Attorney General responds to concerns
When he rose on the adjournment, Attorney General Francis Fonseca addressed several issues raised by the CJ in his opening remarks. Among them was Justice Conteh’s concern that court appointed lawyers are not being appropriately paid and that the inadequate compensation discouraged qualified attorneys from taking on cases of those defendants who cannot afford the high price of justice.
Francis Fonseca, Attorney General
?I think the chief justice?s concern is a very valid and legitimate one. As n attorney I remember those fees myself only too well. And we have bee discussing that very issue for some time now. The executive, the attorney general?s ministry along with the judiciary and the bar association of Belize, we have been looking at that issue. And our commitment really is to try and improve the fees certainly but also I think the general concern is with legal aid in general. And I think we have to do a lot to strengthen the legal aid office, the legal aid services centre here in Belize City. As you know we have opened legal information bureaus in Belmopan, in Orange Walk town and in Dangriga town. And those legal information officers, the intention is for those legal information bureaus to feed into the legal aid centre here in Belize City. And so we want to get everyone engaged. As I called for in my address this morning I called for the bar association to work with our ministry and the judiciary to come together so that we can come up with a comprehensive solution for legal aid which has really been plaguing our society for a very long time. Obviously we need to ensure that those person most at need benefit from that legal aid. So we are committed to doing that.?
Patrick Jones
?For the third year in a row the chief justice mentioned that the amount of money allocated to the judiciary is not what he expected it to be. There was an improvement last year. He basically said that to skimp on the judiciary is short sighted and undermined ultimately the independence of the judiciary. Can we expect an improvement in the budget to run the judiciary?
Francis Fonseca
?Again, a very valid concern. Yes, certainly we have been working toward that. As the chief justice pointed out we had a fairly good improvement over last year; this fiscal year. This fiscal year in terms of the environment we?re operating under, we?re trying to hold where we are so that the commitment remains to strengthen the budget for the judiciary. But it is an ongoing challenge. And we recognize and we share the sentiment of the chief justice that we should be committing sufficient funds to the judiciary. The judiciary of course, as I mention is really the bedrock of our society in terms of protecting the rule of law and protecting the fundamental rights and freedoms of all our people.?
Patrick Jones
?Sexual molestation of young people a concern for the chief justice again. What can the attorney general?s ministry do, if anything at all to look at this very disturbing trend??
Francis Fonseca
?It is a very, very disturbing trend and we are all very alarmed, the entire Government of Belize is very alarmed at the development that is taking place and we have been working on it. The Ministry of Human Development has been working very closely with the Attorney General?s Ministry, we?ve been looking at the specific areas of concern that they have raised with us, we formed a working group to discuss the specific crimes that are being committed and how we can strengthen the laws to address those crimes. As I pointed out, it is my intention in the next few months to disseminate a working paper of criminal justice. And incorporated very importantly in that paper will be the issue of sexual abuse, domestic violence, and certainly crimes committed against children. As I pointed out in my address, we have to do everything in our power as a society to ensure that we protect those who are vulnerable and of course the most vulnerable among us is our children.?
Fonseca says that included in his working paper on criminal justice is a proposal to get rid of the preliminary enquiries in order to reduce the time it takes for a case to go to trial in the Supreme Court, a review of the evidence act to make maximum use of witness statements and ways of protecting witnesses who are afraid of testifying in open court.
