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Hi,
My name is Carolyn Reynolds and I am the Executive Director of Women's Issues Network of Belize (WIN-Belize) which is a network of agencies working on the issues of trafficking in persons, teenage pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, youth and women's empowerment through skills training, and advocacy on policies and laws affecting the lives of women. A few years ago, our organization developed an advocacy campaign on the issue of discriminatory practices in our Education system here in Belize. This was a challenge for the schools are church/state and most of the primary schools are managed by the Catholic Church. We held a dialogue with the religious leaders on the issue of firing teachers who became pregnant out of wedlock. In this dialogue, the Catholic Bishop said that the Catholic Doctrine took precedence over our Constitution. The issue of morality and setting an example for children were their reasons for firing teachers. At the same we were agitating for changes in school policies, a teacher from one of our districts had just been fired and asked us to assist her in challenging the system. The National Women's Commission took charge of this case and the court rules that the teacher be paid US$50,000.00. This was appealed by the Catholic Church and she was then awarded US$25,000.00. Belize has a National Gender Policy which states that in the event that a teacher is penalised by a school authority due to pregnancy decides to pursue judicial review, GOB shall offer to meet 50% of her costs in that legal process, in order to try to establish a precedent applicable across the education sector. Therefore, this document along with other documents and international treaties were used to justify this case. Another form of discrimination is the issue of pregnant teens being expelled from some schools. However, there also needs to develop a supportive system for these youth in order for them to return to the classroom. Wage inequality is also a discriminatory issue for there were three levels of wage scales for manual labors and women were at the bottom of the scale. After much lobbyingby civil society, the minimum wage for all manual workers be $3.00 an hour by the end of 2010. The cost of education in our high schools is also a very big issue and programs cannot come on stream because of lack of finances.
Please feel free to contact me if there any further questions or information you might need.