and noted that communities are able to apply for customary land rights. 

Andrew Marshalleck, Attorney: “They’ve been going on for a while but we are hopefully approaching the tail end of them in that we’re now that much closer to the presentation of the legislation to recognize and protect Maya land rights. And as we informed the court this morning we do have a working draft of that legislation, which is of course a major step towards the realization of that ultimate goal. Of course, there are many steps that need to be taken before it’s finally ready for tabling for consideration by Parliament and the public. But we’re at least at the stage where we have something to start the discussions. You can choose to make an application under the law for the recognition of Maya Customary land tenure in certain lands. A village makes the application and in order for a village to make an application, 75% of the villages must vote in favor of making that application within a year of the application being presented. So as long as they can get that consensus, that application can be made and the law will provide for how the application is to be dealt with.”

One interesting fact on this matter is that the Maya lands account for some twenty percent of public lands.