## Facts

- Mopan and Ke’kchi Maya communities in Belize’s Toledo District traditionally used and occupied specific lands and resources central to subsistence, social organization, and cultural and spiritual practices.
- Belize did not formally recognize or secure the communities’ collective land tenure in domestic law through measures such as demarcation and title.
- Belize granted logging and oil-related concessions affecting areas traditionally used and occupied by the communities.
- Petitioners alleged the concessions and State inaction threatened the environment on which the communities depended and jeopardized cultural continuity.
- Petitioners also alleged domestic proceedings seeking protection of their land interests were delayed and ineffective.
- Belize disputed that the petitioners proved harm or rights violations, asserted it had suspended or monitored some logging licenses, and stated oil exploration had ceased in the district after 1998.
- Belize also indicated, in negotiations outside the proceedings, that the Maya had rights in Toledo lands based on long-standing use and occupancy.

## Issues

1. Whether Belize’s failure to recognize and secure the Maya communities’ collective rights in traditionally used and occupied lands, and its authorization of resource concessions affecting those lands, violated protected rights, including the right to property, equality, participation, health and well-being, and related cultural and religious interests.
2. Whether Belize failed to provide effective judicial protection and a fair process for vindicating those land and resource rights.

## Decision

- The Commission found Belize internationally responsible for violating rights protected by the American Declaration.
- Belize violated the Maya communities’ right to property by failing to recognize and secure their collective land rights and by permitting concessions that interfered with traditional use and occupancy without effective safeguards.
- Belize violated the right to a fair trial/judicial protection by failing to provide timely and effective remedies to protect the communities’ land interests.
- The Commission recommended that Belize recognize, demarcate, and title Maya traditional lands; review and bring concessions into conformity with those rights (including suspension or nullification where required); and ensure effective judicial mechanisms and prevention of future violations.

## Legal Principles

- “Property” under the American Declaration includes indigenous peoples’ collective land tenure grounded in long-standing traditional use and occupancy.
- States must provide legal recognition and practical protection for indigenous collective land rights, including effective measures for demarcation and titling.
- Authorizing natural resource exploitation on indigenous traditional lands requires procedures that ensure meaningful participation/consultation and equal treatment in decision-making.
- Interference with indigenous lands may implicate multiple protected interests (including health, family and community life, and religious practice) where land and environment are essential to subsistence and culture.
- Judicial protection obligations require remedies that are effective in practice and available within a reasonable time to prevent or correct interferences with protected rights.

## Conclusion

The Commission concluded that Belize’s failure to secure collective title for Maya traditional lands, coupled with resource concessions granted without adequate participatory safeguards and without effective domestic remedies, breached the American Declaration’s protections for property and judicial protection and required structural measures to recognize and protect indigenous territorial rights.


Maya Indigenous Cmtys. of the Toledo Dist. v. Belize, Case 12.053, Inter-Am. Comm'n H.R., Report No. 40/04, OEA/Ser.L/V/II.122, doc. 5 rev. 1 (2004)