This week in Guatemala City, RRI Collaborator, The Maya Foundation (FUNDAMAYA in Spanish) is hosting the International Workshop: Opening paths to courts for the defense of tenure land rights of indigenous and Afro descendant communities. The two-day event is features international panelists and participants from Guatemala, Nicaragua, Mexico, Honduras, Colombia, Panama, and Peru.

As competition for access to land and resources continues to intensify in the region, Constitutional Courts, and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (ICHR) have enabled indigenous and Afro communities to utilize national and international legal instruments to defend their rights.  These bodies are the highest national instances for the interpretation and protection of constitutional rights.

Participants of the regional workshop are working together to analyze and draw lessons learned on the socio-political strategic use of the Constitutional Courts and the ICHR for the protection of indigenous peoples and Afro descendant communities’ collective rights to land and resources.

The event has successfully brought together government, indigenous and Afro-descendant communities as well as civil society representatives to dialogue on two central themes: the impacts and benefits of using the courts, and strategic partners and empowerment methods that are successful in reaching communities.