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Belize - Second periodic report of States parties due in 1997: Addendum [2004] UNCRCSPR 10; CRC/C/65/Add.29 (13 July 2004)
UNITED NATIONS
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CRC
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Convention on the Rights of the Child
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Distr. GENERAL
CRC/C/65/Add.29 13 July 2004
Original: ENGLISH
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COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD
CONSIDERATION OF
REPORTS SUBMITTED BY STATES PARTIES UNDER ARTICLE 44 OF THE CONVENTION
Second periodic report of States parties due in 1997
BELIZE*
[28
February 2003]
CONTENTS
Paragraphs Page
Acronyms 5
Introduction 7
I. General Measures of Implementation (Arts. 4, 42 & 44) 15-34 10
II. Definition of the Child (Art. 1) 35-38 16
III. General Principles 39-43 19
A. Non-Discrimination (Art. 2) 44-53 21
B. Best Interests of the Child (Art. 3) 54-58 23
C. The right to life, survival and development (Art. 6) 59-64 24
D. Respect for the views of the child (Art. 12) 26
IV. Civil Rights and Freedoms 26
A. Name & nationality (Art. 7) 65-73 26
B. Preservation of identity (Art. 8) 65-73 26
C. Freedom of expression (Art. 13) 74-84 28
D. Freedom of thought, conscience and religion (Art. 14) 74-84 28
E. Freedom of association and peaceful assembly (Art. 15) 74-84 29
F. Protection of privacy (Art. 16) 74-84 29
G. Access to appropriate information (Art. 17) 74-84 29
H. The right not to be subjected to torture or other cruel,
inhuman
or degrading treatment or punishment (Art. 37 (a)) 85-89 33
V. Family Environment and Alternative Care 34
A. Parental guidance (Art. 5) 91-96 34
B. Parental responsibilities (Art. 18 (1) & (2)) 91-96 34
C. Separation from parents (Art. 9) 97-99 36
D. Family reunification (Art. 10) 97-99 37
CONTENTS (continued)
Paragraphs Page
E. Illicit transfer and non-return (Art. 11) 97-99 37
F. Recovery of maintenance for the child (Art. 27 (4)) 100-108 38
G. Children deprived of their family environment (Art. 20) 106-114 39
H. Adoption (Art. 21) 115-123 43
I. Periodic review of placement (Art. 25) 124-127 45
J. Abuse and neglect (Art. 19), including physical and psychological
recovery and social reintegration (Art. 39) 128-158 47
VI. Basic Health and Welfare 54
A. Disabled children (Art. 23) 159-168 54
B. Health and health services (Art. 24) 169-211 57
C. Social security and child care services and facilities 67
(Arts.
18 (3) & 26) 212-222 67
D. Standard of Living (Art. 27 (1)-(3)) 223-228 70
VII. Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities 71
A. Education, including vocational training and guidance (Art.
28) 229-255 71
B. Aims of education (Art. 29) 256-263 80
C. sure, recreation and cultural activities (Art. 31) 264-266 81
VIII. Special Protection Measures 81
A. Children in situations of emergency (Arts. 22, 38 &
39) 267-271 82
B. Children involved with the system of administration of
juvenile
justice (Arts. 37, 39 & 40) 272-295 84
C. Children in situations of exploitation, including physical
and
psychological recovery and social reintegration
(Arts. 32, 33, 34, 35 &
36) 296-314 94
D. Children belonging to a minority or an indigenous
group (Art.
30) 315-338 100
CONTENTS (continued)
Paragraphs Page
Primary References 107
Attachments
A. The Laws of Belize, 2000: Titles and Chapters (Selected List) 108
B. Inventory of Opportunities and Priorities for Action 109
C. Principal Statistical Indicators: World Summit & Lima Accord
Year
2000 Commitments 117
D. Legislative Amendments since Initial Report 126
E. Families and Children Act, 1998: First Schedule (Section 3) 129
F. Summary of Recommendations made by Committee on the
Rights of the
Child in its Concluding Observations on Belize’s
Initial
Report 130
ACRONYMS
AIDS Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
ARI Acute Respiratory Infection
BCVI Belize Council for the Visually Impaired
BFLA Belize Family Life Association
BNTF Basic Needs Trust Fund
BSS Basic Social Services
BYDC Belize Youth Development Centre
CAC Children’s Advisory Committee
CARICOM Caribbean Community
COMPAR Community and Parenting Empowerment Project
CRC Convention on the Rights of the Child
CRD Community Rehabilitation Department
CRO Community Rehabilitation Officer
CSO Central Statistical Office
DHS Department of Human Services
DPT Diphtheria Pertussus Tetanus vaccine
EPI Expanded Program of Immunisation
FHS Family Health Survey
FSD Family Services Division
GDP Gross Domestic Product
GOB Government of Belize
HIV Human Immuno-deficiency Virus
HRCB Human Rights Commission of Belize
ILO International Labour Organisation
IMR Infant Mortality Rate
MCH Maternal and Child Health
MED Ministry of Economic Development
MHD Ministry of Human Development, Women and Children and Civil Society
MM Ministerial Meeting on Children and Social Policy in the Americas
MoE Ministry of Education
MoH Ministry of Health
NCFC National Committee for Families and Children
NDACC National Drug Abuse Control Council
NGO Non-governmental Organisation
NHDAC National Human Development Advisory Committee
NHI National Health Insurance
NHIS National Health Information System
NOPCA National Organisation for the Prevention of Child Abuse
ORT Oral Rehydration Therapy
PAHO Pan-American Health Organisation
PHB Public Health Bureau
PHC Primary Health Care
PPU Policy and Planning Unit (MHD)
QUADS Quality Assurance and Development Services
SEU Special Education Unit (MoE)
SHAPES School Health and Physical Education Services
SIC Social Indicators Committee
SIF Social Investment Fund
STI Sexually transmitted infection
TBA Traditional Birth Attendants
TFR Total Fertility Rate
U5MR Under-Five Mortality Rate
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
UNHCR United Nations High Commission for Refugees
UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund
UNDP United Nations Development Programme
WHO World Health Organisation
WSC World Summit for Children
YEA Youth Enhancement Academy
YES Youth Enhancement Service
YMCA Young Men’s Christian Association
YWCA Young Women’s Christian Associatio
INTRODUCTION
- This
Second Periodic Report covers the five year period since the preparation of
Belize’s Initial Report of 1996. It notes
improvements in Belize’s
compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), in terms of
legislative reform, enabling
administrative arrangements, programs and services,
as well as parallel shortcomings in a range of provisions for children, many
of
which demand urgent redress. Consequently, attention is also given in this
report to identifying priorities for concerted action
in order to strengthen
Belize’s compliance with the CRC over the next few years.
- At
the outset, the Government of Belize (GOB) reaffirms its ongoing and strong
commitment to respect and ensure observance with the
intentions, provisions and
obligations of the CRC. In the period since preparing and submitting its
Interim Report to the Committee
on the Rights of the Child in 1996, GOB has
undertaken a number of further reforms and improvements in the legislative,
administrative,
policy and service frameworks in support of the enhancement of
the rights of children and of the quality of and access to accompanying
programs
and assistance. Fundamental to such progress has been GOB’s close
collaboration and partnership with a range of national
and local non-government
organisations (NGOs) and international and multilateral agencies.
- At
the same time, GOB continues to fully participate in the formal regional
mechanism of Ministerial Meetings (MMs) on Children and
Social Policy in the
Americas to evaluate at regular intervals the progress made toward attaining the
specific development goals
adopted at the 1990 World Summit for Children (WSC).
Belize has participated in such biennial meetings since their inception in
1992.
The most recent MM was held in Jamaica in October 2000 with the main objectives
of:
- Reporting on
national progress made toward the Lima Accord (1998), which encompassed all WSC
goals; and
- Utilising the
lessons learned during the past decade, as a contribution to the present
decade’s Agenda for Children in Latin
America and the
Caribbean.
- Of
particular note within the Caribbean sub-region, Belize hosted the major
gathering of CARICOM member states at the 1996 Caribbean
Conference on the
Rights of the Child: Meeting the Post Ratification Challenge. Insofar as
Belize’s embrace of its membership
of the global community, since 1996
Belize has also joined as a State party to a number of multilateral agreements
relevant to the
child.
- At
the national level, GOB has taken significant steps to strengthen the central
legislative and administrative base in advancing
the rights of the child. The
Families and Children Act 1998 establishes the major legal framework in this
regard, and is reported
upon in more detail at Chapter I.
- In
addition, and essentially to strengthen arrangements for alternatives to
incarceration in the juvenile justice system, the Community
Rehabilitation
Department (CRD) was established in early 2001 within the Ministry of Human
Development, Women and Children and Civil
Society (MHD). That Department aims
to reduce the rate of imprisonment of minor offenders, enact 1983 legislation
which provided
for the application of Community Service Orders, and give a
clearer focus to community rehabilitation efforts. Its major responsibilities
are the coordination and administration of Community Service Orders, the Youth
Hostel, and probation and parole services, and CRD’s
creation also eases
the enormous burden on the Department of Human Services (DHS) (previously the
Department of Human Development).
The Penal System Reform (Alternative
Sentences) Act 2001 came into effect in early 2002 and gives legislative
substance to GOB’s
reforms of the juvenile justice system by prescribing
the responsibilities of CRD and the provisions for alternatives to imprisonment
(for adults as well as young people). These matters are discussed in Chapter
VIII, Section B.
- Belize
continues to suffer from inadequate data collection by various Government
agencies and consequential problems in collating
core statistical indicators.
This is evident from the table of data concerning World Summit Goals
(Attachment C). Several associated points need to be made at the outset.
First, many data, whilst reliable, need to be treated with caution, as
Belize’s small population base means that some data may fluctuate markedly
from year to year without indicating an associated
trend (this is the case, for
example, with data on mortality and infectious diseases). In such cases, it may
take some years of
performance within specified indicative benchmarks to be
sufficiently confident of sustainable progress in that area.
- Second,
data presented in this report relate to the period prior to Hurricane Iris,
which hit Belize on 8-9 October 2001 and devastated
large areas of the southern
districts of Toledo and Stann Creek. Toledo, in particular, suffers from
substantial concentrations
of the most vulnerable, isolated and impoverished
communities. An estimated 10,000 children were left homeless by Iris, and the
difficulties newly confronting many already disadvantaged children are not able
to be formally incorporated into this report. In
addition, Hurricane Iris also
meant that many records were lost and relevant social research deferred in the
wake of reconstruction
efforts (for example, the current Poverty Assessment
Study). It is further worth noting that, when Hurricane Iris hit, Belize was
still in the process of reconstruction efforts following the effects of
Hurricane Keith in 2000 (which mainly hit the popular northern
tourist reef
resorts) and Hurricane Chantelle of mid-2001. Collectively, these three
hurricanes inflicted an estimated $1 billion
damage on Belizean households and
communities, agricultural industries and tourism markets. As far as possible,
this report does,
however, include information since Iris (to the end of 2001)
on programs and services, legislative and administrative infrastructure,
and the
general situation affecting children in Belize, but it is emphasised that the
socioeconomic situation confronting many children
has consequentially
deteriorated – albeit temporarily – in that period, and it has been
essential for GOB and many international
and multilateral agencies to divert
resources into emergency operations.
- Third,
the Social Indicators Committee is well-placed to address questions of agency
data collection and the filling of gaps in missing
data records, and to assume a
‘clearinghouse’ role on social sector research and statistics.
Finally, disaggregated
data from the national Population Census 2000 are only
currently becoming available. This may mean that some data in this report
may
be capable of being updated or elaborated in the coming months.
- For
all the progress which Belize has made since its Initial Report, there remain a
number of areas where children continue to suffer
from poor access to services,
inadequate assistance and persistent disadvantage. These are commented on
within the report, but include:
- persistent
problems in school participation and retention during the years of compulsory
schooling;
- renewed risks
from a reduction in early childhood screening for disabilities as Government
ceased its service provision role in disability
services;
- continuing
unsatisfactory levels of birth registration, especially within more remote parts
of the nation;
- a deteriorating
situation concerning HIV/AIDS, particularly insofar as it impacts women and
children;
- ongoing high
levels of youth offending and violence, especially in urban areas;
- evidence of a
deepening unemployment and underemployment crisis for women in particular
(significant, given the high proportion of
female-headed households); and
- persistent
(although declining) high rates of teenage pregnancy.
- These
are all problems which Government acknowledges as an essential prerequisite to
adequately confronting the concomitant public
policy challenges. Such issues
are also evident in the presentation of principal statistical indicators
according to the World Summit
Goals (see Attachment C).
- The
National Committee for Families and Children (NCFC) continues to serve as the
primary mechanism to coordinate and monitor efforts
to implement the CRC in
Belize. In the first two to three years since the Initial Report, the NCFC
produced various practical instruments,
such as the publication, A Right to a
Future (1996) (an update of the initial 1994 issue), manuals for the
establishment and operation of child day-care centres, and the preparatory
work
in drafting the Families and Children Act 1998. Following changes of personnel
and in the composition of the Committee (which
included the removal of the Chief
Statistician and temporary removal of the Director of the Family Court) and a
loss of focus and
momentum, it is widely considered that the NCFC became largely
non-functional. In late 2001, the Government appointed a new Chairperson,
Executive Director and Program Coordinator, and commenced reestablishment of its
work program and of a functional Committee. NCFC
has been implementing an
ambitious and focussed work program throughout 2002. In mid-2002, it received a
substantial (87%) increase
in GOB funding.
- The
Belize-hosted 1996 Caribbean Conference on the Rights of the Child included
significant input by children and young people. Following
that Conference, the
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) resourced the establishment of a
national Children’s Advisory
Committee (CAC), comprising children drawn
from across the country and representative of different sectors, including
children in
institutions. The CAC works in close cooperation with the
revitalised NCFC.
- Together,
it is apparent that, in the period since the Initial Report, Belize has markedly
strengthened its national coordinating
framework, accompanying legislative
foundations and enabling service delivery effort. This is not without due
recognition of enormous
efforts which need to be taken in Belize in addressing
the needs and rights of children. This first Periodic Report attempts to
objectively acknowledge such areas of work, alongside reporting on progress
achieved in the past six years.
I.GENERAL MEASURES OF IMPLEMENTATION
Article 4
States Parties shall undertake all appropriate legislative, administrative
and other measures for the implementation of the rights
recognized in the
present Convention. With regard to economic, social and cultural rights, States
Parties shall undertake such measures
to the maximum extent of their available
resources and, where needed, within the framework of international co-operation.
- As
foreshadowed in the Initial Report – and advised in the supplementary
report to the Committee in 1998 – GOB adopted
and implemented the Families
and Children Act. This Act resulted from almost three years of consultation by
the NCFC in the period
1995-97. The long title of the Act states that it is an
Act
“to reform and consolidate the law relating to families
and children; to provide for the care, protection and maintenance of
children;
to make provision with respect to the fostering and adoption of children; to
repeal the Adoption of Children Act, ... the Family Maintenance Act, ... the
Infants Act, he Status of Children Act, ... the Children Born out of Wedlock
Act, [and]... the Legitimacy Act ”.
- The
Act attempts to provide a comprehensive legislative framework for the care and
protection of children and families in accordance
with the principles and
provisions of the CRC. The Guiding Principles of the Act are set out in its
First Schedule, and embody fundamental
tenets to guide the courts and others in
the determination of issues regarding children. Section 1 provides
that:
“ Whenever the state, a court, a Government agency or
any person determines any question with respect:
a) o the upbringing of a child; or
b) the administration of a child´s property or the application of any
income arising from it; the child’s welfare shall
be the paramount
consideration
Section 4 (c) of the First Schedule states that a child shall have the
right:
“ to exercise, in addition to all the rights stated in this Schedule
and the Act, all the rights set out in the U.N. Convention
on the Rights of the
Child with appropriate modifications to suit the circumstances in Belize, that
are not specifically mentioned
in the Act or in this Schedule”.
- To strengthen
that legislation, amendments were made in 1999 to that Act as well as to the
Criminal Code. These amendments provided,
inter alia, for:
- the mandatory
reporting of cases of child abuse;
- the treatment of
rape within marriage as a criminal offence;
- a formal mandate
for the NCFC; and
- raising the age
of criminal responsibility from 7 years to 9 years.
- Initial
efforts to ensure a comprehensive national strategy for children (the drafting
in the early 1990s of a National Plan of Action
for Children), was subsequently
subsumed into work on a National Plan of Action for Human Development,
consistent with the regional
initiative of Central American Presidents. This
was completed in 1994, but has never been formally adopted. Effectively, the
mechanism
now responsible for associated monitoring and oversighting of such
effort, and for ensuring implementation of the CRC, is the NCFC.
At the same
time, MHD remains responsible for Government’s policy development and
coordination, and for the development and
delivery of associated services and
programs to families and children, through its Family Services Division (FSD),
DHS.
- This
requires close collaboration between NCFC and FSD personnel, as well as between
NCFC’s Executive Director and the Minister
for Human Development, Women
and Children and Civil Society (hereinafter "the Minister for Human
Development"), and such liaison
and cooperation has been variable, but is
presently strong. In the first instance, responsibility for any periodic
evaluation of
progress in the implementation of the CRC – beyond the
five-yearly preparation of Periodic Reports – rests with the NCFC.
In
addition, GOB undertakes periodic reviews in the process of preparing reports to
the regional MM forum, including reference to
performance against the goals of
the Lima Accord (which embraces all of the World Summit Goals).
