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Belize: Protecting the Human Rights of Mayan Villagers
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| Antoinette Moore and her son Kwame | |
| “We feel very very fortunate in Belize to have a relationship with ELAW, and hope that relationship continues for a long time, so we can continue the work to protect the environment and the rights of the people in Belize.” — Antoinette Moore |
ELAW partner Antoinette Moore has a lifelong commitment to defending the human rights of people living in disadvantaged communities. She has lived and worked in Belize for 14 years. Through collaboration with the Belize Environmental Law and Policy Organization and other grassroots organizations in Belize, she has championed the rights of Mayan peoples seeking to protect their communal lands from the government and corporations seeking timber, oil, and other natural resources.
Antoinette traveled to the U.S. in September for a Prosser-Jang Fellowship, to work one-on-one with ELAW staff and advance her work. Her son Kwame joined her.
During her Fellowship, Antoinette was interviewed on KLCC-FM, a National Public Radio affiliate in Eugene, Oregon. Below are excerpts from her interview:
The indigenous people in Belize are primarily Mayan. They reside in 38 villages in the south, bordering Guatemala. For the most part they remain subsistence farmers. They fish and hunt, and gather materials in the rainforest for building their houses.
In recent years, there has been a pattern by the Government of Belize to take their property or grant permits to companies to use their land and search for resources. The government has never officially recognized the way in which these people own their land. They own their land communally and they use their land communally.
We have been negotiating with the Government of Belize for over a decade, to recognize the rights of these people. We filed a case in early 2007 and received a favorable judgment in October last year. The government still has to work with the communities to enforce that judgment. We have asked the Interamerican Commission of Human Rights to intervene.
I have been working with ELAW for ten years through the Belize Environmental Law and Policy Organization. We were fighting the government around the concessions that were given for oil prospecting on indigenous lands. The company was permitted to enter the land without submitting an Environmental Impact Assessment. ELAW gave the greatest of support and we were victorious in that case.
Antoinette Moore
KLCC-FM “Northwest Passage”
September 5, 2008