Council of Churches Says First P.C.C Public Meeting was Successful

The first in a series of public educational meetings, aimed at building awareness and understanding of issues related to Belize’s Constitution and proposals for its reform has been held jointly by the religious community and the People’s Constitution Commission.  The meeting was held with the Belize Council of Churches, the National Evangelical Association of Belize and the P.C.C. held the symposium last Thursday at the Saint Catherine Academy auditorium with almost five hundred persons in attendance. A release issued today by the Belize Council of Churches states in part that the attendees listened to a presentation on the Preamble to the Constitution by attorney, Dickie Bradley, and an address by Professor Robert Destro of Columbus School of Law, who is also the former U.S. Government Secretary of State for Human Rights on Fundamental Rights and Freedoms. The Council has quoted Professor Destro as saying that the first time he looked at the Preamble to Belize’s Constitution, he concluded that it was one of the most impressive pieces of statecraft that he had seen. Chairman of the Commission, Anthony Chanona and the Assistant Chair, Denfield Dennison spoke about the Commission’s work and responded to questions from the audience. Copies of pamphlets titled: “A Guide to the Belize Constitution”, “The Fundamental Rights of the People of Belize” and “A Brief Summary of the Belize Constitution Volume I” were made available to the attendees for background information. The Council informed that their representative on the Commission, Maria Zabaneh, will organize a series of public lectures in the coming months.