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Barrow’s last stand

HeadlineBarrow’s last stand

The Prime Minister is depending on the opinion of a retired ICJ judge to influence Belizeans to vote “yes” to going to the ICJ

BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Mar. 28, 2019– Prime Minister, Dean O. Barrow will stop at nothing to get the “yes” to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) vote that he has been desperately and relentlessly seeking to ensure.

Just when many Belizeans are getting tired of the coercive ads and the repetitive babble of an ICJ one-sided education campaign, the Prime Minister pulled off what appears to be his final “yes” ICJ pitch when he engaged a former retired ICJ judge to provide an opinion on the Guatemalan claim that would paper over the deficiencies of the government’s national education campaign and make Belizeans feel less fearful about putting the fate of the country in the hands of a panel of foreign ICJ judges.

This afternoon at the Best Western Biltmore Hotel, the PM held a press conference to launch a booklet by retired ICJ judge Stephen M. Schwebel, one of the writers of the 2001 “Legal Opinion on Guatemalan’s Claim to Belize.” Judge Schwebel penned the legal opinion along with Sir Elihu Lauterpacht, Professor Shabtai Rosenne and Professor Francisco Orrego Vicuña.

Judge Schwebel’s opinion is dated March 18 and addressed to “H.E. the Prime Minister Government of Belize.”

While the booklet makes mention of the 2008 Special Agreement signed between Belize and Guatemala, it drew heavily on the legal opinion of 18 years ago.

Seated at the head table with Barrow were the former PUP Foreign Minister, Lisa Shoman, who has been retained as government’s attorney in the constitutional challenge to the Special Agreement, and Belize’s Ambassador to Guatemala, H.E. Ambassador Alexis Rosado.

In his remarks, PM Barrow said, “In just under two weeks, on Wednesday April 10th, Belizeans will vote on an issue that is of the greatest national importance since Independence. I simply cannot overstate the significance of the decision whether or not to go to the ICJ to end forever Guatemala’s claim to Belizean territory. That, of course, is the context in which we are holding today’s press conference.”

The Prime Minister added, “But, doubts and fears among some of our people still exist. And it is my administration’s job, and the duty of all of us that know the indefeasibility of the case for yes, to seek to still those doubts and allay those fears.”

Barrow added, “I believe it is admitted by almost all of us that the seminal Lauterpacht, Schwebel, Rosenne, Orrego-Vicuña Opinion of 2001 does in effect describe Belize’s position as impregnable. The question has been asked, though, whether that opinion, unquestionably authoritative when it was written, is still as valid now, 18 years after, as it was then. And, those who are apprehensive say, the international law principles and circumstances on which the opinion was based may have changed, evolved possibly, to Belize’s detriment.”

Shoman and Rosado also addressed the press conference and a video presentation about the life and work of Judge Schwebel was also shown, and copies of his opinion were passed out to those in attendance at the press conference.

Ambassador Rosado explained that the legal opinion that was commissioned by the Government of Belize was done due to difficulties with Guatemala, which its Constitutional Court had insisted was a nullity.

Rosado said that there were also illegal Guatemalan settlements in Belize, and the settlers were so brazen that they even flew the Guatemalan flag at Santa Rosa.

Belize and Guatemala then went through the Facilitation Process with Sir Elihu Lauterpacht.

Rosado said that the difficulties with Guatemala increased because Guatemalans just walked into Belizean territory as if there were no borders, because their Constitutional Court did not recognize the 1859 Treaty.

After the failure of the Facilitation Process, it was then that the ICJ became an option, Rosado explained. That was when Sir Elihu Lauterpacht and the other experts in International Law were hired to prepare the joint legal opinion on the Guatemalan claim, in 1978.

Rosado added that the British wanted to go to the ICJ, but Guatemala refused.

Shoman read the12 questions and answers that outlined Judge Schwebel’s opinion, following which the head table fielded questions from the media.

During the question and answer session, Amandala asked Prime Minister Barrow if the government would abide by the decision of the court if the injunction to stop the referendum that is being sought by the Opposition parliamentarians is granted.

“I wouldn’t have any choice. We are subject to the rule of law. Whatever decision the court makes has to be respected,” PM Barrow answered.

Shoman also responded to our question. She said, emphatically: “In my view, there will be a referendum on April 10.”

Shoman went on to say that the claim was brought “at this very late date, at the 11th hour,” and that it is really a political question and has nothing to do with the validity of the referendum.

The legal opinion of the attorneys Dickie Bradley, Antony Sylvestre and Kareem Musa on which the Opposition parliamentarians’ constitutional challenged is based, however, pointed out that there is nothing in Belize’s domestic law to support the referendum that was triggered by the Special Agreement.

The claimants are therefore asking the court to declare the Special Agreement as unconstitutional, because it is in violation of the doctrine of the separation of powers.

The injunction, which is part of the constitutional challenge, will be heard on Monday, April 1, and the substantive argument will be heard at a later date to be set by the Supreme Court.

In its push for a “yes” to the ICJ vote in the referendum, the Barrow administration also has “resurrected” remarks attributed to national hero Hon. Philip Goldson, and Father of the Nation George Price, both of whom have passed away, but the government’s Referendum Unit has erected large billboards in the cities and towns and on the highways all across the country that carry images of these men and suggest that they would have been in favor of taking the claim to the ICJ.

Earlier during the year, Barrow who is also a former foreign minister, trotted out four former People’s United Party government foreign ministers who all signed a declaration in support of going to the ICJ. The former PUP foreign ministers are Rt. Hon. Said Musa, Lisa Shoman, Assad Shoman and Godfrey Smith.

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