Belize: Government disagrees with Church group on Constitutional amendments

The Belize government says it cannot agree with the position outlined by the country’s Council of Churches regarding the amendment to the Belize Constitution.



Prime Minister Dean Barrow has sent a letter to Canon Leroy Flowers, President of the Belize Council of Churches (BCC) in response to one sent by the church group on August 4.



The letter by the BCC is the latest Prime Minister Barrow has had to deal with after his government’s decision to amend the constitution that opposition groups say could be the beginning of a dictatorship in Belize.



Opposition groups content that the amendment, which they describe as “by far the most radical and far reaching” meant that any future change to the Belize Constitution will no longer be open to review or challenges in the court.



Former prime minister Said Musa said that passage of the amendment would pave the way for a centralized and dictatorial state and the British Caribbean Bank Limited has filed an application before the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) seeking an injunction to stop the government from passing the Belize Constitution 9th Amendment Bill into law.



Prime Minister Barrow told the BCC that while it indicates it supports enshrining the nationalization of the utility companies in the Belize Constitution, “it does not support the changes to Sections 2 and 69 that the 9th Constitutional Amendment Bill proposes.



“I have looked carefully at the arguments the Council advances for the latter position, but I am sorry to say that I cannot agree with them. Indeed, it is hard to see how the insertion of public control of the utilities into the Constitution could be properly protected without the proposed new Sections 2 and 69.”



Barrow said he is aware that the Council met with the executive of the Belize Bar Association (BBA) prior to making its statement, noting “it is a pity that the Council did not also seek to hear directly from Government.



“…I believe that the Council has been led into grave error by the Executive of the Bar. That Executive has called for the courts to be given the power of judicial review over the merits of Constitutional amendments.



“And it argues that Section 68 of the Constitution, which gives the National Assembly the right to make laws for the peace, order and good government of Belize, is a limitation on the power of Parliament to alter the Constitution.



“Now that power of judicial review over Constitutional amendments, which the Bar Executive seeks, is one the courts do not now have. The 9th Amendment Bill merely underlines that fact. Also, and there is case law on this, Section 68 of the Constitution does not in any way impinge on the authority of the National Assembly to amend the Constitution. It is only Section 69 of the Constitution that deals with the ability, including the limits on that ability, of Parliament to change the Constitution. “



Prime Minister Barrow said that what the Council of Churches and other Belizeans should know “is that in taking its stance the Bar Executive acted contrary to the position of several of its members, including two of the most distinguished of the country's Senior Counsel.



“The Bar position, unfortunately mirrored now by the Council, is also wrong in the extreme. Further, it is rejected by the jurisprudence of every common-law Constitutional Democracy, with the sole exception of India.”



In his letter, Prime Minister Barrow outlines a number of legal arguments on the issue and ends the correspondence by indicating that his government “is still disposed, even though it would be after the fact of the public position that the Council has already taken, to discuss this matter with the Council”.