- The
amendment to the Families and Children Act in 1999 explicitly established the
NCFC in legislation (new Part XII). The terms of
reference of the Committee
are:
- (a) “promoting,
monitoring and evaluating the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of
the Child, and ensuring that
the Government meets its national and international
obligations as a party to the Convention;
- (b) promoting,
monitoring and evaluating the implementation of the goals reached at the world
summits on the Convention on the Rights
of the Child, through the Belize
National Plan for Human Development, Children and Youth;
- (c) promoting
public awareness on the national legislation affecting families and children,
and facilitating effective and efficient
planning and coordination of efforts
among and between non-governmental organisations, service clubs, churches and
other organisations
involved in the provision of services for families and
children;
- (d) ensuring
that the various institutions, communities and homes in Belize understand and
apply the standards of protection and care
of children set out in this Act and
regulations made hereunder and in the Convention on the Rights of the Child
within their institutional,
community or family setting;
- (e) recommending
and advocating to, and at different levels and institutions of, the Belizean
society for:
- (i) policies
for the care, protection and maintenance of families and children in
Belize,
- (ii) the
contribution of resources from the international community and the local private
sector.” (S. 149)
- The
twelve members of the Committee are appointed each twelve months by the
Minister, and are required to be representative of Governmental
and
non-governmental agencies concerned with the welfare of families and children.
Members may be reappointed. The Minister or
her nominee is the chairperson of
the Committee, and the Executive Director is an ex-officio, non-voting member.
It needs to be
acknowledged that, whilst the present Government has taken
important steps to formalise the role of NCFC, there has been some widespread
dissatisfaction with its failure to act soon enough to address the internal
operational difficulties of the Committee. A number
of NGOs feel that the loss
of momentum of the work of NCFC in recent years has been very costly in terms of
safeguarding –
let alone advancing – the rights of children. By the
end of 2001, the Minister’s action in appointing a new Chairperson
and
recruiting new staff was quickly rekindling confidence across the sector that
the lost ground would be in large part recovered.
Generally, relevant
stakeholders consider that NCFC ought to especially focus on the monitoring and
oversighting of the CRC, the
coordination of families’ and
children’s agencies, and the facilitation of Ministerial policies and
actions.
- There
are two primary means of coordination of the activities of government agencies
relevant to the CRC:
- the National
Human Development Advisory Committee (NHDAC), which oversights the development
and delivery of services and programs,
the development of policies, and conduct
of research; and
- the Social
Indicators Committee (SIC), which oversights the collation of social sector
statistics, monitors the quality of such statistics,
and reviews national
performance against such indicators.
- NHDAC
replaced and extended the role of the previous National Assessment Team, which
had oversighted national poverty assessments.
Following the release in 1996 of
the Poverty Assessment Report, it was agreed that a restructured body should
continue and, in 1997,
Cabinet formally established the Committee, which
“is a multi-sectoral working committee mandated by the Government of
Belize
to (a) provide informed advice on the development of sustainable human
development policies and programmes, with special emphasis
on poverty
elimination, and (b) to monitor implementation of agreed policies and
programmes”.
- It
is chaired by the CEO, Ministry of Economic Development (MED), and its
membership includes representation from the Ministries of
Finance, Health,
Education, Human Development, Rural Development & Culture, Natural Resources
and the Central Statistical Office
(CSO), UNICEF and the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP), Trade Union Congress, Basic Needs Trust Fund
(BNTF), University
of Belize, Social Investment Fund (SIF), the British High
Commission (development agency), two NGOs and a representative from each
of the
six districts (village council or rural development associations). The
Committee normally meets monthly, and – along
with NCFC – served as
the formal government body oversighting the preparation of this Periodic Report
(with primary Governmental
liaison with MHD).
- SIC
was established in 1996 and is jointly chaired by the CSO and MHD’s Policy
and Planning Unit (PPU) (formerly the Social
Planning Unit). Membership is
functional, comprising the heads of policy and planning units within the Health
and Education Ministries,
Housing, CSO, Economic Development, NCFC, UNICEF, SIF,
Belize Family Life Association (BFLA), and Belize Social Security Board, plus
the Central Bank and Chamber of Commerce as required. That Committee generally
oversights social sector statistical processes, as
well as relevant studies and
research, including monitoring ad hoc independent research, especially by
external individuals and agencies,
and occasionally publishes national social
statistics. It is well-placed to address questions of agency data collection
and the
filling of gaps in missing data records. It produced the Social
Indicators Report 1996 in 1998, and had intended similar publications
biennially, but lost impetus in the late 1990s, and has only in mid-2001 been
revived,
and is currently planning an updated publication (with statistical
returns currently with participating agencies). The Committee
is able to assume
a ‘clearinghouse’ role on social sector research and statistics, and
will seek to strengthen its role
in capacity-building within key social sector
agencies in the generation and analysis of key indicative data. In 2002 it
commenced
a review of its capacity in order to substantially strengthen its
roles.
- GOB
budgets don’t readily permit disaggregation of outlays with respect to
children. It is, however, a persistent challenge
to the Government to be able
to commit sufficient recurrent budget resources in order to give adequate effect
to the legislative
and policy framework which Government embraces. One recent
reminder of this was the need to divert substantial scarce resources
for
reconstruction of essential facilities such as housing and schools following
several hurricanes. Nevertheless, it is worth noting
that a 1998 study of
expenditure on basic social services (BSS) (Avila et al 1998) concluded
that:
- there have been
solid annual increases in BSS expenditure, rising from 3.8% of gross domestic
product (GDP) in 1980 to 6.4% of GDP
in 1996;
- per capita GOB
expenditure on BSS increased in that period by 130%, whilst that for social
services in general grew by 86%, and total
government expenditure per capita
grew by 36% (so that there has been much better targeting of government budgets
to BSS);
- although the
ratio of GOB expenditure to GDP experienced no real growth between 1980 and
1996, the relative ratio of social services
and BSS to GDP increased by 34% and
68% respectively;
- with respect to
the 20/20 Initiative, the 1996 figure for GOB was
20.3%[1];
and
- the
corresponding figure for external donor assistance for 1996 was 11.4%, although
the study noted that
“ the annual average of external donor
commitment for Belize has declined from US$28.7m during the 1980s to US$25.3m in
the
1990s. Worst yet the level of disbursed funds for Belize has declined from
74.6% in the 1980s to 54.1% in the 1990s”.
(Avila et al 1998, p.
7)
- This
suggests that GOB budget provision for BSS and, by inference, children, has
markedly improved over the years, but that the targeting
of external donor
assistance needs improving, and is occurring within a shrinking total amount of
funds.
- It
would be valuable for NCFC to undertake an overview of GOB outlays for children,
including of trends in annual budget outlays for
children across government,
subventions to NGOs related to services to children, and possible steps which
GOB could take to make
such outlays more transparent within the budget reporting
process.
- Since
1996, Belize has also joined as a States party or signatory to a number of
international instruments relevant to the rights
and interests of the child,
including:
- ILO Convention
No. 100: Equal Remuneration Convention 1951 (ratified 22 June 1999)
- ILO Convention
No. 111: Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention 1958 (ratified 22
June 1999)
- ILO Convention
No. 138: Minimum Age Convention 1973 (ratified 6 March 2000)
- ILO Convention
No. 156: The Workers with Family Responsibilities Convention 1981 (entered into
force 22 June 2000)
- ILO Convention
No. 182: Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention 1999 (ratified 1 March
2000)
- UN Convention on
the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination 1996 (ratified 14 November
2001)
- UN International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 1966 (signed 6 September
2000)
- UN International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1966 (acceded to 10 June 1996, with
reservations)
- UN CRC: Optional
Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict 2000 (signed 6
September 2000)
- UN CRC: Optional
Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography 2000
(signed 6 September 2000)
- Inter-American
Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence Against
Women (Convention of Belém do Pará)
1994 (ratified 25 November
1996)
- Inter-American
Convention on Support Obligations (ratified 11 June 1997)
- Inter-American
Convention on the International Return of Children (ratified 11 June 1997)
- Inter-American
Convention on Conflict of Laws Concerning the Adoption of Minors (ratified 11
June 1997)
- Inter-American
Convention on International Traffic in Minors (ratified 11 June
1997).
- One
specific measure which GOB could consider is the merit of enacting a
Children’s Code. This would provide Belize with a
comprehensive
legislative framework for giving full effect to the provisions of the CRC. In
this context, it is noted that the Families
and Children Act embraces CRC
provisions in general, that the articles of the Convention are not specifically
replicated in Belizean
law, and that the scope of that Act is limited. This may
be considered to leave as uncertain the question of actioning such provisions
within the judicial system, and of the associated capacity of relevant parties
to pursue enforcement of such provisions. Given that
the Families and Children
Act applies to subsets of Belizean children, it would seem preferable that
consideration be given to a
comprehensive parallel code which includes the
articles of the Convention as a schedule to it, and elevates children’s
rights
as a whole-of-government responsibility, and not essentially the function
of just one Ministry (even though it would continue to
have oversighting and
monitoring – even enforcement – responsibilities). (Refer to
related comments at Chapter III,
Section B.)
Article 42
States Parties undertake to make the principles and provisions of the
Convention widely known, by appropriate and active means, to
adults and children
alike.
- Copies
of the Convention have been widely circulated through relevant Government and
non-governmental agencies, and it has also been
produced, in simplified form, in
Spanish. The Convention has not been reproduced in other languages, including
Kek’chi and
Mopan Maya or Garifuna.
- The
provisions of the Convention have also been promoted in the media, including via
regular radio broadcasts coordinated by NCFC.
(See Chapter IV, Section C for
further comment.) In 1997/98, the NCFC conducted over 50 consultations
countrywide on the CRC in
general and the new Families and Children Act in
particular, involving a wide range of government officers in policy,
administration
and service provisions, across the health, education, welfare and
legal and judicial systems. At that time, NCFC also held CRC workshops
for
children and young people, and worked with Teachers’ Institutes to train
teachers on the Convention and the rights of children.
In practice, it is noted
that much of the promotion of community awareness has been focussed more on the
Act than the Convention
itself.
- In
1999, GOB included teaching of the CRC in its primary school curriculum
nationwide, and has been assisted by the Human Rights Commission
of Belize
(HRCB) in providing one day of training to 750 primary school teachers in the
Convention and human rights more generally.
- In
1999, an NGO Coalition for the 10th Anniversary of the CRC was
established, comprising BFLA, HRCB, the National Organisation for the Prevention
of Child Abuse (NOPCA),
the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), and
the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA). One particular activity
undertaken at the initiative of HRCB, and supported by UNICEF, was the recording
of a song written by a prominent contemporary Belizean
musician (Andy Palacio)
to mark the introduction of the CRC ten years earlier. The song was performed
by Palacio and other musicians,
with a chorus of Belizean children, and produced
in tape, video and CD format. The song’s lyrics celebrate in popular
linguistic
and musical style the CRC and its defence and promotion of
children’s rights, and a copy of the cassette and video was circulated
by
UNICEF to every school in Belize, coinciding with a media launch and publicity
about the Convention.
Article 44 (6)
States Parties shall make their reports widely available to the public in
their own countries.
- The
Initial Report was circulated to a range of agencies – government and
non-government – considered to be relevant stakeholders.
That Report was
not generally made publicly available beyond such distribution. The comments of
the UN Committee on the Rights
of the Child were not circulated. By that time
– as has already been noted – the NCFC had suffered a loss of
momentum
and focus.
II. DEFINITION OF THE CHILD
Article 1
For the purposes of the present Convention, a child means every human being
below the age of eighteen years unless under the law
applicable to the child,
majority is attained earlier.
- The
Families and Children Act says that a child means “unless provided
otherwise in any law, a person below the age of eighteen
years”. The
Summary Jurisdiction (Procedure) Act (S. 2) defines an adult as any person of or
over the age of sixteen years,
and a child as a person under the age of fourteen
years.
Belizean legislation defines the following minimum legal
ages:
- Legal and
medical counselling without parental consent: 18 years
- Medical
treatment or surgery without parental consent: there is no legal provision
- End of
compulsory education: 14 years (Education Act, S. 2 (b))
- Admission to
employment or work, including hazardous work, part-time and full-time work: 14
years, 12 years and 14 years, respectively
(Labour Act, Ss. 54 & 169)
- Marriage: 14
years (with parental consent) (consent not required if the person is a widow or
widower), 18 years (without consent)
(Marriage Act, S 5 (1)) (the Act states
that the marriage of anyone under 14 years is void (S. 4 (1)))
- Sexual consent:
16 years (female only), except that a male aged under 18 years may have a valid
defence if he had reason to believe
that the female was aged over 16 years (on
the first such offence only) (Criminal Code (S. 47))
- Voluntary
enlistment in the armed forces: 18 years (Defence Act, S. 16 (2))
- Conscription
into the armed forces: may apply to males only by Governor General’s
regulation, including specification of the
age (Defence Act, S. 167 (2)(i))
- Criminal
responsibility: 9 years (Criminal Code, S. 25 (1), as amended by the Criminal
Code (Amendment) Act 1999); a child between
the ages of 9 and 12 years inclusive
who is considered not mature enough to judge the consequences of his or her
actions is also
exempted (S. 25 (2)); a child between 16 and 18 years inclusive
who is fined may be placed under supervision until the fine is paid
(Summary
Jurisdiction (Procedure) Act, S. 70 (5))
- Deprivation of
liberty, including by arrest, detention and imprisonment, institutionalisation:
deprivation of liberty is 9 years (Criminal
Code, S. 24); being imprisoned is at
ten years or over, although a child aged 14 or 15 years may only be imprisoned
if no suitable
alternative exists (such as probation or a certified institution)
but is not allowed to associate with adult prisoners (Juvenile
Offenders Act,
Ss. 11 & 12)[2]
- Capital
punishment and life imprisonment: a person aged under 18 years at the time of
committing an offence punishable by death, may
not be subject to the death
penalty; the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1998 provides that
“in lieu thereof the
court shall sentence him to imprisonment for
life” (previously, this was at “Her Majesty’s pleasure”)
(Indictable
Procedure Act, S. 146 (2))
- Giving testimony
in court, in civil and criminal cases: no specific provisions, but normally
dependant upon the court’s determination
of the child’s capacity,
maturity and understanding
- Lodging
complaints and seeking redress before a court or similar without parental
consent: there are no age restrictions on initiating
proceedings and no
provisions as to parental consent, except for the provisions of the Families and
Children Act, as follows:
“ Notwithstanding the provisions of
any written law to the contrary, and notwithstanding that a child is at common
law incapable
of suing or authorizing any person to sue in his own name in any
court of law, he may prosecute any action in any court for any sum
of money
which may be due to him for salary, wages or piece work, or for work as an
employee, in the same manner as if he were of
full age”. (S. 13)
- Participating in
administrative and judicial proceedings affecting the child: no specific age
provisions, but normally dependant upon
the court’s determination of the
child’s capacity, maturity and understanding (see, in particular, Families
and Children
Act, First Schedule, S. 3 (a) (included as Attachment
E))
- Having access to
information concerning the biological family: in the case of an adopted child,
an Adopted Child Register must be
maintained, traceable to the Register of
Births and this information may be accessed by a person only with an order from
a court
of competent jurisdiction (Families and Children Act, S. 145 (7) &
(8))
- Legal capacity
to inherit: where an ‘infant’ is the beneficiary of an estate then
“the personal representatives
of the deceased may appoint” two to
four trustees, presumably until the infant turns 18 years (Administration of
Estate Act,
S. 47) (although “may” is construed as “permissive
and empowering” rather than “instructive”
(Interpretation Act,
S. 58)); a ‘child’ may be appointed as an executor or trustee but is
incapable of exercising that
office until reaching 18 years (Families and
Children Act, S. 12 (1))
- Choosing a
religion or attending religious school teaching: there is no specific age
provision, except that, in guardianship and custody
matters, the court may
– in instances where the parent is not granted custody –
“order that the child be brought
up in the religion in which the parent
has a legal right to require that the child should be brought up”, having
regard to
the child’s age and maturity, and best interests and wishes
(Families and Children Act, S. 29, although sub-section (2) states
that this
does not “diminish the right which any child now possesses to the exercise
of its own free choice”: this may
infer a legal right for the child beyond
custody and beyond religious choice)
- Consumption of
alcohol: 18 years (but only with respect to consumption on licensed premises:
Intoxicating Liquor Licensing Act, S.
44 (1)). (A 2001 Cabinet Committee
advising on liquor licensing policy noted that, despite the adequacies of
existing legislation,
the selling of liquor to and by minors was prevalent.
Following consultations with municipal representatives nationwide, Government
decided in late 2001 to amend the legislation to put the onus of responsibility
on the proprietor of premises where liquor is consumed
to determine that a
patron is at least 18 years of age, and to increase associated penalty
provisions.)
- Gender
disparities in Belizean laws with respect to children are noted; additional
reference is made at relevant points elsewhere
in this report. The Criminal
Code (Amendment) Act 1999 generally simplified the provisions and strengthened
the penalties concerning
rape and carnal knowledge of women and girls. This is
discussed further in Chapter V, Section J. These changes are strongly
supported.
