Senate Passes Marriage Act Amendments

Several Bills were brought over from the House this morning and presented before the Senate.  In total there were 15 Bills and one motion that the legislature was able to debate and ratify within five hours today.  The meeting opened just after nine o’clock with the Resolution for the Expansion of the Protection of Belize’s Total Ocean Space and the Medium Bio-Diversity Protection Zones Motion, 2024.  Essentially, it is a motion that the Government is obliged to pass as a part of its agreement under the Blue Bond, and one that will see twenty five percent of its ocean declared as Biodiversity Protection Zones (BPZs).  We will bring you the debate on this motion later in our news, but first we fast forward to a very important Bill that went through its second and third readings today.  The amendments to the Marriage Act were passed without objections, disallowing anyone younger than 18 years old to get married.  UDP’s Lead Senator, Michael Peyrefitte supported the amendment giving credit and praise to the government for the move.

Michael Peyrefitte, Senator: “There have been instances when children are pressured to, some cases some would say practically sold off. Grown men who want to marry little girls especially because that’s the target of the criminal activities that have been taking place of this concept. Madam President what I know for sure in the criminal courts in particular you would have these men who would commit the crime of unlawful carnal knowledge, Madam President, who would be engaged in sexual acts with young girls under 16 years old and to protect them from prosecution they would go and bribe the parents or bribe the people to have these children marry them so that they can’t under the law as their wife testify against them in a court of law which gets them Scott free from that very very egregious crime. It is a good piece of legislation Madam President. I think that marriage is such a serious act and a serious responsibility that you can only be engaged in that act on your own free will and I think to use the number 18 is indicative of what we look at at the age of 18. At the age of 18 you are an adult and you should only enter into that union assuming you have the right faculties and it is a decision that you are making for yourself especially our young ladies. So Madam President the law is now on the verge of being chased to say you can only get married if you’re an adult and nobody can force you or make you get married to who you do not want to get married to. So we praise the legislation and we congratulate the government as much as it pains me to say that we congratulate the government on changing the law. We are in full support on this side of the assembly Madam President and we give kudos to the bill being passed today.”

Senator for Government Business, Eamon Courtenay, also spoke in favor of the legislation, noting that there are many parties to thank for advocating and pushing for these changes in marriage laws.

Eamon Courtenay, Senator of Government Business: “This is a human rights issue. I put it as high as that because Madam President for too long we have allowed in our country infants to be married and infants to be married with the consent of their parents. In any maturing and evolving democracy as we are which is founded on a constitution which guarantees to each person equality before the law and the equal protection of the law child marriage and early union should be made unlawful. I believe to pay tribute, to give our thanks, to give our recognition to the organizations like the National Committee for Families and Children, the National Women’s Commission, the UNICEF and all the stakeholders in that space who have toiled and advocated endlessly and for too long for us to arrive here today. Let us together pay tribute to them and thank them for their hard work and their advocacy and of course the leadership of Minister the Honorable Dolores Balderamos Garica and Ms.Thea Garcia soon to be Honorable who have worked and brought this legislation through the Cabinet to this National Assembly. Madam President all those people we owe a debt of gratitude because this legislation is timely, in fact it is overdue.”

Union Senator, Glenfield Dennison, not only rose to support the Marriage Act amendments, but he also spoke on his experience as a prosecutor dealing with minors and cases of a sexual nature.

The other fourteen Bills passed in today’s Senate surround business at the Social Security; the National Health Insurance Scheme; Income and Business Taxes; as well as the People’s Constitution Commission, among others.  We will have more from the Senate later in this newscast.