P.C.C. Introduces Volume 2 of Constitution Summary

In June 2023, the People’s Constitution Commission introduced volume one of a summary of the Belize Constitution. On Saturday, the P.C.C launched the second volume of the summary. Authored by accomplished attorney Richard ‘Dickie’ Bradley, both documents are designed to be user-friendly to offer teachers a tool in the classroom to educate students on the Constitution. The event took place in Punta Gorda during an expo held by the Toledo branch of the Belize National Teachers’ Union. News Five’s Marion Ali was there and filed this report.   

 

Marion Ali, Reporting

Thirteen months after the launch of volume one of a summary of the Belize Constitution, the second volume is complete. The summary makes available a more concise and easy-to-read version of Belize’s Constitution. Chairman of the People’s Constitution Commission, Anthony Chanona says that volume two includes the functions of three key components of Belize’s democracy.

 

Anthony Chanona, Chairman, People’s Constitution Commission

“What you will see in Volume Two, Marion is the three functions of the government, the constitutional government that we have in our country: the executive and it explains how that is formed. You will see the legislature; it explains how that is formed. And then you see the check and balance of the judiciary, which checks the laws coming out from the legislature.  So it also then leads into how these institutions are financed because ultimately the legislature The executive would make policies for expenditure, the legislature enacts laws but the public purse must afford them, so that’s what you will see in Volume Two.”

 

The summaries capture the entire constitution, without much detail. And, judging by one example that Chanona shared of an experience with his own granddaughter, the books are having an impact within the school system.

 

Anthony Chanona

“My youngest grandchild, Madison, called me one night to ask me a question about the Prime Minister and the Cabinet. And I listened to my granddaughter at nine asking me questions. And of course, Grandpa is supposed to know, on how we’re governed. And when I was finished with that phone call, I was not only proud of the teacher who gave this assignment to a nine-year-old primary schooler, but I was thankful to Dickie Bradley and to his efforts because it was telling me, by that phone call, that these books are now in the school system.”

 

Shantel Ramirez, a standard six teacher at Saint Peter Claver Primary School, says her students gravitated to Volume One, so much so that it created lively discussion among them about Belize’s constitution.

 

Shantel Ramirez, Teacher, St. Peter Claver Primary School, PG

“They were really excited about it and so when we started off we introduced the preamble and that really triggered the students into talking about their rights, what they think should happen and how they feel some of their rights had been violated although they have their children’s rights and we have – these are more for adults, but they have a better understanding of what their rights are as Belizean citizens. Understanding the Constitution a lot better than having this huge bulk of information with these huge words that they barely could understand.”

 

Now that both volumes have been disseminated, Chanona says the Commission will be encouraging teachers to introduce the second summary.

 

Anthony Chanona

“We will be visiting the schools in Orange Walk, issuing to the BNTU Volume Two to make it part of the outreach of distributing the book. We just don’t want to deliver them; we want to be able to explain what this same conversation is to the teachers across the country, but the distribution will be through the BNTU.”

 

Marion Ali For News Five.