Land Rights of the Indigenous and Tribal People that the same president presented to parliament in June 2021. It made it clear that the Santokhi administration is making a U-turn with this amendment. The entire state council has already given the green light to this amendment which means that all of the coalition partners fully support it.

 “All of the officials have been unmasked and it is clear that this administration does not want to acknowledge land rights despite the fact that Suriname is legally bound to do so because of verdicts of the Inter American Court of Human Rights (IACHR),” said the VIDS that demanded that the amendment be discarded in a dustbin. The VIDS explained that the current administration has cleverly changed certain words so that it could o gain the right to determine how the people from the forest live and if they are in fact entitled to collective rights. As part of the amendment the Indigenous communities would be obligated to get registered at the Chamber of Commerce (KKF) so that a scientific research can be conducted. The land rights are referred to as enjoyment and usage and not as collective rights as is made compulsory by international rights.

 Traditional leaders are referred to as community in the new bill and must also be registered at the Chamber of Commerce before that community can file a request to apply for the rights to enjoyment and usage of the land.