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The Human Rights Commission of Belize today held an award ceremony for those who entered their primary school poster competition and to present the winner of the Human Rights song competition.  Secretary of the Board of Directors for HRCB, Antionette Moore gave Love News an in debt view of what the poster competition entailed

ANTIONETTE MOORE, Secretary of the Board of Directors

“The Human Rights Commission of Belize was involved in a six months human right education campaign. We went throughout the country doing lectures at the tertiary institutions, doing workshops in communities and we thought that the best way to reach all of the student, the primary age students, was to do it through a poster contest.  That is a popular medium that is used in many other areas and so we ask the Ministry of Education and the teachers if they would be involved in teaching the  children about Human Rights so that they can then do  art work about what Human Rights means to me.  That was the theme of the poster contest and twenty seven entries from twelve schools participated and as you can see all around me they’re beautiful entries some are very profound and touching that talk about the crisis that we’re in, in terms of violent crime, some talks about imprisonment and some talk really about some very serious subjects for young children.  There’s one that I think is the third place winner that really deals with issue of discrimination, he has a picture of an abstract face that is all different colours an half of it is sort of female and half of it is male and you can see the abstract nature of it but just saying that we’re all different but we’re all equal and so that’s what Human Rights meant to him.  The winning poster is a very positive poster which is one of the reasons it won really. Very positive an uplifting, very colourful and it really shows people along a path, together in unity, reaching equality and justice.  So we thought it was important to reach the primary school children and we thought this was the easiest and best was to do it and we believe that we were right by the outcome.  The pictures are incredible and the children themselves really want to know more about human rights and have an understanding already about basic human rights.”

NATALIE NOVELO

“Can you tell me about some of the criteria that was used to judge the posters?”

ANTIONETTE MOORE, Secretary of the Board of Directors

“Well the posters were primarily judged on the art work and obviously that’s one.  The message of know what Human Rights mean to me, so the knowledge of human rights and so the messaging that came through the art work, the clarity.  There were several criteria but those were primarily the criteria really, the art and the message of human rights and what it meant to that particular child.  So for some of the children it meant really the deprivation of life, the crime.  One child, and I think his is the second place winner, dedicated his poster, and it’s really incredible, to the little boy Matura who was killed was a friend of his.  So some of them are very personal and some are broader, speak to the broader societal issues.”       

First place for the poster competition was obtained by Edgar Trujillo, Kelin Barrera, Melqui Tiul and Wilbert Barrera from St. Joseph R.C School in Cotton Tree Village.  They won a computer and one thousand two hundred dollars for their school with their group poster.  Those attending were delighted with the presentation of the Human Rights song by winner “Positive Vibes” who walked away with three thousand dollars.  Moore spoke to us about the song competition

ANTIONETTE MOORE, Secretary of the Board of Directors

“I wasn’t among the judges who picked the song but I was tapping my foot as I listened to it too.  So I think its been about three months that we have been soliciting submission for the song contest.  When I say the word positive it made me think of the song contest because Positive Vibes won.  He won with the song no matter what age, no matter what race, no matter what colour, he has Human Rights and we hope that song will start to be heard throughout the country.  I can’t remember how many submissions and I wasn’t among the people who determined the winner.  One of the members from the Human Rights Commission did but the other two persons were in the music field, in the industry because we thought it should be as professionally determined as possible.  And so for few months, we had some incredible songs and we’re also hoping that we can do something broader with all of the songs if given permission because people should hear them.”

Moore says HRCB plans to encompass all songs entered into the competition in one cd since most songs were exceptional.