However, as noted in the Initial Report (p. 44), a number of
discriminatory gender provisions continue to exist in the treatment
of children
within various laws. Different economic provisions continue to exist in the
Wills Act (Ss. 35 & 36), the Pensions Act (Ss. 6 (1) & 12 (b)) and the
School Teachers’ Pensions Act (S. 22). As noted, different gender
treatment
of child sexual assault and abuse, and associated protective
provisions, also continue to exist – even to widen, given recent
improvements in provisions for girls. These provisions include those in the
Criminal Code dealing with rape and carnal knowledge
(Ss. 47, 48 & 71),
abduction (Ss. 56 & 57) and incest (Ss. 62 & 63), assault (S. 45), and
with sex work and procuration
(S. 49), and in the Summary Jurisdiction
(Offences) Act dealing with sex work, such as keeping women for immoral purposes
(S. 17)
and living off their earnings (S. 18). Such laws need urgent review
with respect to the extension of their provisions to adequately
and equitably
protect the boy child. That review should also give attention to unwarranted
gender-based assumptions within such
laws about the perpetrators of child
abuse.^
- With
respect to the raising of the minimum age of criminal responsibility, it is
noted that there is no uniformity in this regard
within Caribbean states. The
age of seven years continues to be used by two states (based on the provisions
in British common law,
which the UK itself departed from in 1933), eight years
is used in six states (the subsequent British provision, which it departed
from
in 1963), one (Belize) now uses nine years, four states use 10 years, one uses
11 years, and two use 12
years.[3] There is a valuable
opportunity for Belize to advance dialogue within the Caribbean to try to
establish a regional standard in this
regard.
- The
provision of S. 4 (c) of the First Schedule specifically accommodates national
laws which modify the rights set down in the CRC.
This means that, in the event
of a conflict between the provisions of the CRC and Belizean laws, the latter
would prevail. This
is consistent with the provisions of Article 41 of the CRC,
provided that those laws are more ‘conducive to the realisation
of the
rights of the child’.
III. GENERAL PRINCIPLES
- Non-discrimination
Article
2
- States
Parties shall respect and ensure the rights set forth in the present Convention
to each child within their jurisdiction without
discrimination of any kind,
irrespective of the child's or his or her parent's or legal guardian's race,
colour, sex, language, religion,
political or other opinion, national, ethnic or
social origin, property, disability, birth or other status.
- States
Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that the child is
protected against all forms of discrimination or punishment
on the basis of the
status, activities, expressed opinions, or beliefs of the child's parents, legal
guardians, or family members.
- The
principle of non-discrimination is enshrined in the Belize Constitution Act as
“the right to freedom from discrimination” (Chapter 2: Protection of
Fundamental Rights and Freedoms). The specific
provisions of Art. 2 (1) compare
as follows with the provisions of the
Constitution:
Right (Art. 2 (1))
|
Right (Constitution)
|
Race
|
Race
|
Colour
|
ºColour
|
Sex
|
Sex
|
Language
|
Language
|
Religion
|
Religion
|
Political or other opinion
|
Political opinion
|
National, ethnic or social origin
|
Place of origin
|
Property
|
Privacy of home and other property; protection from
arbitrary deprivation of property
|
Disability
|
--
|
Birth
|
--
|
- The
Belize Constitution Act states that “All persons are equal before the law
and are entitled
without any discrimination to the equal protection of the
law” (S. 6 (1)), that “no law shall make any provision that
is
discriminatory either of itself or in its effect” and that “no
person shall be treated in a discriminatory manner
by any person or
authority” (S. 16, subsections (1) and (2) respectively). In general,
there is no reference to age, or of
the child, in the definition of
discrimination. However, the Interpretation Act (S. 3 (1)) ensures that the
child is within the definition of a person. In several instances in Chapter 2
of the Constitution, rights are conditional upon the granting of informed
consent (such as the right to search of body or residence, or to receive
religious
instruction in school). As children are deemed incapable of granting
such consent, this right is conditional upon parental consent.
- The
Families and Children Act (S. 33) guarantees that all children are of equal
status in the application of the Laws of Belize, regardless
of the marital
status of the child´s parents. The Act may also protect the child's right
"to the exercise of its own free choice"
(S. 29 (2)).
- Particular
acknowledgement is made of the need to address the legislative framework to
ensure non-discrimination against children
with a disability, especially in view
of the continued absence of a specific Disability Act. Government has pressed
on with the
implementation of its policy of the mainstreaming of children with
disabilities into the national educational system, whilst pursuing
its decision
to divest the roles of the former Disability Services Division from the public
sector. This matter is considered further
at Chapter VI, Section A.
- In
practice, protection against discriminatory treatment of children is only as
competent and successful as the agencies with such
mandates. As is apparent
elsewhere in this report, there has been a fair degree of progress made in
institutional strengthening
of relevant GOB agencies and the judicial system,
including in-service training, the development of operational protocols and
allocation
of additional staff, but it is acknowledged that much more needs to
be done. In some respects, this requires GOB to be more assertive
about the
application of protective measures, more thorough in staff development
practices, and more persistent in the pursuit of
appropriate
remedies.
B. Best interests of the child
Article 3
- In
all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social
welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative
authorities or legislative
bodies, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration.
- States
Parties undertake to ensure the child such protection and care as is necessary
for his or her well-being, taking into account
the rights and duties of his or
her parents, legal guardians, or other individuals legally responsible for him
or her, and, to this
end, shall take all appropriate legislative and
administrative measures.
- States
Parties shall ensure that the institutions, services and facilities responsible
for the care or protection of children shall
conform with the standards
established by competent authorities, particularly in the areas of safety,
health, in the number and suitability
of their staff, as well as competent
supervision.
- The
introduction of the Families and Children Act means that the best interests of
the child may be applied more evenly and fully
across a range of areas affecting
children, including children born out of wedlock, adopted children, and children
involved in any
way in court proceedings. Main features of the Act are:
- a child is
entitled to live with its parents or guardian, unless a competent authority
determines that it is in the child’s
best interests to be separated from
its parents or guardian, in which case the ‘best substitute alternative
staying place shall
be provided for the child’ (S. 4);
- the duties of
the parent or guardian towards the child are specified – with respect to
rights to education, immunisation, clothing,
shelter, medical attention and
balanced diet, and to protection from discrimination, violence, abuse and
neglect (S. 5);
- the guiding
principles in the making of any decision affecting a child are set down (First
Schedule: see Attachment E).
- Section
1 of the First Schedule achieves compliance with sub-article 1, with its
applicability to all agencies, institutions or persons,
and extends the
‘best interest’ criteria from being ‘a primary
consideration’ to being ‘the paramount
consideration’. This
compliance is extended, according to the requirements of sub-article 2, by
virtue of the provisions of
section 5, which embraces both the child’s
‘rights to’ as well as ‘rights to be protected from’, as
duties of the parent or guardian.
- Whilst
it was noted in the Interim Report that the various Laws relating to children
made similar provision for observance of the
child’s best interests, the
new legislation has strengthened this principle in terms of its more
comprehensive application
to children, as well as ensuring uniformity in intent.
The application of this principle will continue to need to be monitored.
- With
respect to standards applicable in institutions, services and facilities
(sub-article 3), primary responsibility is vested in
the Minister of Human
Services under the provisions of the Social Service Agencies Act. The Act
requires the Minister to designate
a public officer as the Registrar of Social
Service Agencies to administer the provisions of that Act, including the
registration,
licensing and regulation of “Homes for Children, Old
Peoples’ Homes and similar institutions whether fee levying or not
set
apart for the care of children, old persons or the handicapped as the case may
be” (Ss. 2 & 5).
- That
Act also empowers the Minister to prescribe the minimum standards of licensed
facilities “with regard to health, safety,
accommodation, service
facilities and board”, whether the institution is maintained by Government
or by a private agency or
person (S. 13 (1)). Failure to comply may result in
prosecution of an individual, or suspension or cancellation of the operating
licence, with provision for appeal to the Minister against any such decision by
the Registrar.
- The
Certified Institutions (Children’s Reformation) Act similarly empowers the
Minister to certify or revoke certification of
any “home, school or other
place ... the management of which has agreed to accept the custody and care of
children sent to
such home, school or other place under a detention order issued
under this Act” (S. 2).
- Although
a specific Registrar has never been appointed, the Minister has at least now
given effect to that provision by, in 2001,
appointing a DHS officer as
Inspector of Social Services Institutions, with corresponding responsibilities.
This position is still
in its formative stages, but will in part build upon the
preliminary work carried out in 1995-96 by the NCFC, in producing guidelines
for
the establishment and management of day-care facilities for children. This is
discussed further at Chapter V, Section G.
- With
respect to sub-article 3 and the administration of juvenile justice, the
Community Rehabilitation Department was established
in early 2001, with a
specific mandate in this regard. This matter is considered further in Chapter
VIII, Section B.
- A
matter requiring specific attention is that of independent review and
investigation powers on behalf of children. Whilst Belize
does not have a
discrete position of Commissioner for Children or Children’s Ombudsman, it
did appoint an Ombudsman in July
1999 under the provisions of the Ombudsman Act.
The Ombudsman’s mandate empowers him to investigate complaints arising
from the public or to initiate his own investigations.
In late 2001, he was
investigating two matters at his own initiative concerning the sexual abuse of
children (one where the alleged
perpetrator was a public employee, the other
concerning possible excessively lenient treatment by the court).
- There
are two main options which NCFC should, in the first instance, consider in order
to provide informed advice to the Government.
First, the Ombudsman’s
mandate is sufficient to investigate administrative matters affecting children
and can do so in an
independent, accessible and child-friendly manner. However,
this requires that GOB commit additional resources in three areas: an
additional
and dedicated investigative officer, capacity for outreach roles countrywide
(especially in raising public awareness and
in collaborating on the
strengthening of school curriculum concerning rights), and a fund to retain or
engage legal expertise. In
the first instance, this would seem an urgent,
minimum and appropriate GOB response, in the absence of – or pending
establishment
of – a child-specific mechanism. Second, the
Ombudsman’s role does not specifically embrace a rights-based mandate,
and
may be deemed limited by its reference to public agencies. In this regard,
there is merit in establishing a separate post for
a Children’s Rights
Ombudsman as an independent authority with investigative powers beyond
government and statutory authorities.
This would sit more comfortably with the
proposal elsewhere to introduce a comprehensive Children’s Code, and
conform to the
proposition in the UN Guidelines for the Prevention of Juvenile
Delinquency (the Riyadh Guidelines) (S. 57). In consultation with relevant GOB
agencies and NGOs, NCFC needs to determine the preferred course of
action.
C. The right to life, survival and development
Article 6
- States
Parties recognize that every child has the inherent right to life.
- States
Parties shall ensure to the maximum extent possible the survival and development
of the child.
- The
right to life is a fundamental right provided for in the Constitution (Chapter
II, Sec. 4), except for death resulting from a court sentence for a criminal
offence, or from the legal and justifiable use of force, or from
a lawful act of
war. This right to life is further extended by various provisions of the
Criminal Code Act, including that it is
unlawful to abandon a child aged under
five years (S. 60) or to do so to a child aged under seven years in a manner
which may expose
it to grievous harm (S. 92).
- The
Indictable Procedures Act provides that a person aged under eighteen years at
the time of committing an offence punishable by
death for which they are duly
convicted, shall be subject neither to the death penalty nor to having that
penalty recorded against
them (S. 146(2)).
- Deaths
must be registered with the Vital Statistics Office, which is responsible for
issuing death certificates. The Office estimates
that barely 25% of deaths are
registered with it. Subject to collaboration between that Office and MoH, this
may improve with the
capacity of MoH’s National Health Information System
(NHIS) to produce death certificates, and localised access to that computer
database via District Health Information Units and several remote
locations.
- Belize
fortunately suffers very little from youth death by suicide. According to
Police records, for the seven year period 1995-2001
inclusive, there were a
total of 67 deaths by suicide, of whom six were aged under 18 years (that is,
less than one each year).
Of those six, one was a female.
- Measures
to ensure survival and development are embodied in the Criminal Code (S. 100),
which makes it a duty for a parent, guardian
or contracted carer “to
supply the necessaries of health and life” to another person. This
specifically includes children.
The Families and Children Act also makes
provisions for the survival and development of the child:
- the duty of the
parent, guardian or other person with custody of a child to maintain that child
(S. 5), and further provisions applicable
to men (S. 48) and women (S. 49) to
maintain children;
- the duty of the
Government to safeguard and promote the welfare of the child and to mediate in
any situation where the child’s
rights are infringed upon (S. 46
(1));
- the capacity of
the Family Court or a magistrates court to make a Supervision Order to make DHS
responsible for the child’s
care and maintenance, where parents or
relatives are deemed unable to provide such care and no alternative is available
(S. 98).
D. Respect for the views of the child
Article 12
- States
Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views
the right to express those views freely in
all matters affecting the child, the
views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and
maturity of the child.
- For
this purpose, the child shall in particular be provided the opportunity to be
heard in any judicial and administrative proceedings
affecting the child, either
directly, or through a representative or an appropriate body, in a manner
consistent with the procedural
rules of national law.
- The
Families and Children Act makes specific provisions for ensuring that the views
of the child are given due weight and consideration.
In matters pertaining to
guardianship and custody, the court is empowered “to consult the wishes of
the child in considering
what order ought to be made” and the child is
also guaranteed the right “to the exercise of its own free choice”
(S. 29 (2)). In matters of the care and protection of children, the Act
provides that the court require a written social inquiry
report before making a
supervision or care order. The officer charged with preparing that report shall
interview the child if “considered
by the Department to be of sufficient
age and understanding” (S. 99 (4)). In matters related to the issuing of
care orders
(viz. to remove a child from a harmful situation), the Department
“shall bear in mind the wishes of the child” (S. 111
(3)). In
matters of adoption, the court – before making an adoption order –
is required to give due consideration “to
the wishes of the child, having
regard to the age and understanding of the child” (S. 138 (1)(b)).
- The
Act also provides that, where a child gives evidence as a witness in any civil
proceedings, that evidence may be heard if, in
the court’s opinion, the
child “understands that it is his duty to speak the truth” and
“has sufficient understanding
to justify his evidence being heard”
(S. 152 (2)). More generally, the Act requires that, in determining any matter
related
to a child’s upbringing or the administration of a child’s
assets,
“ the court or any other person shall have regard in
particular to –
(a) the ascertainable wishes and feelings of the child concerned considered in
the light of his or her age and understanding; ...”
(First Schedule, S.
3).
- MHD
is presently considering extending the provision for a guardian ad litem to
represent the interests of the child in situations
of adoption, to also apply to
children in other proceedings before the courts.
- The
Belize Family Court, in particular, has taken steps to become more family- and
child-friendly: relocating in 1999 to central premises
shared by
NCFC[4], FSD and Community and
Parent Empowerment Program (COMPAR), improving its counselling and family
interaction settings, and installing
a children’s play corner. In formal
Family Court proceedings, the views of the child are reported to have been found
to be
extremely helpful to the court in its understanding of relevant events and
in determining more appropriate remedies. If the court
considers that a
situation during proceedings is proving stressful or confrontational to the
child, then the court seeks the view
of a psychologist as to whether or not it
is in the child’s interest to testify. However, the Family Court only has
a specific
presence in Belize City, operating within the magistrates courts in
the districts (ensuring minimal compliance with the provisions
of the Family
Courts Act that it have a court within each judicial district (S. 3)). The
district-based magistrates courts continue
to fall short of being sufficiently
child-friendly and adequately trained in or sensitive to the provisions of the
CRC.
- In
mid-2002, NCFC expanded its efforts in promoting the views of children, when it
appointed an Assistant Program Coordinator dedicated
solely to issues of
children's participation.
- A
particular area where it is considered that more needs to be done in actively
taking into account the child’s views is within
the educational system.
Most teachers need training in how to canvass and respect the child’s
views without compromising their
capacity to teach according to the prescribed
curriculum. This requires many teachers to modify often outmoded and
traditional views
of teaching.
IV. CIVIL RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS
A. Name and nationality
Article 7
- The
child shall be registered immediately after birth and shall have the right from
birth to a name, the right to acquire a nationality
and, as far as possible, the
right to know and be cared for by his or her parents.
- States
Parties shall ensure the implementation of these rights in accordance with their
national law and their obligations under the
relevant international instruments
in this field, in particular where the child would otherwise be stateless.
B. Preservation of identity
Article 8
- States
Parties undertake to respect the right of the child to preserve his or her
identity, including nationality, name and family
relations as recognized by law
without unlawful interference.
- Where
a child is illegally deprived of some or all of the elements of his or her
identity, States Parties shall provide appropriate
assistance and protection,
with a view to re-establishing speedily his or her identity.
- The
Families and Children Act explicitly provides that “a child is entitled to
live with his parents or guardian” (S.
4 (1)), and that “every
parent shall have parental responsibility for his child” (S. 6 (1)). The
Act also elaborates
the attendant rights and responsibilities of the
child’s entitlement.
- The
Registration of Births and Deaths Act requires that a child’s birth be
registered within 42 days of the birth (S. 10), in
default of which the parent
may be required by summons to do so within 12 months of the birth (S. 12).
After the expiration of 12
months, the birth may only be registered with the
registrar’s written authority and the payment of a fee (S. 18). In
practice,
compliance is well below a desirable level. It is estimated that
approximately 50% of all births are registered at some time, of
which
approximately 65% are registered within the 42 day period (that is, almost one
third of all births are registered within the
prescribed time, and a half of all
births are not registered). Birth registration procedures are well known and
widely practiced,
but there remains a need for improved access to places of
registration in more remote areas, and especially among recent immigrants.
Mobile Registration Campaigns have been implemented in certain parts of the
country.
- The
responsible agency is the Vital Statistics Office within the
Attorney-General’s Ministry. That Office is based in Belize
City, with no
district-level presence: it relies upon clerks of courts within the districts.
In 1998, the Office received assistance
to introduce a computerised registration
system but, in 1999, the computer system broke down, at which time the Office
had computerised
about 25% of the approximately one million records that it has
(dating back to the 1800s).
