A visiting delegation from Belize’s Mayan community has said that there are a number of shortfalls in Guyana’s Amerindian Act, which they hope to learn from and improve on in the legislation currently being drafted for that country’s Indigenous people.
The Guyanese law, the group said, lacks consistency with international law standards as identified by the United Nations Declaration on Rights of Indigenous People and allows for a vast amount of power to be vested in the state.
“I am hoping that we could put forward a model that Guyana too could borrow from. I think that where it concerns Indigenous people’s rights, it is imperative that Indigenous peoples themselves are participating in the development of the legislation or mechanisms that are intended to protect them,” said Cristina Coc, spokesperson of the Toledo Alcaldes Association (TAA) from the Maya Leaders Alliance. Coc was part of a seven-member delegation that visited Guyana recently on a fact-finding mission. The aim was to have an understanding of the effectiveness of the Guyanese Act and what lessons could be learnt.
