A Public Town Hall Meeting on Taking Territorial Claim to the I.C.J.

At eight-thirty tonight, the third in a series of town hall meetings on taking the territorial claim to the International Court of Justice gets underway at the University of the West Indies Open Campus in Belize City. Here at Great Belize Productions/Channel Five, on this occasion, we partnered with U.W.I. for the televised live event. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Wilfred Elrington and Ambassador Alexis Rosado will be discussing the issue and the public will have an opportunity to ask questions relating to the process and the referendum that takes place on April tenth, 2019. Attorney Kevin Arthurs and I will be the moderators to this very important discussion. There is still time for you to head out to U.W.I., but here’s more on what takes place tonight.

Marleni Cuellar

Marleni Cuellar, Moderator, Town Hall Session

“Following the announcement of the date of the Belize Referendum, we knew we had a role to play as a media house and as a morning show to keep people informed on the issue. So we started a series of what are called town hall sessions. The first was held including representatives from different sectors and those panellists were allowed to ask their questions directly to the government representatives that were there—the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Ambassador Alexis Rosado. We followed up two months later with a second town hall session; this was one that was done with representatives of tertiary level institutions as well as youth organizations, so it was young people asking their questions to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and then C.E.O. Patrick Andrews about what concerned them, what lingering questions they needed answered in making their decision in April 2019 on whether or not to take this claim to the I.C.J.  The third in the series is what is taking place tonight. That is going to be our first public town hall session. This, we decided to partner with the University of West Indies Open Campus Belize because they have the expertise in hosting public forums. So working together we’ve created this event where any person can come into the auditorium and they can participate in this very important conversation. We have confirmed that Minister Elrington will be there as well as Ambassador Rosado and they will be answering directly the questions that people from the Belizean public have about whether it is the education campaign, whether it is about the process of going to the I.C.J., the risks involved; whatever it is that concerns them or whatever questions they need answered, this is the opportunity to do so in a live televised format and within the span of two hours.”