- The
onus of responsibility for birth registration is on the parent. However, it
seems that registration coverage could be further
improved via the cooperation
– even obligation – of antenatal services within MoH
Clinics.[5] Unfortunately,
there are reliable reports that, on occasions when the parent attends a health
centre to receive a copy of the hospital
record to enable registration, this may
be denied if the parent still has an outstanding account there. GOB needs to,
in the first
instance, give close attention to the recommendations to improve
registration made by PAHO and the International Institute of Statistics
and
Registration on each of their visits to Belize in 1996, 1998 and 2001. Such
attention commenced during 2002, when resources
were allocated for the
installation of new hardware and software. The Office has also, during 2002,
commenced weekly visits to the
General Hospital in Belize City, with written
reminders of registration, and this is particularly improving death
registrations (which
have been at a very poor rate of around 25%). In early
2003, the Office expects to introduce the computerised issue of birth
certificates.
- In
order to better safeguard the rights of children to acquire a nationality,
Belize amended its Belizean Nationality Act (S. 12)
and Immigration Act (S. 10)
in 1998, so that, respectively, children be included on a certificate of
citizenship by registration
and may, when attaining 18 years, separately apply
for citizenship irrespective of the parent’s residency status, and persons
who entered Belize as minors and have resided in Belize continuously for at
least ten years may apply for permanent residency.
- In
2000, the meaning of the term ‘alien’ in the Laws of Belize was
amended to mean “a person who is neither a citizen
of Belize nor a
Commonwealth citizen”. Even so (and despite legislative titles such as
the Aliens Act), ‘alien’
is widely considered to be a perjorative
term in Belize, and ‘immigrant’ or ‘non-resident’ are
more accepted
terms.
- Cognisant
of the large numbers of displaced persons from various Central American
countries engaged in civil wars and internal conflicts
who had settled in Belize
without due documentation, and who had not returned to their home state
following the end of those conflicts,
Belize held an Amnesty Program in 1999.
This was initiated by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR)
and conducted
by an Amnesty Office located within the Ministry of National
Security, with the active local involvement of an NGO, Help for Progress,
and
the political area representatives. The Program provided undocumented
individuals and families – which included substantial
numbers of children,
many of whom were already attending Belize schools – with the opportunity
to regularise their legal status.
The Program was initially conducted for one
month, but then extended to two and a half months. It was promoted by some
radio broadcasting,
but nothing appears to have been distributed locally in
print, including – significantly – in Spanish. A $200 fee applied
to each application (regardless of the number of people involved), due at the
time of approval, but frequently collected at the time
of application.
- Eligibility
criteria were that applicants had lived in Belize for at least four consecutive
years, or had been living in a common
law union with a Belizean for at least
three years, or were pregnant for at least four months, or were married to a
Belizean. Furthermore,
the $200 fee was waived (paid from UNHCR funds) if the
applicant was either El Salvadoran, Honduran or Nicaraguan and living in Belize
since 1992, or Guatemalan and living in Belize since 1994. The local
applications were received by either Help for Progress or the
area
representative, forwarded to the Amnesty Office (including for security
clearance) and then to the Immigration Department for
processing. Applicants
needed to produce a police record (which carried a $5 fee), HIV test, STI test
(both of which would carry
costs, compounded for larger families), references
from two persons, and a birth certificate or substitute form of
verification.
- A
total of 10,000 applications were received, of which approximately 9000 were
approved. The remainder were not approved primarily
due to inadequate
documentation or because the eligibility criteria had not been met. These
unapproved applications continue to
be processed once the necessary criteria are
met, including that the expiration of time may enable the qualifying residency
period
to be satisfied. It is estimated that there are another 5000-10,000
eligible applicant households who did not make application,
either because of
the cost being too excessive for some households or due to an initial suspicion
of the process and a reluctance
to come forward and reveal their illegal status.
Many of these people unsuccessfully sought late application once they saw others
receiving their documentation, or else realised that their registration fee
would be met. It is further estimated that applications
averaged perhaps three
children, which suggests that the Amnesty Program afforded a regularisation in
the documented status of perhaps
27,000 children, with perhaps another 15,000 or
more children remaining undocumented.
C. Freedom of expression
Article 13
- The
child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include
freedom to seek, receive and impart information
and ideas of all kinds,
regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of
art, or through any other
media of the child's choice.
- The
exercise of this right may be subject to certain restrictions, but these shall
only be such as are provided by law and are necessary:
- (a) For respect
of the rights or reputations of others; or
- (b) For the
protection of national security or of public order (ordre public), or of public
health or morals.
D. Freedom of thought, conscience and
religion
Article 14
- States
Parties shall respect the right of the child to freedom of thought, conscience
and religion.
- States
Parties shall respect the rights and duties of the parents and, when applicable,
legal guardians, to provide direction to the
child in the exercise of his or her
right in a manner consistent with the evolving capacities of the child.
- Freedom
to manifest one's religion or beliefs may be subject only to such limitations as
are prescribed by law and are necessary to
protect public safety, order, health
or morals, or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others.
E. Freedom of association and peaceful assembly
Article 15
- States
Parties recognize the rights of the child to freedom of association and to
freedom of peaceful assembly.
- No
restrictions may be placed on the exercise of these rights other than those
imposed in conformity with the law and which are necessary
in a democratic
society in the interests of national security or public safety, public order
(ordre public), the protection of public
health or morals or the protection of
the rights and freedoms of others.
F. Protection of privacy
Article 16
- No
child shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her
privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to
unlawful attacks on his or her
honour and reputation.
- The
child has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or
attacks.
G. Access to appropriate information
Article 17
States Parties recognize the important function performed by the mass media
and shall ensure that the child has access to information
and material from a
diversity of national and international sources, especially those aimed at the
promotion of his or her social,
spiritual and moral well-being and physical and
mental health. To this end, States Parties shall:
(a) Encourage the mass media to disseminate information and material of social
and cultural benefit to the child and in accordance
with the spirit of article
29;
(b) Encourage international co-operation in the production, exchange and
dissemination of such information and material from a diversity
of cultural,
national and international sources;
(c) Encourage the production and dissemination of children's books;
(d) Encourage the mass media to have particular regard to the linguistic needs
of the child who belongs to a minority group or who
is indigenous;
(e) Encourage the development of appropriate guidelines for the protection of
the child from information and material injurious to
his or her well-being,
bearing in mind the provisions of articles 13 and
18
The situation with respect to these rights is generally as was reported in
the Initial Report.
- Belize
continues to mark Children’s Day and Children’s Week with a range of
activities. The CAC, NCFC and Ministry of
Education (MoE) each organises
activities, such as displays, concerts and broadcasts. MoE’s support for
Children’s Day
means localised activities nationwide.
- The
CAC was established by UNICEF in 1996. In 1997, it held a Cultural Expo in
Belmopan, the national capital, to parade and display
the different cultures in
Belize and to remind national leaders of the importance of that cultural
diversity and of the importance
of learning about it. In 1998, it conducted a
nationwide Children’s Election, for which CAC members consulted with
children
in order to develop a ballot list of issues contained in the CRC, and
then invited children to vote for their priorities for government
action based
on the CRC. The resultant three priorities, in descending order of priority,
were:
- the right to an
education;
- the right to a
safe environment; and
- the right not to
be abused.
- In
1999, the CAC held its ‘Stamp Out Child Abuse’ campaign. This
coincided with a period in which a number of pre-teenage
girls were abducted and
very brutally murdered.[6] The
campaign included dialogue between young people and key political and community
leaders, and culminated in the leaders of the
two main political parties signing
a ‘Commitment to Action’. In 2000, CAC planned the conduct of
‘Keeping the
Promise’ in the National Assembly, but on the day
beforehand Belize was battered by Hurricane Keith, and the national forum
was
postponed until early 2001. The participating children questioned the adult
political and community leaders about current actions
and attitudes to various
priorities, in front of a public gallery and national live radio broadcast; a
video has also been produced.
A plebiscite of children conducted by CAC in 2001
– largely to inform Belize’s participation in the (postponed) World
Summit of September 2001 – established that children’s main priority
now is HIV/AIDS. In recent years, CAC had also
collected toys prior to
Christmas, and distributed them to a selected poor village and children’s
institutions; as well as
organising excursions for the children in institutions
to such places as the national zoo during the Christmas period. This role
has
since ceased with the lapsing of UNICEF administrative assistance.
- Much
of the administrative support to CAC, and assistance in determining and
implementing its activities, had been due to the assigned
officer, who is no
longer with UNICEF (but is the new Chairperson of the NCFC). Attention now
needs to be given by UNICEF –
in collaboration with NCFC – to
questions of operational autonomy, coordinating framework and membership
representation, and
of ensuring a more strategic advisory role to national
coordinating machinery in oversighting and informing the pursuit of
children’s
rights and
development.[7]
- Weekly
radio programs are conducted. NCFC broadcasts ‘Facts for Families’
on Monday evenings, mainly for an adult audience,
and ‘Kid-O-Rama’
is a children’s broadcast on Saturday mornings, targeting a youth
audience, and inviting young
people, NGOs and others to participate in
interviews, and inviting the audience to ring in. NCFC focusses its
broadcasting on CRC-related
issues. In 2002, it conducted strategic planning on
Kid-O-Rama, at the request of the young broadcasting participants. In addition,
there are several children’s radio programs or radio programs with
children’s content on local rural radio stations,
notably in Orange Walk
and Cayo Districts. In 2000 and 2001, Belize joined in the observance of
International Children’s Day
of Broadcasting, with radio and television
stations in Belize inviting children to participate in broadcasts and programs.
Amongst
NGOs active in this regard, NOPCA conducted a weekly children’s
program, which was suspended in 2001 for lack of funds. Its
resumption is a
NOPCA priority for
2002.[8]
- MoE
has produced an annual ‘My Agenda’ diary for all school children for
the past three years. The theme of the 2001/02
diary was ‘a
child-friendly school for all’, following HRCB’s survey of around
1000 students concerning absenteeism
and child-friendly
schools[9] (in 2000/01 the
theme was ‘a different right each week’). The diary is produced by
UNICEF and distributed by it via
MoE. In 2001, HCRB also marked
Children’s Day with the production of an illustrated pocket booklet in
English and Spanish
on children’s rights and responsibilities.
- Since
its inception, FSD holds annual ‘Give Your Heart to a Child’
campaigns each February, oriented toward the promotion
of fostering and
adoption. At the same time, it engages in media interviews and other
activities, such as a poster contest, ‘Family
Fun Day’,
‘Poster Display in the Park’ and t-shirt distribution and
sales.
- As
one means of advancing the child’s access to appropriate information and
to protect their privacy, MHD initiated and coordinates
the Belize City
Community Counselling Centre in February 2000. This service is coordinated by
the Ministry. It is available to
anyone, and it is estimated that perhaps three
quarters of its clients are under eighteen years of age. The service receives
referrals
from a range of sources, in particular, the courts, FSD, schools and
doctors. In its first year, it provided services to an estimated
206
individuals, families and groups. The Centre had originally benefitted from
being fully staffed by qualified counsellors serving
in a voluntary capacity.
The absence of dedicated professional coordination by a Departmental counsellor
led to the lapsing of that
voluntary commitment, with volunteers increasingly
feeling that they were being taken for granted. Furthermore, the Centre
suffered
from inadequate counselling privacy in cramped and shared conditions,
and limited dedicated staff support by the Ministry. The increasing
reliance by
key agencies and professionals to make referrals to the service, as well as its
apparent valuing by many young people,
emphasised the need for the counselling
service to be strengthened, including the appointment of a full-time counsellor
and provision
of adequate dedicated facilities. The Centre was relocated to
improved premises in mid-2002, coinciding with the appointment of
a trained
psychologist as counsellor.
- In
1999 GOB introduced the Families and Children (Protection of Children) (Belize
City) Regulations, which imposed a curfew in Belize
City for all children less
than 16 years, partly in reaction to a spate of abductions and murders of young
girls. Children not off
the streets between 8pm and 6am are liable to be taken
home by police and MHD or, if there is no suitable home, into protective
custody.
Parents of children who repeatedly break the curfew may be penalised.
The curfew scheme is poorly resourced, relying on an already
stretched Police
Department and MHD staff who have been expected to assist police patrols up
until midnight, 2-3 nights a week.
GOB has attempted to balance the sound
competing rights to freedom of movement by young people and duty of care by
Government in
a period of widespread community fear and demand for appropriate
action. Nevertheless, it is acknowledged that the curfew is barely
operational,
and it is understood that, in that time, no child has been taken into care
(although it has alerted authorities to the
issue of youth homelessness). In
practice, it is assumed that the Police Department’s Zone Beat Liaison
Officers are well
placed to detect potential problems with young people on the
streets at nighttime. In this sense, the curfew has likely served more
as a
means of reassuring parents alarmed at risks to children on the street, than as
an effective measure against the child abductions
that it was a response to.
(The abductions largely occurred in daylight, such as on the way to and from
school.)
- The
right to peaceful assembly and the right to public order came into conflict on
24 April 2002, when a peaceful and sanctioned demonstration
by students from a
number of schools in the village of Benque Viejo del Carmen took place. The
demonstration was to protest substantial
increases in bus fares, especially for
students. (In recent years, the various private local bus companies had been
absorbed into
a virtual national private monopoly.) The students were joined by
a number of other villagers, whom the Police hold largely responsible
for the
alleged provocation of the violence which followed. Confronted early into their
agreed march route by a contingent of Police,
who were equipped for a potential
riot and ordered the march's immediate dispersal, some of the demonstrators
resorted to throwing
stones in the direction of the Police. The Police
responded with tear gas and batons. In the resulting chaos, two (one being a
15
year old male) were seriously injured by Police gunfire, and many students not
involved in the demonstration, together with teachers
and a number of infants,
suffered from tear gas drift through the town.
- In
the hours following the incident, Police detained 28 males alleged to have been
present at the demonstration and involved in throwing
stones, and HRCB
subsequently interviewed 17 of them, documenting allegations of serious beatings
by the Police (including 10 children:
one aged 13 years, two aged 14 years,
three aged 15 years and four aged 16 years). At the same time, the Police
report that 27 police
officers were injured. Of those detained, 21 were
charged, of whom four were children (one aged 14 years, two aged 16 years, and
one aged 17 years). In the wake of the widespread trauma at the violence, and
the actions of the Police, UNICEF funded NCFC to conduct
basic counselling and
crisis intervention workshops of students and teachers, in particular. The
training included crisis intervention
training for teachers, to equip them to
provide limited psychosocial responses after traumatising experiences and
disasters (such
as hurricanes). Several schools were closed for a few days
during this time, and it is clear that NCFC's efforts were instrumental
in
achieving a calming of a potentially explosive situation within that village.
More recently, the Police have withdrawn all charges,
with a proviso of no
further such infringements.
H. The right not to be subjected to
torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
Article 37
States Parties shall ensure that:
(a) No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment. Neither capital punishment
nor life imprisonment
without possibility of release shall be imposed for offences committed by
persons below eighteen years of age.
- The
right not to “be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading
punishment or other treatment” is guaranteed in the
Belize Constitution
Act (S. 7). The Indictable Procedures Act exempts a person under the age of
eighteen years at the time of committing an offence
punishable by death, from a
sentence of death (S. 146 (2)). However, a 1998 amendment to that provision
requires the court to impose
a sentence of life imprisonment on such an offender
(in lieu of this having been at “Her Majesty’s pleasure”).
According to the provisions of the Court of Appeal Act (S. 23 (1)(c)) there is
no capacity to seek a review of that life sentence
(apart from such grounds as
new evidence). Life imprisonment means a sentence of eighteen to twenty years,
without provision for
parole. It can apply to children as young as nine years
of age.
- The
Families and Children Act states that “it shall be the duty of any person
having custody of a child to use his best efforts
to protect the child from
discrimination, violence, abuse and neglect” (S. 5 (2)). Part VIII of
that Act provides for the
Family Court or a Magistrates Court to make a
supervision or care order, on application by a social services practitioner or
other
person so authorised by the Minister for Human Development, where
satisfied that the child is, inter alia, suffering or likely to
suffer harm or
is being ill-treated (S. 100). Responsibility for investigating such matters is
vested in FSD. The supervisor of
a supervision order is required to take any
reasonable steps necessary to reduce any harm to the child (S. 102 (e)).
- In
addition, the Domestic Violence Act addresses the matter of violence within the
home, and especially with regard to women and children.
It provides for a
summary jurisdiction to grant an applicant a protection order against a
perpetrator (S. 4), and for the victim’s
right to live in the dwelling
previously shared with the offender to the exclusion of the offender (an
occupation order) (S. 23).
The Act provides, inter alia, for assistance to
victims of such abuse. It also provides that applications for a protection
order
may be filed on behalf of a child, with a copy served also on the parent
or guardian with whom the child usually lives (S. 13).
With respect to the
granting of occupation orders, the court must be satisfied that it is the best
interests of the child (S. 23
(3)(b)).
- Many
cases of domestic violence constituting ill treatment and neglect have been
submitted to the court and they usually form part
of a mother’s action for
a protection order. Even so, it is evident that concerted action is required to
give better effect
to the provisions of the Domestic Violence Act, both in
making greater use of the Act to prosecute offenders, and in ensuring that
the
requisite counselling and support services are available. Since late 1999, the
Police Department has established Family Violence
Units in all districts. DHS
has assisted in the provision to officers of domestic violence training, which
is also a part of the
curriculum at the police training academy.
- The
issue of child abuse – including of child sexual abuse, and of corporal
punishment – is considered in more detail
in Chapter V, Section
J.
V. FAMILY ENVIRONMENT AND ALTERNATIVE
CARE
A. Parental guidance
Article 5
States Parties shall respect the responsibilities, rights and duties of
parents or, where applicable, the members of the extended
family or community as
provided for by local custom, legal guardians or other persons legally
responsible for the child, to provide,
in a manner consistent with the evolving
capacities of the child, appropriate direction and guidance in the exercise by
the child
of the rights recognized in the present Convention.
