Lawyer says FIBA wrongly interpreted Belize Constitution
As you know by now, the national basketball team won silver at the COCABA championships in August in Cancun, Mexico. The team played under protest because the eligibility of several players were questioned by FIBA officials who felt that the nationality of the Belizean players had to be determined by the age of sixteen. The Belize Basketball Federation challenged FIBA based on our own laws, which provide that any person born from one Belizean parent qualifies automatically for citizenship whether or not that person resides in Belize. Arguments were heard in September and the arbitrator, Doctor Ulrich Haas, ruled on Tuesday from Geneva that the evidence provided by the B.B.F. did not prove that the contested players acquired their nationality by age sixteen. The basketball federation’s attorney, Godfrey Smith, said that the judge wrongly interpreted a section of Belize’s constitution when making his judgment.
Godfrey Smith, Attorney for B.B.F.
“Under the Belize constitution, all of these fellows acquired Belizean nationality because their parents, mother of father were Belizean and so under the Belize constitution, automatically at birth or on independence day, these fellows became citizens. FIBA lawyers argued against that and said no these fellows only got nationality certificates after they became sixteen. The judge of the tribunal agreed with our points that these players became citizens of Belize on Independence Day or on their birthdays by virtue of the Belize constitution but then the judge went on to base his decision on section twenty-seven of the Belize constitution, which wasn’t argued by us or by FIBA. The Belize constitution section twenty-seven, relied on by the judge says that a citizen of Belize who acquired another nationality, may at his option retain his citizenship of Belize. What does that provision mean? To my mind, it’s simply saying that Belize, under our law, we allow dual nationality. If you dah wah Belizean and you become a citizen of another country like the US, you could still keep your Belizean citizenship if yoh want. What the judge did was to latch on that and say okay, you have the option to retain your citizenship if yoh want. What that means, the judge reasoned, is that even though you became a citizen under the constitution, to retain it or to prove that you retain it, you have to do something. You have to step forward and do something otherwise how will we know that you retain it? We disagree with that interpretation. Our view is that it allows you to have two nationalities—Belizean and otherwise—and you don’t have to do anything more. If you don’t want to be a citizen of Belize anymore, then there is a process to deal with that. You can’t just announce well I’m not a citizen of Belize, I don’t want to be a citizen of Belize. You have to under our laws, renounce. So just to summarize, we believe the judge wrongly interpreted and wrongly applied section twenty-seven of the Belize constitution.”
Click here to download full FIBA ruling.
