One other issue that Shoman talked about with the teachers is the status of the Maritime Areas Act. According to Shoman, it was crafted with Belize only claiming 3 miles of its territorial seas between the Sarstoon and the Ranguana to provide a framework for the negotiation of a definitive agreement on territorial differences with the Republic of Guatemala.
Now that those negotiations have failed, and both countries are contemplating going to the ICJ, Shoman says the law is obsolete and needs to be repealed. Here's how he made the case that Belize needs to claim its 12 miles of territorial waters urgently:
Ambassador Assad Shoman - Opposition representative
""Let's look at the Maritime Areas Act. Section 3 (1) says; that the territorial sea of Belize comprises those areas of the sea having as their inner limits the baseline of the territorial sea and, as their outer limits, a line measured seaward from that baseline, every point of which is 12 nautical miles from the nearest point of that baseline. But then subsection 2 says, that from the Sarstoon to the Ranguana instead of 12 miles, we limit that to 3 miles. When under international law we have a right to 12 miles. But subsection 2 says we will limit that to 3 miles. But then it also says "the purpose of that limitation is to provide a framework for the negotiation of a definitive agreement on territorial differences with the Republic of Guatemala". Good. We left that open and the law also said that whatever agreement they come to, we must carry it to referendum. But once we signed the special agreement in 2008, what it says is we don't want to negotiate anymore - this is going to court. We will not negotiate and say that we will give this little piece or that little piece - no piece at all. We will not negotiate the claim anymore. We are going to take it to court. So, why is that Maritime Areas Act still there, that part of it? If we limit ourselves - people from the south especially - if we limit ourselves, to 3 miles so that we could negotiate the rest. We are now saying that we will not negotiate, no. Everything is going to court. Well then we have to proclaim the full 12 miles for the whole of Belize. The whole of Belize must proclaimed a 12 mile limit, because that section of the Maritime Areas Act is obsolete - it's out of date. It's irrelevant and what is worse, it is used by Guatemala to confused people out there and let them think that we already agreed to stay at 3 miles. You see what I am saying? So we have to change that aAct. That's my second recommendation to you, that the Maritime Areas Act be amended".
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