B. Parental responsibilities
Article 18
- States
Parties shall use their best efforts to ensure recognition of the principle that
both parents have common responsibilities
for the upbringing and development of
the child. Parents or, as the case may be, legal guardians, have the primary
responsibility
for the upbringing and development of the child. The best
interests of the child will be their basic concern.
- For
the purpose of guaranteeing and promoting the rights set forth in the present
Convention, States Parties shall render appropriate
assistance to parents and
legal guardians in the performance of their child-rearing responsibilities and
shall ensure the development
of institutions, facilities and services for the
care of children.
- The
relevant legislation is the Families and Children Act, and reference has been
made elsewhere to the provisions of that Act with
respect to the rights and
responsibilities of parents to their child. That Act replaced the Family
Maintenance Act, and redresses
to some extent the gender inequity in the
differential treatment of mothers and fathers. Whilst it still defines separate
and different
duties for mothers and fathers to maintain their child, the Act
clearly states that any mother, father or guardian who has custody
of a child
may apply for a maintenance order against the other parent (S. 53).
- In
general, the provisions related to the granting of custody treat each parent
similarly, except for children born out of wedlock,
in which case the mother is
granted custody unless and until the court determines that she is unfit to do
so. This includes the
situation whereby the father applies for custody (of the
child born out of wedlock) and proves to the satisfaction of the court that
it
is in the child’s best interest for him to have custody (S. 16
(3)(f)).
- Whilst
the laws ascribe financial responsibility for the care of the child to the
father, they require the mother to maintain and
care for the child, in the event
that the mother is a widow or unmarried, or whenever the father fails to fulfil
that obligation,
subject to provisions to enable the court to direct the father
to do so (Ss. 48 & 49). In practice, however, it is predominantly
the case
that it is the mother who ends up with most of the day-to-day fiscal burden of
child-rearing where the father is absent,
and that it is the responsibility of
the mother to take the father to court to enforce his obligation to financially
support the
child.
- With
respect to the development of parenting skills, FSD, the Family Court and some
NGOs offer family counselling services, and community
health workers are trained
through the Ministry of Health’s Primary Health Care Unit to provide
outreach services in the promotion
of parenting skills for both parents. In
1999/2000, MHR implemented COMPAR, following the development in 1997 of a
curriculum for
the training of parents, as a joint UNICEF/MHR initiative
embracing a cross-sectoral partnership. Initially, COMPAR identified and
trained community leaders as ‘trainers’ within their local community
(viz. in subjects such as gender, parenting, child
development, drugs, AIDS).
This was piloted in Belize City, then extended into the districts and local
villages.
- Training
is being facilitated by trainers from GOB and NGOs, and is accredited, so that
teachers have an additional incentive in meeting
their annual training
requirements. Some agencies comment that the extension of COMPAR to teachers
meant that many may only have
elected to participate in order to meet training
accreditation provisions, and that their participation may have intimidated and
inhibited some parent participants. An evaluation in 2000 concluded that COMPAR
had trained large numbers of people as facilitators
but that there had been
little ongoing local support to sustain the local trainers in their work. In
late 2000/early 2001, the model
was adapted for the final two districts (Orange
Walk and Corozal) to incorporate better ongoing support, along with a revised
curriculum
and training process.
- Amongst
agencies involved in delivering parenting workshops, NOPCA focusses on good
touch/bad touch sessions, the identification of
child abuse and neglect, and
alternative forms of discipline. Within its school-based programs in 2000/01,
it catered to 14 of the
15 schools in Belize City, totalling 9615 students, 3053
parents and 350 teachers. Parenting workshops by MoE in 2001 catered to
36
parents in a village in each of Stann Creek and Belize Districts, and 142
parents, covering 18 preschool centres in Corozal District.
- One
area warranting examination is that of the treatment of children considered to
display ‘uncontrollable behaviour’,
whereby parents may apply for
committal of the child to institutional care, primarily within the Youth Hostel.
FSD considers that
the majority of such instances are the consequence of poor
parenting skills and require interventionist family and parenting support
services. Almost a half of all committed and remanded young people are cases of
‘uncontrollable behaviour’, with the
rate for females being
considerably higher than that for
males.[10] Measures that
need to be considered include requiring requesting parents to participate in
COMPAR training and to contribute to
the costs of the child’s
institutional care (as provided for under the Familes and Children Act (S. 59),
and this should include
the capacity to garnishee child maintenance payments, if
applicable). Ideally, institutionalisation for ‘uncontrollable
behaviour’
should be prohibited: it is an inappropriate response to
victimless actions which may produce the behavioural problems it aims to
avoid,
besides being discriminatory in its impact on young women. The precipitating
actions are also usually 'status offences',
which would not carry such
consequences or treatment if carried out by an adult. Such institutionalisation
is also expensive: such
resources could be far better reallocated for the
long-term benefit of so many such young people – including through the
extension
of parent effectiveness efforts. It is very likely that a parent who
is aware that they may be required to financially support their
child's
institutional care, will forfeit receipt of maintenance payments for that child
during that period, and may be obliged to
undergo parenting training, will be
disinclined to seek a declaration of the child as 'uncontrollable'. This would
also likely avoid
the frequency of such children committing offences after
leaving such institutional care.
C. Separation from parents
Article 9
- States
Parties shall ensure that a child shall not be separated from his or her parents
against their will, except when competent
authorities subject to judicial review
determine, in accordance with applicable law and procedures, that such
separation is necessary
for the best interests of the child. Such determination
may be necessary in a particular case such as one involving abuse or neglect
of
the child by the parents, or one where the parents are living separately and a
decision must be made as to the child's place of
residence.
- In
any proceedings pursuant to paragraph 1 of the present article, all interested
parties shall be given an opportunity to participate
in the proceedings and make
their views known.
- States
Parties shall respect the right of the child who is separated from one or both
parents to maintain personal relations and direct
contact with both parents on a
regular basis, except if it is contrary to the child's best interests.
- Where
such separation results from any action initiated by a State Party, such as the
detention, imprisonment, exile, deportation
or death (including death arising
from any cause while the person is in the custody of the State) of one or both
parents or of the
child, that State Party shall, upon request, provide the
parents, the child or, if appropriate, another member of the family with
the
essential information concerning the whereabouts of the absent member(s) of the
family unless the provision of the information
would be detrimental to the
well-being of the child. States Parties shall further ensure that the submission
of such a request shall
of itself entail no adverse consequences for the
person(s) concerned.
D. Family reunification
Article 10
- In
accordance with the obligation of States Parties under article 9, paragraph 1,
applications by a child or his or her parents to
enter or leave a State Party
for the purpose of family reunification shall be dealt with by States Parties in
a positive, humane
and expeditious manner. States Parties shall further ensure
that the submission of such a request shall entail no adverse consequences
for
the applicants and for the members of their family.
- A
child whose parents reside in different States shall have the right to maintain
on a regular basis, save in exceptional circumstances
personal relations and
direct contacts with both parents. Towards that end and in accordance with the
obligation of States Parties
under article 9, paragraph 1, States Parties shall
respect the right of the child and his or her parents to leave any country,
including
their own and to enter their own country. The right to leave any
country shall be subject only to such restrictions as are prescribed
by law and
which are necessary to protect the national security, public order (ordre
public), public health or morals or the rights
and freedoms of others and are
consistent with the other rights recognized in the present
Convention.
E. Illicit transfer and non-return
Article 11
- States
Parties shall take measures to combat the illicit transfer and non-return of
children abroad.
- To
this end, States Parties shall promote the conclusion of bilateral or
multilateral agreements or accession to existing agreements.
- Provisions
across these Articles remain as described in the Initial Report, except that
references to the Infants Act now are to the
Families and Children Act. Also,
as noted in Chapter IV, Section A, amendments to the Belizean Nationality Act
(S. 12) and Immigration
Act (S. 10) have further protected the interests of the
immigrant child with respect to nationality and citizenship.
- With
respect to Article 9, responsibility for the care of children who have been
removed from, separated from or otherwise deprived
of their family environment,
is vested in DHS. DHS investigates and follows up cases of children in such
circumstances. Through
DHS, GOB also makes provision for the temporary or
permanent care and protection of such children, through the coordination of
foster
care, assessment of adoption applications, and administration of
institutions under the Social Service Agencies Act and the Certified
Institutions (Children’s Reformation) Act.
- Family
preservation and reunification of immigrant families are especially important to
GOB, given the substantial influx of adults
and children alike into Belize over
the past two decades. DHS has developed priorities and procedures for children
deprived of their
family environment, and comment has been made elsewhere in
this report of legislative changes and of an Amnesty Program which aim
to
further address such matters.
F. Recovery of maintenance for the
child
Article 27 (4)
States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to secure the recovery of
maintenance for the child from the parents or other persons
having financial
responsibility for the child, both within the State Party and from abroad. In
particular, where the person having
financial responsibility for the child lives
in a State different from that of the child, States Parties shall promote the
accession
to international agreements or the conclusion of such agreements, as
well as the making of other appropriate arrangements.
- The
legal provisions described in the Initial Report generally apply, except that
references therein to the Adoption of Children Act (S. 8 (1)), Children Born out
of Wedlock Act, and Status of Children Act (S. 5) are now references to the
Families and Children Act, S. 140 (1), S. 48 (1)(a) and S. 37 respectively.
- As
a result of the new Act, the Family Court is no longer able to apply a maximum
or minimum amount in a maintenance order. Its determination
must now be based
upon a case-by-case review of the financial means of both parties, and this also
means that the court aims to be
more gender-neutral in its
operations.[11] A parent
(normally, the mother) may now bring an application to the Family Court for a
maintenance order for a child up to the age
of 5 years, so long as she can prove
paternity. Previously, the age limit was one year. This now means that a
mother who raises
her child up to the age of the child’s school
commencement, may seek a maintenance order with respect to those additional
living
and care costs. The previous one-year limit was considered to be far too
restrictive and punitive in its effect on the child’s
upbringing.
- The
maximum age for which maintenance may apply stands at 16 years for the children
of a married couple, with additional provision
to extend it to 18 years due to
disability or full-time continuing education. The maximum age for the children
of unmarried parents
is now 18 years, with additional provision for a child up
to the age of 21 years or beyond, due to disability or full-time continuing
education.
- As
at 1 December 2001, there were a total of 4,629 men covered by maintenance
orders in the Family Court, for a total of 6,998 children.
However, payments
were not being made for 31% of those children. Furthermore, it is understood
that, if the mother must act through
the magistrates court for the recovery of
maintenance (viz. outside of Belize City), then the court deducts a small but
often onerous
fee ($2.50) from that payment prior to passing those monies on to
the mother (effectively a penalty on the wellbeing of the child).
Any fee
deemed necessary for a default of payment ought to be an impost on the defaulter
as an incentive to make payment, rather
than on the carer parent (as a potential
incentive to default further). This is the practice in the Family Court in
Belize City:
a parent applying for a recovery of arrears may result in the
issuing of a distress warrant, and a $2.50 fee is added to the amount
recovered
from the payer parent.
- The
Family Court is empowered to imprison defaulters of maintenance orders, and does
so when deemed warranted, but enforcement remains
a problem. A major barrier is
the lack of concerted enforcement by the Police, and this seems to be in large
part due to gender
attitudes among many officers. This also highlights the
shortcomings of the magistrates courts in the districts where, although they
may
satisfy the legislated requirements of the district-based Family Courts as
required on a weekly basis, still fall well short
of being adequately
child-friendly, and many magistrates remain insufficiently trained or aware of
CRC requirements. Legislation
to be implemented in late 2002 will provide for
alternatives to imprisonment for child maintenance
defaulters.[12]
- There
also continues to be a problem due to the fact that many actual or potentially
liable fathers reside out of the country. First,
there remains a problem with
the actual implementation of reciprocal maintenance agreements with other
Commonwealth countries. Second
– and more importantly, given the number
of children affected – is the continued absence of a reciprocal
maintenance
agreement with the USA. Third, attention needs to be given to the
merit of Belize joining as a party to the Hague Convention on
the Recognition
and Enforcement of Decisions relating to Maintenance
Obligations.
G. Children deprived of their family environment
Article 20
A child temporarily or permanently deprived of his or her family
environment, or in whose own best interests cannot be allowed to
remain in that
environment, shall be entitled to special protection and assistance provided by
the State.
- States
Parties shall in accordance with their national laws ensure alternative care for
such a child.
- Such
care could include, inter alia, foster placement, kafalah of Islamic law,
adoption or if necessary placement in suitable institutions
for the care of
children. When considering solutions, due regard shall be paid to the
desirability of continuity in a child's upbringing
and to the child's ethnic,
religious, cultural and linguistic background.
- The
main change since the Initial Report is the appointment of an Inspector of
Social Services Institutions in early 2001, with duties
to:
- promote,
regulate and enforce the provisions of the Social Service Agencies Act via
delegated authority from the Registrar of Social
Service
Agencies[13];
- develop,
regulate, monitor and enforce operational standards for all Social Service
Agencies including Children’s Institutions,
Day Care Facilities, Homes for
the Aged and Disabled and other similar type facilities;
- develop,
regulate and enforce a registration and licensing system for all Social Service
Agencies in accordance with the Social Service
Agencies Act;
- coordinate the
formulation, promotion and facilitation of appropriate and relevant
educational/training programs for all service providers
of Social Service
Agencies;
- establish a
network mechanism among relevant Social Service Agencies for the purpose of
promoting an organised and collaborated approach
to inter-agency coordination,
monitoring and evaluation;
and other duties that may be
assigned from time to time. The Inspector is located in MHD’s Policy and
Planning Unit.
- Day
care facilities for children relate to children aged 0-3 years. There is also
capacity in the Inspector’s roles to incorporate
attention to the
certification or revokation of certification of institutions under the Certified
Institutions (Children’s
Reformation) Act (which relates to places of
detention for children and young people). However, the existing duties alone
are clearly
an enormous burden for one officer (by contrast, there are three
officers in the MoE to oversight and coordinate pre-schools (for
3-5 year old
children), none of which are state-run). Initial priority is being directed to
children’s institutions and homes
for the elderly and homeless. Since
mid-2002, the Inspector and NCFC have been jointly drafting regulations for the
upgrading of
residential care facilities for children. Responsibilities under
the Certified Institutions (Children's Reformation) Act have, during
2002, been
transferred to the new Community Rehabilitation Department (CRD).
- Foster
care arrangements are monitored by Children’s Officers within FSD. DHS
held its seventh annual ‘Give Your Heart
To a Child’ Campaign in
early 2001, to recuit foster and adoptive families for children in care: 23
families responded. Staff
also spoke on morning radio talk shows, and conducted
various other activities. A review of foster care was completed in early 2000,
and has informed procedural improvements in fostering. Although the Department
is now more proactive in areas of child protection,
with better trained staff
and a more child-centred approach to casework, there continues to be a need for
the ongoing promotion of
fostering and of standards of foster care. In May
2002, the Minister for Human Development hosted another national banquet for
foster
parents, with 32 of 40 foster parents attending. The aim of also using
the banquet as a means of recruitment was not successful,
despite each foster
parent bringing a potential recruit to that function.
- In
1999, GOB decided to reallocate usage of a key Government youth institution, the
Youth Hostel (previously known as Princess Royal
Youth Hostel). As a result,
the Hostel was transferred from Belize City to the site used for the Belize
Youth Development Centre
(BYDC), located 21 miles out of Belize City. BYDC was
consequently amalgamated with the National 4H Youth Training Centre at Belmopan
(now the National 4H and Youth Development Training Centre), coinciding with a
decision to (again) transfer the Youth Department
to another Ministry (this
time, Tourism[14]). The
capacity of the former 4H Centre means that this has yielded a net reduction of
youth training places: 4H had catered to 24
young people and BYDC had catered to
46 young people; the combined facility now caters to 24 residential (male) and
12 commuter (female)
trainees. The result has been that the 4H program has been
expanded to a more comprehensive training curriculum, and the duration
extended
from six months (with two annual intakes) to a single annual ten month program.
In effect, this means that – as a
result of the transfer of the Hostel
– annual trainee levels have reduced from 94 to 36 young people. The
program is seen
as serving as a stepping stone back to school, catering mainly
to youth who have not completed primary school, or else have received
poor
passes. Most graduates proceed to secondary school, having had the opportunity
to re-sit the Primary School Examination and
improve their
grades.[15]
- GOB
also decided to phase out the former Government’s Conscious Youth
Development Program, and replace it – in November
1999 – with a
National Youth Cadet Corps, located adjacent to the Youth Hostel 21 miles out of
Belize City. The Corps was
originally a pilot residential program for
out-of-school teenage males considered at risk of lapsing into criminal
behaviour and
as an alternative sentencing option. It caters to 75 young
people, largely recruited nationwide by the Youth Department’s
Youth
Officers. Emphasis is placed on recruiting young people with behavioural
problems, first time offenders and gang members.
Until late 2001, the program
comprised an initial three-month ‘Boot Camp’, with drilling by
Belize Defence Force officers
and life skills training, followed by a four-month
academic program combining skills training and literacy, and then a period of
community outreach which reintegrates the young participants into their
communities and assists in job-seeking. Participants are
male and aged between
13-19 years. In late 2001 the Youth Department commenced reviewing the Boot
Camp, because of a perceived need
to strengthen observance by trainers of the
core principles and standards and to achieve greater consistency in the quality
of training
provided. (Within the correctional services area there is a
separate Boot Camp, which has been merged with the Youth Enhancement
Academy
within the Hattieville prison complex (see Chapter VIII, Section B).)
