May 1, 2013

The People’s United Party expresses its shock and deep concern at the unspeakable tragedy that unfolded last weekend in which a mother took the lives of three of her four children and attempted to take her own.  The Party believes that this unprecedented incident brings into sharp focus the extreme challenges that many women and families face in Belize today, due especially to rising poverty, unemployment, and the increase in domestic violence and abuse based on reports.

As a Party we feel strongly that the Belizean public should withhold a rush to judgment against the accused mother and await the relevant facts.   Further we express our deepest sympathy to the families of these young children as they prepare to lay them to rest.

All  Stakeholders  including  Government,  NGO’s  and  Civil  Society must  adopt  an  attitude  of urgency to address the serious problems of the abuse of minors, and women in particular so that there can be no reoccurrence of the conditions that can lead to such result.

We all have a responsibility to heighten our awareness of and to respond to families and children who are in need or experiencing severe stress. Likewise we must ensure that we struggle every day to prevent gender based violence and to make sure that young girls of 14 or 15 years of age or less do not become pregnant and thus fall into a vicious cycle of dependency and vulnerability to awful domestic abuse.

Hon Julius Espat

April 30, 2013

 PUP Press Release 

The People’s United Party’s (PUP) members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) are concerned with the recent pattern of intimidation and possible victimization tactics by the United Democratic Party and the present Government to cease public discussion on the potential misuse of public funds.  The PUP members of the PAC cite the following as current targets:

• The Office of the Auditor General and the Auditor General herself were grossly discredited in the Guardian Newspaper dated April 25, 2013 for “…not qualifying [her 2010-2011 Audit] Report”; and further threatened by stating that the Auditor General’s “…behaviour is rather unforgiveable”.
• Business Senator Mark Lizarraga was similarly chastised and threatened in the same Guardian newspaper dated April 25, 2013.
• Plus TV and Co-host Of Rise and Shine Mr. Patrick Andrews are being sued by a member of Cabinet for daring to question the expenditure of public funds.
• After Justice Oswell Legall handed down two landmark rulings against the Government recently, PM Dean Barrow described the judgement as “egregiously wrong” in his public criticism of Judge Legall’s judgement to the Press yesterday.

The PUP members of the PAC call on the people of Belize to be vigilant on the issue of accountable and transparent management of public funds and to give support to all organizations and individuals who speak out with basis for such, as a way of ameliorating the possibility of corruption.

 END

Press Release on Important Supreme Court Decisions Against GoB

The People’s United Party (PUP) notes with interest two very important Supreme Court decisions made last week against the Government of Belize, namely, the Oceana Decision and the Bar Association Constitutional Challenge. In the Oceana case the Court ruled that various Offshore Contracts were not valid as not having complied with the Environmental Protection Act. Secondly, the Court ruled in favour of the Bar Association that short term contracts for Judges are unconstitutional because they violate the requirement that Judges must have security of tenure. The PUP fully supports the Court rulings and pledges to abide by these decisions in a PUP government. In addition the next PUP Government will:

 respect the decision made in the People’s Referendum on Offshore Oil exploration as held by Oceana.

 not issue any Oil exploration licenses which are not in full compliance with the Laws of Belize inclusive of the requirement for an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), and no licenses will be issued to a company which clearly lacks the capacity to carry out oil exploration.

We regard the Constitutional Amendments which have been struck down by the court as attempts by the Barrow Administration to undermine the Rule of Law and the independence of the Judiciary. The decision of the Court vindicates the condemnation of those amendments and upholds the requirement for security of tenure for Judges. In abiding by the Court’s decision the next PUP government will not offer short term appointments to Judges, so that Judges will enjoy full security of tenure.

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