Is Belize Doing Enough to Protect Its Indigenous Languages?

While many Indigenous languages across Central America face declining use, Belizean representatives were part of a regional push this weekend to change that trajectory.

Meeting in Guatemala, cultural leaders launched the Indigenous Language Plan for Central America, a coordinated effort aimed at protecting Indigenous languages and pushing them higher on national and regional policy agendas.

The plan is the result of months of regional collaboration, including research into how Indigenous languages are being used, where they are disappearing, and what governments can do to reverse that trend.

Rolando Cocom, Director of the Institute of Social & Cultural Research, said the goal is to move beyond discussion and toward concrete action. Countries involved, he explained, agreed on shared priorities focused on preservation, promotion, and international recognition of language loss as an urgent issue.

From the University of Belize, Delmer Tzib said the effort reframes Indigenous languages not just as cultural artefacts but as rights that must be protected. “It is a right to share your mother tongue and to keep on transmitting it from generation to generation,” Tzib said.