- These
changes have resulted in changed operational arrangements additional to the
reduced trainee capacity. The Youth Hostel had
assumed greater importance
following Government’s decision in 1995 to close the main residential
institution for young offenders,
Listowel Boys’ Training School (in part,
due to its geographic isolation, associated difficulty for family contact with
the
boys, poorly resourced and maintained amenities, and that infrequent review
of placement often meant that some boys detained for
minor infringements or
behavioural problems could remain at Listowel for excessive periods considering
their age[16]). The
relocated Youth Hostel is not as inaccessible as Listowel had been, but is no
longer easily accessible to Belize City families
(the majority). GOB has taken
welcome steps to upgrade facilities at the new premises, but there have been
problems in attendance
and retention, and a recent high level of absconding by
girls.
- In
2000, DHS had a 21% increase in new adoption and foster care cases (to 109) over
1999. Over the course of 2000, there was a total
of 118 children placed with 74
foster families, of whom 24 families received a foster care allowance. A total
of 14 new foster families
were approved, and 51 foster care inquiries were
received – nine from outside of Belize. Two districts (Belize and Stann
Creek)
accounted for the majority of foster care cases (66% of children and 61%
of families).
- In
2000, there was a total of 242 children in four institutions. For the three
institutions for which such data are available (accounting
for 91% of the
total), 61% were female, and 50% were in care for up to two weeks. Of those
remaining in the institution for less
than one year, the average length of stay
was around seven weeks, and 22% of the total remained for more than a year (for
one institution,
76% remained for more than a year).
- For
the Youth Hostel, as at 1 December 2001, there were a total of 22 boys and no
girls (although, in view of the aforementioned absconding
by girls, it is noted
that there ought to have been 11 in residence). At 30 September 2002, there
were 22 boys and 5 girls resident
at the Youth
Hostel.
H. Adoption
Article 21
States Parties that recognize and/or permit the system of
adoption shall ensure that the best
(a) interests of the child shall be the paramount consideration and they
shall.
Ensure that the adoption of a child is authorized only by competent
authorities who determine, in accordance with applicable law and
procedures and
on the basis of all pertinent and reliable information, that the adoption is
permissible in view of the child's status
concerning parents, relatives and
legal guardians and that, if required, the persons concerned have given their
informed consent
to the adoption on the basis of such counselling as may be
necessary;
(b) Recognize that inter-country adoption may be considered as an alternative
means of child's care, if the child cannot be placed
in a foster or an adoptive
family or cannot in any suitable manner be cared for in the child's country of
origin;
(c) Ensure that the child concerned by inter-country adoption enjoys safeguards
and standards equivalent to those existing in the
case of national adoption;
(d) Take all appropriate measures to ensure that, in inter-country adoption, the
placement does not result in improper financial
gain for those involved in it;
(e) Promote, where appropriate, the objectives of the present article by
concluding bilateral or multilateral arrangements or agreements
and endeavour,
within this framework, to ensure that the placement of the child in another
country is carried out by competent authorities
or organs.
- The
legal provisions for and administration of adoptions has improved with the
provisions of the Families and Children Act. In particular,
that Act provides
that “the court shall appoint a guardian ad litem to ensure that the best
interests of the child are protected”
(S. 134 (3)) and that “an
adoption order shall not be made unless the social services practitioner or an
approved organisation
has submitted a report to the court on the suitability of
the applicant for adopting the child” (S. 135 (4)). It also provides
that
“a guardian ad litem includes a social services practitioner or a person
approved by the Family Court” (S. 134 (5)).
A social services
practitioner is not defined in the Act. In practice, the majority of adoptions
are private adoptions via an attorney,
who apparently utilise practitioners of
their choosing, and it seems that approximately one third of all adoptions
presently occur
out-of-court and without the associated vetting by MHD. This
does not seem to be the intent of the Act, and GOB needs to consider
an
amendment to ensure that guardians ad litem are either MHD officers or persons
otherwise authorised by the Minister and oversighted
by MHD. This is considered
especially important for the estimated one third of adoptions which are
intercountry (the degree of overlap
between out-of-court and intercountry
adoptions is not known, but is likely to be very high).
- Such
roles have significantly increased demand on DHS resources, somewhat eased by
the creation of an additional 2-3 Child Service
Officer positions in Belize
City. These functions have been absorbed by the existing Community Development
Officers in the other
districts, in turn offset to some degree by the transfer
of some of their former responsibilities under the Village Councils Act
to
officers in the Ministry of Rural Development. Nevertheless, the workload now
assigned to DHS by these new provisions, together
with its officers assuming
multiple roles (guardian ad litem in adoption matters, prosecutor in abuse and
neglect matters, officer
submitting the court report and, on occasion, a witness
on behalf of a child), supports a review of the merit of devolving one or
more
of those roles to a trained prosecutor or retained legal expertise, and perhaps
community-based guardians ad litem, appropriately
trained, registered and
oversighted by FSD or an authorised NGO such as NOPCA.
- The
Families and Children Act also makes special provision for the formal
recognition, upon application by a person or couple, of
de facto adoptions in
existence for at least two years, without requiring the consent of the
birth-parent or guardian, provided that
the court is satisfied that “it is
just and equitable and for the welfare of the child” to dispense with such
consent
(S. 144).
- On
inter-country adoption, two points are noted. First, the new Act no longer
requires that the applicant be resident in Belize.
This is likely a formal
acknowledgement of reality, which would be improved if there was a formal
separation between the applicant’s
legal representative and the
child’s guardian ad litem. Second, the requirement of sub-article (b)
continues to not be met,
to the extent that it is not a requirement that
appropriate domestic remedies (such as in-country adoption or fostering) be a
first
priority. A non-resident of Belize (whether or not Belizean) is required
to provide a current recommendation of suitability from
a competent authority in
the country of residence (S. 135 (6)). A non-Belizean is additionally required
to not have a criminal record,
and to satisfy the court that the adoption order
will be respected and recognised in their country of origin (S. 137 (1)).
- It
is, however, emphasised that there remains no legislative or administrative
provision to address domestic remedies before processing
an application for an
inter-country adoption, and that consequently there remains inadequate provision
to comply with the terms of
Article 20 (3), which requires that “due
regard shall be paid to the desirability of continuity in a child’s
upbringing
and to the child’s ethnic, religious, cultural and linguistic
background”.
- Despite
the more comprehensive procedures for processing adoptions, informal adoptions
persist. In normal instances, the families
involved would rarely even view such
actions as an adoption situation. Often, a child born to a teenage mother may
be passed to
another family member, close relative or even friend to
‘mind’. In some cases, it is understood that a child handed
to
another family after birth may not even be meant to remain there permanently.
In other cases, parents – usually the mother
– find or seek an
employment opportunity in another country and leave the child with grandparents
or other relatives, usually
with the intent of repatriating funds for the
child’s support or for reuniting with the child when opportunity permits.
Too
often, these aspirations are not realised. However, of greater concern are
anecdotal reports[17] of
instances where some Mestizo households in financial distress are having their
children informally adopted by Mennonite families
in rural areas, to strengthen
the child’s chances of an education and of vocational opportunities in the
agricultural sector.
There are also reports of agents of some evangelical
churches ‘scouting’ poorer rural communities looking for children
to
adopt into families in the USA.
- In
2000, there were 41 cases of adoption, 30 of which FSD provided direct services
and the remaining 11 of which it coordinated services.
About 30% of those
adoptions were intercountry, but specific data are not readily available. For
2001, FSD advises that there were
46 adoptions, of which just two were
intercountry adoptions. Data are also not available on any extent of usage of
the de facto
adoption provision.
- An
unintended gap in the adoption provisions relates to the child born out of
Belize and who resides in Belize, but may lack a parent
or guardian who is of
Belizean nationality or who is willing to make such application for nationality.
A small number of such cases
have arisen amongst the abandoned or orphaned
offspring of undocumented Central American immigrants. It is legal for a
non-Belizean
not living in Belize to adopt a Belizean child, but not for a
Belizean to adopt a non-Belizean child living in Belize. This could
be
rectified by an amendment to the Families and Children Act (S. 137) to add a new
sub-section dealing with the adoption of a non-Belizean
child, or else by
granting discretion to the Minister of Immigration or the Minister with
responsibility for children to approve
such adoptions on a case-by-case
basis.
- Belize
is not a party to the 1993 Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and
Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption.
I. Periodic review
of placement
Article 25
States Parties recognize the right of a child who has been placed by the
competent authorities for the purposes of care, protection
or treatment of his
or her physical or mental health, to a periodic review of the treatment provided
to the child and all other circumstances
relevant to his or her placement.
- The
Initial Report continues to be relevant with respect to mental health care. The
Families and Children Act provides that the court
may make a care order to place
a child in the care of foster parents or an approved children’s home (S.
106 (1)), and that
a care order (depending upon the child’s age) may be
for a maximum of three years or until the child turns eighteen years (whichever
is shorter) (S. 108 (1)). The Act further provides that “a care order
shall be reviewed at least once in ninety days by the
social services
practitioner who may make recommendations as to the steps to be taken having
regard to the outcome of the review”
(S. 108 (2)).
- This
has been the practice by FSD with respect to three of the five children’s
institutions in Belize (of the other two, one
was located in a remote area of
Toledo District and closed operations in September 2002, and the other
institution has been resistent
to government ‘interference’ in its
affairs, asserting – with MoE support – that it is a boarding
school.
In practice, FSD usually has met with a children’s home each
month to review placements, as well as having taken steps to
strengthen the
operational protocols in each home. These steps have also been cognisant of the
Act’s requirement that it is
“the responsibility of the staff of the
approved children home, the social services practitioner and any other person to
assist
the child to become reunited with his parents or guardians” (S. 124
(2)).
- The
Cayo Deaf Institute is a residential children's facility which claims to be a
boarding school and therefore not subject to standards
or monitoring as a
children's institution, despite not being deemed as such by MoE. It houses
children as young as seven years,
with very infrequent home visits. One very
recent development has been that of a non-Belizean group seeking to establish a
residential
children's facility for a purported 300 children, 'recruited' from
as young an age as is possible. There is concern that children
more
appropriately left with their families or in smaller facilities closer to
families, or in foster care, may be volunteered into
such care due to better
levels of external financing. The regulations currently being drafted will need
to be conscious of such
matters.
- One
area that FSD has more recently identified as requiring attention is that care
orders from the courts are often not accompanied
by the relevant information on
the child, which is central to the periodic review, as well as to ensuring that
the institution is
adequately informed about the child. This matter is
presently being addressed.
J. Abuse and neglect, including physical
and psychological recovery and social reintegration
Article 19
- States
Parties shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and
educational measures to protect the child from all
forms of physical or mental
violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or
exploitation, including sexual
abuse, while in the care of parent(s), legal
guardian(s) or any other person who has the care of the child.
- Such
protective measures should, as appropriate, include effective procedures for the
establishment of social programmes to provide
necessary support for the child
and for those who have the care of the child, as well as for other forms of
prevention and for identification,
reporting, referral, investigation, treatment
and follow-up of instances of child maltreatment described heretofore, and, as
appropriate,
for judicial involvement.
Article 39
States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to promote physical and
psychological recovery and social reintegration of a child
victim of: any form
of neglect, exploitation, or abuse; torture or any other form of cruel, inhuman
or degrading treatment or punishment;
or armed conflicts. Such recovery and
reintegration shall take place in an environment which fosters the health,
self-respect and
dignity of the child.
- Belize
has made significant changes to its laws governing the abuse – including
sexual abuse – of children in recent years.
The Law Reform (Miscellaneous
Provisions) Act 1998 amended the Evidence Act (S. 74) so that, in rape trials, a
woman victim’s “generally immoral character” may no longer be
introduced as
evidence, and that the “sexual experience of a complainant
with a person other than the defendant” may only be raised
in trial with
the leave of the judge. It also empowers senior police officers to apply to a
magistrate for a ‘sex offender
order’ to be granted for at least
five years against a person previously convicted of a sex offence (or found not
guilty by
reason of insanity or disability), who has subsequently acted in a way
to give reasonable cause to believe there is a possible risk.
- The
Criminal Code (Amendment) Act 1999 amended the Code to extend the offence of
rape to include marital rape, and strengthened the
provisions and penalties
applying to carnal knowledge of a female child. Marital rape is defined as
sexual intercourse between spouses,
without the female’s consent, and
where the male knows that she doesn’t consent or is ‘recklessly not
caring’
whether or not she consents, within various defined circumstances
(such as separation, or whilst divorce proceedings are underway,
or the sexual
act is preceded or accompanied by assault or injury to the female). Marital
rape does not apply to a ‘common
law union’. A conviction for
marital rape carries a penalty of between eight years and life in prison.
- The
1999 Act also amended the laws governing carnal knowledge of women and girls,
generally simplifying the provisions and strengthening
the penalties within the
Code. The Code had provided penalties between two years and life imprisonment
for carnal knowledge of girls
below 14 years of age, depending upon their age.
It now mandates between 12 years and life imprisonment if the girl victim is
below
14 years (S. 47 (1)). Consent is not a defence. For carnal knowledge of
a girl aged 14 or 15 years, or of girls or women with a
severe intellectual
incapacity (“female idiot or imbecile”) provided that it is proven
that the offender knew of that
incapacity, the previous penalty of a maximum of
two years imprisonment has been replaced by a period of imprisonment of between
five and ten years (S. 47 (2)). Again, consent is not a defence.
- The
Code provided that, where an offender reasonably believed that the girl victim
was aged at least 16 years, then this is a valid
defence on the first occasion,
where the offender is aged 20 years or under. This now applies on that first
occasion where the offender
is aged less than 18 years, or if 18 years or older
that reasonable belief may be treated as a mitigating circumstance. In any
event,
the mandatory minimum sentence is now five years imprisonment (S. 47
(2)(a)(i) & (ii)).
- A
further new provision means that a conviction for a sexual offence which is not
the first such offence now requires, in addition
to the prescribed penalty, the
undergoing of mandatory counselling, or medical or psychological assessment, and
that the offender
not move without notifying authorities (new S. 65). The
Superintendent of Prisons is required to notify the Commissioner of Police
and
the Director, DHS, upon the release of such a person from prison. For a person
found guilty of a third offence of rape or carnal
knowledge of a girl aged less
than 14 years, a mandatory life sentence shall apply (S. 48).
- Despite
these improvements, a number of gender discriminatory provisions continue to
exist in the treatment of children suffering
sexual abuse, which fail to extend
to the care and protection of the boy child. This matter is commented on in
Chapter II.
- As
already noted, the Families and Children (Child Abuse) (Reporting) Regulations
1999 made the reporting of child abuse and sexual
abuse mandatory.
Specifically, the Act now provides that every person – including medical
and education personnel, family
members, police and any public servants dealing
with children – must promptly report to the police or DHS any situations
where
they believe a child has suffered or is suffering from child abuse. The
penalty for failing to do so – including ‘unduly
delaying’
reporting – is up to $1000 in fine or six months imprisonment or both.
Such reports are to be promptly investigated
and, if considered necessary, the
child placed into protective custody (in which case, there must be a physical or
psychological
examination and (where applicable) medical treatment). The police
or DHS must notify the magistrates court or Family Court within
48 hours, and
the police are to institute criminal proceedings. This Regulation came into
effect on 29 March 1999.
- This
requires that such cases are reported to either the Police or DHS. If the
parents support the child in taking action, then only
the Police need to be
informed.[18] This weakens
the comprehensiveness of formal records of child abuse, especially within DHS,
which is responsible for submitting
reports to the court. It is considered that
there should be a requirement that DHS be formally informed of all cases of
child abuse,
regardless of the parent’s attitude. An alternative option
is for a requirement in all cases that the magistrate seek a court
report, in
which case DHS would be appraised of an incident of child abuse, but the placing
of the onus on the Police earlier in
the process is a preferable course of
action. Further, DHS should be advised of instances where the parent seems to
be wavering
about proceeding with a prosecution, so that reasons and the
child’s interests can be assessed. (FSD estimates that more than
50% of
complaints about child abuse, sexual abuse and neglect are withdrawn and not
proceeded with.)
- As
earlier stated, an Ombudsman was appointed in 1999, and may initiate
investigations. As at late 2001, two self-initiated investigations
have been
undertaken concerning children. One of those matters in particular warrants
brief comment, as it has attracted a deal
of media attention. In 2001, a man
was found guilty of molesting his seven year old step-daughter, and ordered to
pay an amount
of $600 into a trust account for her. Given the efforts by the
Government to strengthen penalties for sexual offences against women
and girls,
such a lenient sentence has raised widespread concern, and several possible
difficulties with current arrangements merit
mention, as expressed by
professionals in various relevant agencies:
- the police
occasionally weaken charges in order to be more confident of securing a
conviction (this is a view repudiated by the police);
- faced with a
non-legally trained prosecutor and a defence attorney – as may occur in
such matters where FSD acts on behalf of
the child – a magistrate is
sometimes more likely to defer to the latter regardless of the weight of
argument;
- in matters of
sexual abuse of a child, the most accessible doctor for performing an
examination is often a private doctor, who is
too often simply unwilling to make
the necessary time available for giving evidence in a court case;
- doctors to whom
cases of child abuse are reported do not always comply with mandatory reporting
requirements, as evidenced by parents
who later approach FSD for progress on a
complaint, of which FSD confirms that there has been no report made;
- the Medico-Legal
Report form used by the police requires the inspecting doctor to state whether
the injuries sustained constitute
either harm, wounding, grievous harm,
dangerous harm or maim, and that doctors will – in concluding that an
injury has been
perpetrated – too frequently adopt the lesser
definition.
