And in other news, the People's Constitution Commission has been embarking on an educational tour, where they educate various groups across the country on the constitution. The hope is that not only will more Belizeans be aware of what's in the constitution, but they will also be able to provide meaningful recommendations during the consultation phase.
Today, the PCC was at the SCA auditorium with almost 2,000 teachers from the Belize district and the cayes. And the president of the BNTU spoke about the importance of educating the educators.
Ruth Shoman, President, BNTU
"This all started with the People's Constitution Commission asking the BNTU to be a part of this and I believe it's very important that the teachers are involved because this is an education process, the constitution is something that statistics have shown that over 97% of our people have never opened the constitution and that is what guides us everyday so having the teachers be at the forefront of this initiative is very key to educate the nation so this is very important."
"The way the is working, just for clarity, is that the Constitution Commission is embarking on an education process first so right now what's happening is not consultation yet, we are not going around and asking what they want to change from the constitution, but rather, know your constitution, know what's in there and what is not in there or what exists in there that may not be as suitable as we may want it to be so right now, what we have is an education campaign ongoing so after this we'll be coming back, to asking our teachers, now that you know a bit more about the constitution, what is your take on it because that's the task of the commission, to get feedback from the people, from the teachers, from every Belizean and then consolidate that information to then present that document to the prime minister."
"After this we do plan on going to the Cayo District and then to the south, we're going to do both Stann Creek and Toledo together to do another, so we have two more."
And the chairman of the PCC, Anthony Chanona explained their plans of attempting to add teaching the constitution to the curriculum of primary schools.
Anthony Chanona, Chairman, PCC
"We consider the Belize National Teachers Union as an important stakeholder, simply because they interact with over 100,000 our young people, our students. You know the statistics show that 62% of our population is 25 years and younger so that truly is the present and future and because we're heading into September and beyond, we're trying to partner with the Ministry of Education to ensure that the teachers have a greater knowledge, more informed knowledge of the constitution in the respective schools. One of the things we will be doing, the minister will announce this is we will be having high school national debates across the country where the young people will be given questions on the constitution to be resolved as a way to create awareness because if we do nothing else in this process we would hope, the commission hopes that its legacy is not ended with the final report but having planted a seed, the importance of having a greater knowledge of your constitution, how we're governed, and in saying that, we are working on a document, how we're governed, upgrading it, and we're going to leave that as part of the curriculum in the primary school system."
"So far feedback we're getting from the people and we're now compiling that into what we call an interim report just to understand what the people have been telling us and basically what they have been saying so far is that they want greater accountability, they want stronger check and balances, they want adherence and penalties for a breach of your oath of office. They want referendums to be binding but they have said across all the forums we have gone they want to see God remain in their constitution. Those are the fives areas that we've heard so far."
And today's speaker, attorney, Darrell Bradley, spoke to the participants about realizing the rights in the constitution.
Darrell Bradley, Attorney
"The presentation concerned the issue of the constitution but I think how the PCC organized the presentation was two fold. One was specifically about a very important part of the constitution which is the section that deals with fundamental rights and so Ed Usher would have spoken about that in great degree of detail talking about how the constitution engages with that section and what are specific areas of fundamental rights that are address in the constitution and how these rights are actionable or made enforceable by the constitution and how the supremacy clause works and how the constitution is meant to operate in terms of ensuring that people can realize these rights. My presentation then would've been looking at the issue of the structure of the constitution and to really look at how the constitution as a design document is meant to ensure that people are able to realize these rights so that people may not even recognize this but the constitution doesn't mention the words separation of powers, it's not in there, but the constitution divides the power of government, and the constitution is a system of checks and balances because it recognizes that power that is centralized has the opportunity to be abusive and to corrode the best intentions of the people and the aspirations of the nation state and so the idea of the constitution as designed is that the constitution breaks up the power of the central governments he legislative branch of government and the judiciary into three separate equal branches of government and how those branches of government are supposed to act as checks and balances and part of my comment in the presentation is when we deal with a parliamentary system of government, as distinct from a presidential system that system of government has challenges because it creates a very powerful central government, so we have to look to the checks and balances that are in the constitution."
And as you heard Shoman say, the teachers in the west of the country will be next.
