Report to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

REPORT TO THE COMMITTEE ON THE ELIMINATION OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION

SARSTOON TEMASH INSTITUTE FOR INDIGENOUS MANAGEMENT & MINORITY RIGHTS GROUP INTERNATIONAL

81st Session of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Geneva 6-31 August 2012

The Sarstoon Temash Institute for Indigenous Management (SATIIM) is a community-based indigenous environmental organisation working in the far south of Belize, in a region in the Toledo District that lies between the Sarstoon and Temash Rivers. SATIIM co-manages, with the Belizean Forestry Department, the 41,898 acre Sarstoon Temash National Park. It has been leading the effort to bring the Government to comply with its domestic and international law indigenous rights obligations.

Minority Rights Group International (MRG) is an international non-governmental organisation working to secure the rights of ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities and indigenous peoples worldwide, and to promote cooperation and understanding between communities. MRG works with over 150 organisations in nearly 50 countries. MRG has consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council, observer status with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and is a civil society organisation registered with the Organization of American States.

81 Main Street Punta Gorda Town, Toledo District Belize, Central America 54 Commercial Street, Tel: 501-722-0103 London E1 6LT Fax: 501-722-0124 United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)20 7422 4200 Web: www.satiim.org.bz Fax: +44 (0)20 7422 4201

Web: www.minorityrights.org I. Introduction 1. This submission focuses on discrimination in healthcare provision and education affecting indigenous communities and, in particular, the ways in which the Government of Belize has failed to meet its obligations under the Convention, especially Articles 5(e) and 2.2, through its treatment of the indigenous Maya communities in Toledo, Belize.

II. Indigenous Maya culture and healthcare (Article 5(e))

2. The Government has recently secured grant funding from the Japanese Social Development Fund via the World Bank for $2,752,894 USD for improving Children’s Health and Nutrition in Maya Communities in Toledo. The target population of the project is the Maya communities and its objectives are as follows:

(1) Prevent and address malnutrition of children under 5 years of age by empowering the local community. (2) Develop healthy lifestyle Programs for Primary School Children in their eight years of primary education. (3) Strengthen access and quality of community-based health services in support of maternal and child health. (4) Promote behaviour change in communities by increasing understanding of community's attitude and perception towards health. (5) Strengthen monitoring and evaluation project management and project administration.

3. While the project could potentially represent a positive development and be of benefit to Maya communities, there is concern that there are no provisions within the project for the recognition of traditional indigenous knowledge and medicine and its related norms, values and practices. In particular, there does not appear to be any requirement for the project leaders to work with members of the local communities in implementation and the project seeks to implement changes without finding ways to reconcile both knowledge systems for the overall improvement of the health of the indigenous communities.

4. Further, while the project is specifically targeting Maya children, no Mayas have been involved in the decision-making in respect of the implementation of the project. The newly-established non- profit organisation, the Toledo Health Council – the implementing agency – is a politically- constituted body. Some traditional leaders have no knowledge at all of the project and it has not been made clear how it will accomplish its stated objectives or what participatory mechanisms will be put in place for the full and effective involvement of local communities.

5. A prevailing perception of the primitiveness of Maya culture has led to the damaging impression that Maya communities are unable to know what is in their best interests. Accordingly, there is a greater need for respect in connection with how Maya communities are provided access to better health services. To positively change this, the Government and state health system must be respectful of the indigenous health system and seek to harmonise the governing norms of both, so that they can complement one another. Further, the project leaders must commit to working hand- in-hand with the Maya communities and to learning from them. III. Indigenous languages and education (Article 2.2)

6. For some time, various organisations, including SATIIM, have been advocating for the adoption of a bilingual intercultural approach to education in line with provisions in Article 2.2 of the Convention, which would include mother-tongue teaching as well as culturally-relevant learning methods and curricula.1 The Committee on the Rights of the Child has indicated that indigenous children have a “right to be taught to read and write in their own indigenous language... as well as in the national language(s)”.2 The significance of bilingual and intercultural education for indigenous groups, in general, lies in the need for them to preserve their cultural heritage. The surest means through which this can be accomplished is through education.

7. Despite some positive moves, such as the support expressed in 2006 by Francis Fonseca, then Minister of Education, Youth and Sports, for bilingual intercultural education,3 Belize still has no policy on language, culture or bilingual intercultural education. Belize’s educational system remains based only on the English language and utilises teaching methods and curricula that are largely foreign to the indigenous groups of the country. Any real movement towards reform has been led by the Maya themselves.

8. Further, while there are ongoing consultations, one of which was held on 1 August 2012, in Punta Gorda, Toledo, directed towards formulating a National Cultural Policy, there is concern that this process is directed more at the links between the economy, arts/culture and tourism. In this respect, there is a greater need for the input of indigenous communities to the process of recognition of the diverse cultural histories of Belize and a willingness on the part of Government to adopt culturally-sensitive policy following proper consultation.

9. Lastly, the Committee on the Rights of the Child, in its last review of Belize conducted in 2005,4 raised concerns over the inadequate resources allocated to the education of indigenous children 5 and the persistent discrimination faced by indigenous children.6 Such concerns remain valid in 2012 as well as concern over the lack of bilingual intercultural education, undermining the state’s

1 See Developing Belize Through Bi-lingual, Intercultural Education, First National Symposium on Bi-lingual Intercultural Education (organised by SATIIM, the Mayan Leaders Alliance, the National Garifuna Council and UNICEF), 6-7 July 2007 (copy on file).

2 Committee on the Rights of the Child, Recommendations, 34th Session, 15 September – 3 October 2003, para 19(b), available at http://www.right-to-education.org/sites/r2e.gn.apc.org/files/CRC%20indigenous%20children %20recommendations.pdf.

3 Developing Belize Through Bi-lingual, Intercultural Education, above, section 2.4.

4 Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding Observations: Belize, 38th Session, 31 March 2005, UN Doc CRC/C/15/Add.252.

5 ibid, paras 16 and 72.

6 ibid, para 25. The Committee recommended that Belize allocate adequate resources, inter alia, to “pay special attention to the needs of children belonging to vulnerable groups, including... indigenous children, in order to safeguard their right to education at all levels”: ibid, para 62(d). obligations under Article 7 to adopt immediate and effective measures to combat racial discrimination.

IV. Recommendations

10. SATIIM and MRG recommend, based on the preceding observations, the following:

(1) That the Government take steps to involve the Maya community, in accordance with the principles of meaningful consultation, in healthcare decisions that affect them and their distinct culture.

(2) That the Government in relation to healthcare decisions affecting the Maya community pay proper consideration to indigenous medicinal knowledge and traditional healthcare structures.

(3) That the Government commit to establishing, in consultation with the affected indigenous communities, a system of bilingual and intercultural education utilising culturally- appropriate learning methods and curricula.