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Photo: Screen grab of OHCHR video marking the 10-year anniversary of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, showing a Maya village in Toledo, Belize.

In a regional international court on Monday, October 23rd, 2017 Maya leaders attested there has been a “complete failure” by the government of Belize to abide by the court order to identify and protect the proprietary rights of the Maya Peoples to their customary lands.

On March 2nd, 2016 they assassinated our sister Berta Cáceres. They thought they would get rid not just of her as a leader recognized throughout Latin America and around the world, but also would end a struggle, a political project, that they would destroy the organization of which she was both founder and daughter, COPINH (the Civil Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras).

Thirteen Maya villagers will be standing trial in Belize on March 30th, 2016, under fabricated charges. Like many Indigenous leaders fighting to protect their lands, they are being criminalized for these actions, and may face prison time.

On the early morning of June 24th, 2015, traditional leaders of the Maya people of Southern Belize were violently awoken in their homes by police. Charges were brought against 13 people, including 10 farmers, two traditional Maya leaders, and Q’eqchi community spokesperson Cristina Coc, advisor to the traditional leaders and mother of two.  

Press Release

GENEVA (7 July 2015) – The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, today urged the Government of Belize to ensure respect for the rights of the country’s Maya people to non-discrimination and traditional property.

“Under international human rights standards, indigenous peoples have the right to use, develop and also to control the lands, territories and resources that they possess by reason of traditional ownership,” Ms. Tauli-Corpuz emphasized.

Photos: 1. Cristina Coc, addressing the United Nations on the recent land rights case at the Caribbean Court of Justice. 2. Caracol temple in Belize, by Dennis Jarvis. 3. Uxebnka Archeological Site, by Elelicht. 

International human rights organizations Cultural Survival and Rainforest Foundation US stand behind Maya Leaders as they Peacefully Protect their Lands. 
Joint Statement by Cultural Survival, the Rainforest Foundation, and First Peoples Worldwide.

Statement by the Maya Leaders Alliance

April 21st, 2015 – The Caribbean Court of Justice, Belize’s highest appellant court, yesterday reaffirmed the unbroken chain of lower court affirmations that the Maya Indigenous People of southern Belize have rights to lands they have customarily used and occupied. The Court affirmed that these traditional land rights constitute property within the meaning of the provisions of the Belize Constitution that generally protect property free from discrimination. 

Maya Leaders Alliance 

Punta Gorda Town, Monday, September 29th, 2014.

A delegation of Maya Leaders, headed by President of the Toledo Alcaldes Association, Mr. Alfonso Cal, has been commissioned by the Alcaldes’ assembly to deliver a letter to the Prime Minister. Consequently, on September 25th, 2014, the Maya Leaders Alliance and Toledo Alcaldes Association met with the Honourable Prime Minister, Dean Barrow, at the Prime Minister’s Office in Belmopan. 

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