High Court reopens at Old Treasury Building; Judiciary has ‘new attitude’ says Chief Justice

Published by BBNTEAM at July 2, 2024

Posted: Tuesday, July 2, 2024. 11:07 am CST.

By Aaron Humes: The former Treasury Building on Treasury Lane, which for more than 20 years has been repurposed as the home of the Magistracy and Judiciary and was previously home to the Legislature and Executive, was re-opened Monday morning during special ceremonies.

Following the roof collapsing and other damage during Hurricane Lisa in 2022, the Government of Belize provided $3 million in funding for the renovation and refurbishment of the High Court Building, for which the Judiciary is extremely grateful. The project’s total cost came in under budget at $2.91 million.

Chief Justice Louise Blenman said that with refurbished offices comes a new attitude to justice in Belize, starting with legislative reform of the system itself: “The commissioning of this newly renovated building, quite coincides with and compliments numerous transformative and far-reaching judicial initiatives in Belize which are ongoing and have already yielded tangible results.” She added that the upgraded surroundings contribute to a more effective administration of justice: “As you will expect, an increase in the complement of justices necessitated the number of courtrooms and offices for judges and support staff. We are therefore elated with this high-quality accommodation and look forward to occupying our new quarters which can only enhance our productivity. It bears emphasizing that it is well established that a properly functioning justice system is a cornerstone of good governance. An effective and efficient justice system is essential to the economic improvement and social development of Belize – I am sure the Minister of Finance will be happy to hear me say that. It contributes to our gross domestic product.”

Prime Minister John Briceño is away in Panama but issued a five-and-a-half-minute message to mark the occasion, which he noted comes ironically as Belize watches for another hurricane on the horizon. But he said the Government spared nothing to repair the historic building after Lisa’s ravages – from floors to roof.

Chief Engineer in the Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing, Evondale Moody, told reporters that the refurbished structure can stand up to natural disasters while losing almost none of its original aesthetics: “The idea was to try and retain most of the aesthetics that the original building had because we could not change that and we did not want to change it because we wanted to maintain the integrity of the original structure so starting with the roof, we had to ensure that we constructed a new roof because the entire roof was gone and so we have a new steel structure roof in place, we believe it’s well suited for the conditions that we have in Belize in terms of hurricanes and tropical storm. [With] respect to the building structure itself, we had to do a lot of work in terms of the interior of the building, so what we did was basically gutted out the entire structure and only left the wall standing and we had to go to a new drawing plan in terms of the new layout for the building in terms of the lower flat and also the first floor. So we did that in consultation with the Chief Justice to gather from her what exactly she wanted in terms of courtrooms and the different rooms we have in the entire building.”

According to Moody, about 60 percent of the structure was retained, mostly the outer walls, while century-old wooden beams and some electrical fixtures were replaced.

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