This adds up to a range of grounds upon which
the application of the laws governing sexual abuse or carnal knowledge of girls
may
be being inadequately applied. In a workshop in early 2001, involving
medical, law enforcement, Departmental, judiciary, media and
NGO participation,
proposals made included:
- a guardian ad
litem should be appointed in cases related to child abuse and neglect;
- the medical
definition of such terms as ‘harm’ and ‘penetration’
should match the legal definition;
- liaise with the
judiciary to ensure that procedures avoid taking up undue time of a doctor
witness;
- prepare and
implement standardised medical protocols for all sexual abuse matters;
- enforce the law
on mandatory reporting for medical personnel, especially those in private
practice;
- collaborate with
stakeholders to revise the Medico-Legal form;
- FSD and the
judiciary need to collaborate in the preparation of child witnesses;
- FSD should be
immediately informed in the event that a parent seems to be wavering in the
prosecution of a child abuse, child sexual
abuse or child neglect
case.[19]
- In
response to a number of those concerns, the Minister for Human Development
introduced the Families and Children (Child Abuse) (Reporting)
Regulations 2002
to address a range of shortcomings identified in the operation of the Families
and Children Act:
- defining a
social services practitioner;
- providing more
flexibility to doctors in defining and classifying the injury to a child;
- mandating the
presentation to the court of the medical certificate for an abused child;
- mandating that
the police report all child abuse instances to DHS;
- providing
protection and privacy to the child in giving evidence in court proceedings;
and
- requiring that a
court-appointed ‘friend of the court’ (amicus curiae) be present in
all cases of child abuse.
- The
Statutory Instrument bringing these regulations into effect was signed by the
Minister at the National Conference on Child Protection
and Child Rights,
organised by NOPCA to mark its 10th anniversary in January 2002.
- The
introduction of mandatory reporting has also highlighted the limited expertise
of DHS staff in the prosecution of such matters
in the court system. Some high
profile cases have been ‘lost’ in the court, and this has adverse
consequences in the
effective pursuit of an increased incidence of subsequent
cases. The current workload and limited expertise across the investigations,
prosecution, documentation and rehabilitation areas all need addressing, with
attention given to a potential multi-agency approach
around the child’s
welfare, to overcome a perceived weakness in the Act’s current application
in this regard. This should
be accompanied by the preparation of a procedures
manual for the handling of child abuse cases, including guidelines for the
courts,
and consideration of the potential for supervised outsourcing of a
guardian ad litem role beyond the adoption process to appropriate
non-DHS
personnel or agencies.
- Specific
attention must also be given to the incidence of sexual abuse of boys. Whilst
there has been greater recognition of this
problem, the laws remain inadequate,
and the social inculcation of homophobia is a severe limitation in encouraging
boys to report
abuse.
- Records
on child protection referrals illustrate the impact of mandatory reporting. In
the four years to 1998, FSD received an annual
average of 201 referrals
(including 109 for neglect/abandonment, 63 for physical abuse, 27 for sexual
abuse); the annual average
for the three years 1999 to 2001 was 586 referrals
(280 for neglect/abandonment, 120 for physical abuse, 144 for sexual abuse, and
42 for emotional/verbal abuse). The number of referrals is close to trebling,
with sexual abuse referrals undergoing more than a
five-fold increase.
- The
introduction of mandatory reporting makes it presently difficult to ascertain
trends with respect to the incidence (as distinct
from the reporting) of child
abuse. Hopefully, this situation will be clearer at the time of the next
Periodic Report. However,
one matter that is difficult to identify as a
possible trend but which needs urgent attention is of increased reports that
girls
in financial difficulty are ‘consenting’ to sexual abuse in
order to secure money, clothing and goods to enable them
to continue with their
schooling. This may have been exacerbated by increasing poverty and
underemployment, coexisting with increased
numbers of single-parent families.
It also may reinforce the need for greater attention to compliance with child
maintenance payments
in the Family Court. Regardless, this is an issue that may
be more common than is presently understood, and needs closer scrutiny
to
determine action which may be taken.
- Despite
greater awareness of the abusiveness and even counter-productive nature of
corporal punishment, and improved familiarity with
more constructive
alternatives, such punishment is still widely in use in Belize. Action has been
taken to reform and strengthen
standards of care in institutions and to raise
public awareness and improve education through such agencies as the media,
schools,
Government departments (such as DHS, FSD) and NGOs (such as NOPCA,
BFLA). However, the use of corporal punishment in families, schools
and
institutions remains widespread. One strategic failing in the past was in
trying to prohibit a popular form of punishment without
sufficient attention to
promoting suitable options. Consequently, many parents and teachers resisted
being told to cease such practices
in the absence of alternative coping
strategies, given that resort to corporal punishment normally reflects
shortcomings in this
regard, and/or a breakdown in the
adult’s own self-control from time to time. This oversight
has been addressed in more recent years, but resistance remains
strong.
- The
Education Rules state that corporal punishment may only be administered by the
principal or by a senior staff member with the
principal’s authorisation,
that it must be as a last resort, and not excessive (S. 141 (2) &
(3)).[20] Furthermore,
corporal punishment may only be used for “serious and repeated
offences” (Education Act, S. 27); that is,
the offence must be both
serious and repeated, not either serious or repeated. In practice, there are
numerous reports that corporal
punishment is used for lesser and one-off
offences, with unlikely due regard to alternatives, and evidently often without
the principal’s
explicit authorisation. Such practices contravene the
Education Act.
- A
particular problem is a view that is held that corporal punishment – which
is likely to have been introduced as a form of
discipline under colonial rule or
as a remnant of slavery practice (two different variations of
‘adult’ punishment of
‘child’) – is an element of
Belizean ‘culture’, and furthermore that if it is a part of the
culture,
then it is – apparently by definition – appropriate. Two
articles in the same recent edition of one of Belize’s
weekly newspapers
illustrate the strength of opinion. One commentator considers the increase in
lawlessness and insecurity within
the community.
- “How
did this situation come about? I think it has been gradually getting worse
throughout the years, but it started when we
took away the authority of
headmasters of public schools to deal with unruly children. ... I think it
might have been a mistake
for our leaders to accept the methods prescribed in
conventions they have agreed to over the years and rejected our own cultural
methods, which have been very
successful.”[21]
(emphasis added)
- The
Chief Executive Officer of MoE, considering the apparent failure by many
teachers to teach the new National Comprehensive Curriculum,
comments on the
conflicting philosophy of that curriculum and of many teachers by noting
that:
“ teachers in Belize as a bloc are opposed to some of
the fundamental tenets in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, a
convention to which Belize has signed on and ratified. For example, teachers
most vociferously argued for the corporal punishment
clause, whereby teachers
can whip students as a last resort to discipline, to remain in the new handbook
of policy and procedures
governing schools in the form that it was in the 1972
education
rules.”[22]
- This
is a matter of serious concern. It is understood that the November 1999 draft
of MoE’s new curriculum excluded corporal
punishment, but that this was
overturned under teachers’ pressure. The entrenched resistance of
teachers has evidently outweighed
the Government’s own obligations under
an international treaty. HRCB reports that it has received no complaints
concerning
corporal punishment by principals, but a number of complaints of
teachers hitting, beating, punching and otherwise assaulting students.
The
weight of teacher pressure for, and use by teachers rather than principals of,
corporal punishment is acknowledged in the CEO’s
above comment, and
suggests that this is an issue that the Ministry is finding it difficult to
properly control.
- In
view of the provisions within both the CRC and the Education Act, it is evident
that MoE needs to require more rigorous compliance in practice. Short of an
outright prohibition on corporal punishment,
urgent attention is required to
ensure that it only apply to offences that are both serious and repeated.
Breaching of this legislative
provision leaves school principals and teachers
open to a formal complaint to the Ombudsman.
- The
Education Rules need to clarify what constitutes a serious offence. For an
offence to be repeated must require that the student
has been provided prior
warning of the consequences of further such offence. Both that an offence is
serious and that corporal punishment
has been administered should require that a
written entry be made in the Log Book which each school is required to maintain.
This
should include the nature of the offence, that a formal prior warning was
given, the teacher administering the punishment, and the
principal’s
authorisation. Finally, the Rules need to specify, for serious offences and the
administration of a last resort
punishment, what review or appeal provisions
exist. Such provisions ought to be applied across the entire education system,
regardless
of whether or not it is a school receiving GOB assistance.
- Within
the family setting, the contemporary absence of the traditional extended family
limits the range of effective options which
had often been available to parents
in child-rearing. This cannot serve as a means of sanctioning the practice, but
needs to inform
strategies for educating about alternatives. Similarly the
notion that a distinction may be made between ‘punishment’
and
‘discipline’, as any form of abuse of a child remains abuse of that
child, regardless of the context and motive.
- Even
so, it needs to be noted that the Criminal Code Act makes provisions for the
legal use of force on a child. Given the contentious
and difficult nature of
this issue, the relevant section is cited in full:
“(1) A
blow or other force not in any case extending to a wound or grievous harm may be
justified for the purpose of correction,
as follows:
(a) A parent may correct his child being under sixteen years of age, or any
guardian or person acting as a guardian may correct his
ward being under sixteen
years of age, for misconduct, or for disobedience to any lawful command.
(b) A parent or guardian, or person acting as a guardian may delegate to any
person whom he entrusts permanently or temporarily with
the governance or
custody of his child or ward all his own authority for correction, including the
power to determine in what cases
correction ought to be inflicted, and such
delegation shall be presumed, except in so far as it is expressly withheld, in
the case
of a schoolmaster or person acting as a schoolmaster in respect of a
child or ward.
(2) A person who is authorised to inflict
correction as in this section mentioned may, in any particular case, delegate to
any fit
person the infliction of such correction.
(3) No correction can be justified which is unreasonable in kind or in degree
regard being had to the age and physical and mental
condition of the person on
whom it is inflicted, and no correction can be justified in the case of a person
who, by reason of tender
years or otherwise, is incapable of understanding the
purpose for which it is inflicted.” (S. 39)
- The
provisions of the Education Act would likely prevail with respect to the
infliction of corporal punishment on a student but, should such “a blow or
other force”
extend to a wound or grievous harm, the teacher would clearly
be in contravention of the Criminal Code, as would a parent or guardian.
Similarly, the reintroduction in February 2000 at the Hattieville Prison of the
flogging by tamarind whip of juveniles may be deemed
under the provisions of the
Criminal Code Act to exceed reasonable standards of corrections, and should be
reviewed. The normal
provision for the presence at such floggings of a medical
person is likely an acknowledgement of the potential for the infliction
of
“a wound or grievous harm”.
- Agencies
like NOPCA and DHS continue to endeavour to change attitudes, improve awareness
and promote alternatives with respect to
child abuse and neglect. DHS continues
its work with the media, with media awareness workshops and public service
announcements
and, with NCFC, publicising issues from cases. DHS reports that
the media are increasingly contacting it for information on cases,
which serves
to generate increased public awareness.
- NOPCA
conducted a conference in 1999 for 166 teachers, on alternative forms of
discipline, and produced a handbook for teachers which
was distributed
nationally to schools. In 2000, it conducted district-level workshops for
teachers, to try to assess the utility
of the handbook, and incorporated
self-esteem building techniques in its workshops (for both students and
teachers). In 2001, it
trained 350 teachers across all districts in alternative
forms of discipline. It has also developed a Virtues Guide, to assist teachers
to teach ‘values’, and continues to conduct periodic visits to those
schools where teachers participated in its training,
and in its efforts to
promote child-friendly schools.
- The
legislative provisions with respect to child abuse and neglect are considered to
be satisfactory following recent amendments.
Nevertheless, there are some areas
requiring attention, including removing gender-based provisions which leave many
boys vulnerable.
The application of these laws requires continuing attention.
The present framework is satisfactory, apart from the need to review
the
multiple roles of DHS staff as ‘prosecutor’, impartial writer of
investigatory reports for the court, ‘child
advocate’ and child
witness, and the merit of involving NGOs or other suitable persons in such roles
(appropriately skilled,
registered and supervised), possibly including in the
authorised role of amicus curiae.
- There
are also increasing anecdotal reports of the sexual and labour exploitation of
children, as well as drug and alcohol problems
amongst children, within the
Corozal Commercial Free Zone. During 2002, the Ministry of Labour placed a
Labour Officer within the
Zone to, in part, monitor such problems.
- However,
with respect to corporal punishment, it is clear that teaching, parental and
institutional attitudes and practices are entrenched.
The notion that this form
of abuse is a cultural norm severely inhibits effective responses, which need to
combine more proactive
strategies by MoE, and continued efforts to equip
teachers, parents and institutional staff with alternative strategies. In the
meantime, it is apparent that however successful may be efforts to promote
alternatives, there remains widespread resistance to abandoning
this form of
abuse as a socially acceptable practice in child-rearing. This will require
stronger political will reinforced by stronger
officer-level
enforcement.
VI. BASIC HEALTH AND WELFARE
A. Disabled children
Article 23
(1) States Parties recognize that a mentally or physically disabled child should
enjoy a full and decent life, in conditions which
ensure dignity, promote
self-reliance and facilitate the child's active participation in the
community.
(2) States Parties recognize the right of the disabled child to special care and
shall encourage and ensure the extension, subject
to available resources, to the
eligible child and those responsible for his or her care, of assistance for
which application is made
and which is appropriate to the child's condition and
to the circumstances of the parents or others caring for the child.
(3) Recognizing the special needs of a disabled child, assistance extended in
accordance with paragraph 2 of the present article
shall be provided free of
charge, whenever possible, taking into account the financial resources of the
parents or others caring
for the child and shall be designed to ensure that the
disabled child has effective access to and receives education, training, health
care services, rehabilitation services, preparation for employment and
recreation opportunities in a manner conducive to the child's
achieving the
fullest possible social integration and individual development, including his or
her cultural and spiritual development.
(4) States Parties shall promote, in the spirit of international cooperation,
the exchange of appropriate information in the field
of preventive health care
and of medical, psychological and functional treatment of disabled children,
including dissemination of
and access to information concerning methods of
rehabilitation, education and vocational services, with the aim of enabling
States
Parties to improve their capabilities and skills and to widen their
experience in these areas. In this regard, particular account
shall be taken of
the needs of developing countries.
- In
early 2000, GOB made a decision to ‘divest’ disability services, and
the associated Cabinet decision required MHD to
develop a ‘divestment
plan’ related to the existing functions and services of the Disability
Services Division (DSD),
which had been established in 1986 with the stated
goals to:
- provide
rehabilitation services at the community level for disabled persons; and
- provide advocacy
for disabled persons and their families in obtaining community
services.
- MHD
is to continue to maintain its mandate in this area, such as in overarching
policy and planning matters and the monitoring of
service provision to people
with a disability. In the meantime – and regardless of the failure
to-date to ensure that adequate
substitute roles had been taken up outside of
GOB – the early screening of infants for disabilities ceased in April 2000
(so
that there is now only very limited national disability screening of under-5
year olds). DSD was disbanded in early 2001, the associated
positions have
lapsed and the officers reassigned, and the majority of the Division’s
rehabilitation equipment and prostheses
– which had comprised a lending
pool – has been transferred to MoE’s Special Education Unit (SEU),
which has assumed
some limited additional services in Belize City for hearing
impairment.
- Under
present conditions, main GOB support for children with a disability occurs
through the SEU. That Unit continues in its range
of services, such as teacher
training, the provision of testing and screening services, development of
procedures and practice manuals
and public awareness activities. During 2001,
SEU trained 31 teachers in a two-day workshop on teaching students with dyslexia
and
speech problems, and is producing an associated training video. It
continues to provide transport support for itinerant teachers
to participate in
such training. In 2001, it also trained 15 school principals on special needs
students, especially concerning
accommodating their needs, determining their
priorities, and criteria for school enrolment to better cater to students with a
disability.
The outcomes of this workshop are to be used to inform the
development of a standard national procedure in this regard. Work has
also
commenced on the preparation of manuals for schools on accommodating the special
needs of the hearing and visually impaired,
and the Unit is also preparing to
establish therapy clinics in the Stann Creek and Toledo Districts for physical
disabilities.[23]
- The
coverage of the SEU’s work also highlights the present absence of support
and assistance to children outside the compulsory
school age: under 5 years and
over 14 years. For infants in particular, the decision to disband existing
services without divestment
having been undertaken has had unfortunate
consequences. This is most obviously the case with the lack of screening of
infants since
early 2000. Previously, screening of infants by DSD had occurred
via weekly visits to Health Clinics, and from specific referrals
by nurses
through those clinics. Screening was performed by DSD district staff, and had
ensured reasonably comprehensive coverage.
With no agency yet taking up the
‘divested’ responsibilities in this regard, there has been no
central agency coordinating
such roles as training, community awareness,
advocacy, identification or referral. During 2002, a new NGO (CARE-Belize) was
being
established to assume some of those roles, and to enable the divestment
process to be completed.
- By
the end of 2001, external donor support had been secured for a pilot service in
the Toledo District to provide a service across
the disability area, in close
collaboration with MHD and the Belize Council for the Visually Impaired
(BCVI).
- Of
particular concern is the matter of children with an intellectual disability,
which manifests itself in the form of ‘slow-learners’.
This is a
disability which is often not evident until the onset of abstract thinking at
around seven years of age. Early screening
had been particularly effective in
the early detection of severe disabilities and of potential learning problems.
In this regard,
DSD had been able to work with parents in the critical early
years to build their confidence, understanding and acceptance prior
to the
disability manifesting itself. The cessation of early detection may exacerbate
the severity of the disability during the
stages of child and adolescent
development.
- An
impediment to divestment has been the lack of functional NGOs in the disability
area. Whilst local service clubs continue to deliver
occasional services for
specific disabilities, most disability NGOs have suffered severe loss of
momentum, whether for lack of resources
or volunteer
commitment.[24] An exception
is BCVI, which has continued to develop a range of services to and coverage of
visually impaired people. In 2000,
it trained 77 nurses and teachers, conducted
eye examinations for 1047 children, and screened 3764 children in schools, of
whom 147
were referred for specialist treatment. In the late 1990s it
established an ophthalmological clinic, and it provides rehabilitation
services
to 42 children aged 0-15 years (of whom 15 are blind and 27 have low vision),
and translates school texts into Braille.
BCVI holds clinics countrywide and in
2000, 414 clinics were held at its bases, and 55 outreach clinics were held.
Its register
of blind people, established in 1988, presently has 1050 people,
and this is estimated to comprise approximately 50% actual national
coverage
(52% male, 6% aged 0-14 years). BCVI has developed its Toledo office –
the most disadvantaged district – as
its second main base after Belize
City (which has most of the population), given that Toledo has the second
highest incidence of
need (17%), with 38% in Belize District.of the causes of
visual impairment, the most frequent is cataracts (44%), followed by glaucoma
(22%) and diabetic retinopathy
(9%).[25]
- BCVI
reports that it has observed a congenital eye disorder in a number of Maya
children within Toledo District, with an additional
one or two children born
each year with a white blind eye. Occasionally this condition is bilateral. In
2001, BCVI has 17 children
aged 0-4 years registered with this condition, with
eight being from Toledo. Furthermore, uncorrected refractive errors affect
about
10-15% of school-age children in Belize, with severe adverse consequences
for their development and quality of life, exacerbated
by other pathologies such
as strabismus, amblyopia and chorioretinal scars, and a high incidence of eye
injuries. BCVI reports that
there are presently 71 5-19 year olds who meet the
legal definition of blindness and need rehabilitation and special education
services.[26]
- In
the area of hearing impairment, the Mennonite community has now established a
Cayo Deaf Institute in the former Listowel facility
of MHD, which is located in
the Spanish Lookout area – a major rural centre of the Mennonite
community. (Separate comment
is made at Chapter V, Section I.)
- Finally,
some earlier reports foreshadowed specific disability legislation, including in
order to address concerns such as disabled
rights and access to education and
employment, the rights of disabled children, and the provision of institutional
care for children
with intellectual disabilities. However, it is noted that,
contrary to such comment, there has not been work done to develop such
legislation.
B. Health and health services
Article 24
(1) States Parties recognize the right of the child to the enjoyment of the
highest attainable standard of health and to facilities
for the treatment of
illness and rehabilitation of health. States Parties shall strive to ensure that
no child is deprived of his
or her right of access to such health care services.
(2) States Parties shall pursue full implementation of this right and, in
particular, shall take appropriate measures:
- (a) To diminish
infant and child mortality;
- (b) To ensure
the provision of necessary medical assistance and health care to all children
with emphasis on the development of primary
health care;
- (c) To combat
disease and malnutrition, including within the framework of primary health care,
through, inter alia, the application
of readily available technology and through
the provision of adequate nutritious foods and clean drinking-water, taking into
consideration
the dangers and risks of environmental pollution;
- (d) To ensure
appropriate pre-natal and post-natal health care for mothers;
- (e) To ensure
that all segments of society, in particular parents and children, are informed,
have access to education and are supported
in the use of basic knowledge of
child health and nutrition, the advantages of breastfeeding, hygiene and
environmental sanitation
and the prevention of accidents;
- (f) To develop
preventive health care, guidance for parents and family planning education and
services.
(3) States Parties shall take all effective and appropriate measures with a view
to abolishing traditional practices prejudicial
to the health of children.
(4) States Parties undertake to promote and encourage international co-operation
with a view to achieving progressively the full
realization of the right
recognized in the present article. In this regard, particular account shall be
taken of the needs of developing
countries.
- The
Ministry of Health (MoH) delivers primary and secondary health care through a
network of eight district level hospitals, 44 health
centres and mobile clinics.
Of the hospitals, one serves as a psychiatric hospital, one as a national
referral hospital, three as
regional hospitals providing secondary health care,
and three providing mostly primary health care. Whilst there were 37 health
centres in 2000, there were 44 by 2001, including in very remote areas. Each
health centre includes a Child Wellness Clinic under
the supervision of the
Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Unit. A mobile health unit reaches communities
countrywide every six to eight
weeks for delivery of MCH care.
- As
the result of the implementation of a technical cooperation program between GOB
and the Government of Cuba in 1999, the population
coverage by doctors at the
community level, including some rural areas, has increased from 6.5 per 10,000
people in 1998 to 10.0
per 10,000 people in 2001. In recent years, health
administration has been devolved to four districts, with distinct oversighting
roles for medical professionals and administrative personnel. This has
transferred some greater autonomy in resource allocation
and priority-setting to
the district level, but it has thus also been claimed to make it more difficult
to uniformly apply national
policy changes and easier to see local resources
shift away from national priorities, whilst also seeing scarce district-level
resources
shared between medical services and devolved administrative
functions.
- In
October 1999, the MCH Unit introduced a revised and expanded Care and Growth
Chart for all under-5 year olds. The Chart is in
the form of a card which the
Clinics may hold as a detailed register for each child, and covers nutrition
details, vaccination records,
weight-to-age data, standard food recommendations,
micronutrient supplementation, perinatal history, and a parental checklist for
development screening to the first year. Weight-to-age data now distinguish
between genders. This Chart has put in place a comprehensive
national record of
the status of the health and wellbeing of nearly all Belizean children (given
that BCG coverage is around 96%
and administered during the infant’s first
visit to the Clinic).
- A
special multi-sectoral, multi-ministerial program was introduced in 1999 to
address health education and access to services. The
four components of the
School Health and Physical Education Services (SHAPES) program are services,
environmental health, health
education and physical and educational sports, with
a focus on institutionalising health education by integrating it into the
primary
school and teacher training curriculums. Its service program also seeks
to ensure that children receive specific health services
such as ear, eye and
dental care, as well as daily nutritious meals for children in need.
- Also
introduced in 1999 was the NHIS, which is a computerised menu-driven system that
generates a Health Identification Card for each
person upon first contact and is
constantly updated with new patient information. NHIS maintains patient
histories, provides surveillance
of health priorities (such as communicable
diseases, domestic violence and nutritional status) and supports district
management.
It will markedly improve the storage and retrieval of comprehensive
and consistent data for research and monitoring purposes, especially
for
children and infants as lifetime records accumulate (the Care and Growth Chart
records establish a Health Information Card for
each
infant).
Child Mortality
- Belize
has halved its Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and Under-5 Mortality Rate (U5MR)
over the past decade (IMR: 42 (88), 21.5 (00);
U5MR: 53 (88), 26.0 (00) (per
1000 live births)). However, geographic disparities remain, although it must be
noted that, whilst
the 1991 Census indicated that the Toledo District had the
highest rate (IMR: 53), more recent data show that it has one of the lowest
rates (IMR: 16 (98)) (Stann Creek District having the highest at 25); similarly,
its 1998 U5MR of 24 was just below the national
average (Corozal District having
the highest at 36). The Stann Creek District is host to a relatively large
migrant workforce, employed
within the citrus and banana industries. The higher
IMR in Corozal is believed to have been skewed by the number of unregistered
births taking place across the Mexican border and corresponding recording of
infant deaths occurring within the district.
- The
improvements nationally are believed to demonstrate the success of intervention
measures taken in this period, such as improved
access to clean water, and
training of Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) and Community Health Workers,
particularly targeted within
the Toledo District over the past decade. However,
it needs to be noted that under-reporting of deaths has traditionally been
highest
in this district although, if there has been any change, this is likely
to have improved in that time. Nevertheless, it is important
that no relaxation
occur in such measures and services unless and until the sustainability of such
interventions has been established.
- Of
concern is that infant deaths account for approximately 80% of all deaths to
under-5 year olds. The main causes of infant deaths
are ‘slow fetal
growth, fetal malnutrition and immaturity’, followed by ‘hypoxia,
birth asphyxia and other respiratory
conditions’ and ‘congenital
abnormalities’. This implies that better care before and during pregnancy
could significantly
lower the number of infant deaths even further. The main
causes of death to 1-4 year olds are respiratory and intestinal infections.
According to MoH, in most cases the cause of death is viral in nature and
imported from neighbouring countries. It is noted that
laboratory tests are not
carried out for confirmation. Poor breast-feeding practices and lack of access
to clean water partially
explain the high rate of intestinal
infections.
Immunization
- Vaccination
coverage for DPT, measles, polio and tuberculosis increased marginally to 1999,
but had not yet met the 90% minimum coverage
goal, although this target had been
met in at least two districts. Two difficulties had been the limited
availability of transportation
for mobile clinics and transitory migration
levels in the two districts below the 90% goal (Stann Creek and Cayo). It is
reported
that transportation for the Mobile Health Unit is no longer a problem.
Measles coverage in fact dropped from 80% in 1991 to 74%
in 1996, and had
returned to 82% by 1999. However, a ‘catch up’ campaign undertaken
by the MCH Unit ended in 2001, with
100% coverage.
- The
MCH Unit has undertaken strategic measures to achieve comprehensive vaccination
coverage. It initiated a maternal mortality rate
campaign in 1997, for all
under-5 year olds, and extended this to all females aged 5 to 35 years in 1998.
By 1999, coverage in one
district exceeded 95%, in a second district exceeded
92% and was between 85% and 89% in the other four districts. By 2000, one
district
had reached 99%, a second district exceeded 95% and the other four
districts had reached between 88% and 90%. The 90% immunization
goal had been
met by 2000, and significant improvement continues to be made. Coverage for
tuberculosis (BCG) is at approximately
96% nationally.
- In
October 1999, the MCH Unit also introduced Hepatitis B vaccinations and, in
January 2001, it introduced haemophyllus influenza
(Hib) vaccinations.
- In
1999, the Unit produced the second edition of the 1990 publication ‘Norms
for the National Expanded Programme on Immunization
(EPI)’, which added
chapters on cold chain and safe immunization practices. In the same year, it
also produced the ‘Protocol
for the Management of Pregnant Women Exposed
to the Rubella Virus’ and the ‘Protocol for the Management of
Congenital
Rubella Syndrome’.
Infant Nutrition
- MCH
data indicate that approximately 97% of all diarrheal cases brought to the
Ministry’s Child-Wellness Centres were treated
with Oral Rehydration
Therapy (ORT), of which 11% is administered by trained personnel and the
remainder at home (1999 estimates).
In 1991, only 44% of diarrhea cases were
treated with ORT, although this included cases not brought to the attention of
the MCH
Unit, so that comparisons are not easily made (although it is likely
that MoH coverage is now much higher even if the 1999 estimate
would be lower if
all cases were included).
- A
National Breastfeeding Policy was adopted in 1998, but implementation has been
problematic. The MCH Unit is actively pursuing implementation,
and there is a
continuing urgent need for a dedicated focus on the promotion of and training in
breastfeeding practice, especially
since the closure of the NGO Breast Is Best
League in the mid 1990s, due to lack of funding
commitments.[27] MCH Unit
data for 1999 indicate that approximately 54% of babies are fully breast-fed up
to one month of age, 38% are partially
breast-fed and 8% never breast-fed (the
corresponding 1991 data are 41%, 48% and 11% respectively). Those 1999 data
indicate that
approximately 45% of babies are fully breast-fed and 47% partially
breast-fed up to the age of four months (corresponding 1991 data
unavailable).
These data refer only to those infants brought to the clinics, although it is
noted that improved geographic coverage
likely indicates a greater rate of
improvement than otherwise suggested. There remains a need for the
establishment of a breastfeeding
coordinator position within MoH, to at least be
a focal point for improved momentum in this area.
- No
hospital in Belize is yet classified as a Baby-Friendly Hospital, although the
Ministry, in conjunction with UNICEF and PAHO are
supposed to have by now
certified the Corozal District Hospital as such. In 2000, a team from those
agencies visited the Corozal,
Dangriga and Orange Walk District Hospitals, and
assessed Corozal as the most progressed. A proposed visit in late 2000 to
Toledo
District Hospital has not yet occurred, although it is considered that it
could be the second to be certified. The Belize City-based
Karl Heusner
Memorial Hospital, which serves the largest population group, is understood to
suffer special difficulties concerned
with a lack of internal broadbased
commitment or the burden of competing demands, which clearly needs to be
addressed by MoH.
- In
1996, GOB conducted the First Height Census of School Children of Belize. This
survey covered 22,426 school children nationwide,
aged six to nine years. It
showed that, nationally, 15.4% were growth retarded, either moderately or
severely (39% Toledo to 4.1%
Belize District). Prevalence was higher in rural
areas, and among Maya and Hispanic children. Children entering Infant I level
showed the highest growth retardation, followed by a subsequent improvement up
to Standard III. The rate for boys (at 18.2%) was
46% higher than the rate for
girls (12.5%).[28] In 2000,
BCVI, through PAHO, conducted a weight-to-height census, covering more than
10,000 children. The data are still awaiting
analysis by the National Institute
of Nutrition for Central America.
- Stunting
and growth retardation remain of concern. The MCH Unit monitors growth of
children as a part of the attention it provides
at its Child-Wellness Clinics.
All children are routinely weighed and measured and the information recorded,
and now distinguishes
on the basis of the child’s gender. It is estimated
that monitoring has quite comprehensive coverage, given the high rate
of BCG
coverage. Such monitoring, though, will decline as the child ages and Clinic
visits become less frequent. For older children,
SHAPES may be able to
institutionalise height for age measurement and recording. This type of
information needs to be collected
only triennially at most, so that arrangements
may be made for those data collection years. This should represent a minimal
extra
cost to MoE.
- In
October 1999, the MCH Unit commenced Vitamin A supplementation of children and,
since July 2001, it has provided Iron supplementation
for children aged between
six months and two years, which the Unit confidently expects will produce
improvements in child school
performance within the next 3-4 years. Although
Vitamin A supplementation has been funded by UNICEF, GOB proposes to incorporate
this within MoH’s recurrent budget. The Iron supplementation is fully
funded by MoH. The adoption by the MCH Unit in October
1999 of expanded Care
and Growth Charts will be complemented by the adoption of more comprehensive
Growth Charts for Health Centre
records, commencing in all Clinics in 2002, and
these records will include provisions for deworming as well.
- There
have been no substantial occurrences of iodine deficiency amongst Belizean
children. Belize imports approximately 80% of its
iodized salt from
neighbouring countries, although there is a belief that this rate may have
declined.
Reproductive Health
- Belize
had a Total Fertility Rate (TFR) of 4.5 children per woman of reproductive age
(15-44 year age group) in 1991. According to
the 1999 Family Health Survey
(FHS) the TFR had declined to 3.7, and is understood to indicate a declining
trend in fertility. TFR
is lowest for working women (2.4), women that have 8-10
household amenities (2.4) and women with nine or more years of education
(2.7)
(these rates were 2.9, 2.7 and 3.2, respectively, in 1991). The highest TFR are
among women that have less than 3 household
amenities (6.8) and women with less
than eight years education (5.1). Women in urban areas have lower TFR (3.1)
than women in rural
areas (4.2), and the gap between the two groups has reduced
since 1991, with a higher rate of decline in TFR in rural areas (28%)
than in
urban areas (20%). Although Mestizo women had a 28% decline in their TFR (to
3.5), their rate remains higher than that for
Creoles (14% decline, to 3.1), but
less than ‘other ethnic groups’ (4.8); corresponding 1991 rates were
3.6, 4.8 and
5.4, respectively. The two southern districts, Toledo and Stann
Creek, have the highest rates, and rates decrease as years of education
increase. The 20-24 age group remains the modal age group for
childbearing.
- All
age groups experienced a decline in TFRs, but it is notable that the greatest
decline was in the youngest (15-19 year old) age
group, from 137 births per 1000
women in 1991 to 95 in 1999, a 31% decline. Among that age group, 87% did not
have any children
at the time of the survey, compared to 82% in 1991. For
currently married teenagers, this change is even greater: from 27% in 1991
to
36% in 1999. This represents a 30% increase in the percentage of teenage women
that did not have any children at the time of
the surveys. Similarly, the rate
of teenage women in marriage decreased from 18% in 1991 to 15% in 1999. These
results are believed
to be due to increased female participation in tertiary
level education, delayed marriages, increased awareness of contraception,
family
life education and improved access to contraception. (However, it is also noted
that the number of teenage women in visiting
relationships increased by 45%, and
the median age at first sexual union – at 16-19 years – is lower
than in 1991, when
it was 20-21 years. The fact that this has occurred
alongside a declining TFR suggests the greater success of educational awareness
efforts, whilst also providing a graphic reminder of the increasing potential
for higher fertility should that effort be relaxed.)
- The
1999 FHS also reveals that there has been an increase in the proportion of
planned pregnancies (up from 65% in 1991 to 72%).
Whilst the proportion of
mistimed pregnancies decreases with age, that of unwanted pregnancies increases.
Among the 15-19 year age
group, 19% had at least one pregnancy in the past 5
years (down from 21% in 1991), and approximately 73% of teenagers planned their
(last) pregnancy (slightly lower than the 75% rate for
1991).
- Teenage
women were the highest group (19%: 20% in 1991) pregnant at the time of the
survey, although 66% of teenagers did not desire
pregnancy (58% in 1991). Oral
contraception is now about as frequent the form of contraception used as female
sterilisation (around
11%), and Catholics are now the highest contraceptive
users by religious grouping of married women. (Of the reasons why currently
married women were not using contraception, ‘religious reasons’ was
stated by 0.2%.)
- A
reproductive health policy was drafted following a Central American initiative
in 2000, and following extensive consultations.
The policy was handed to MoH in
August 2001, and then went to Cabinet as an information paper. At
Cabinet’s request, some
further redrafting occurred following a response
from the Catholic Church (which had declined to participate in the earlier
consultations).
The amended policy is still waiting to be presented to Cabinet.
In the meantime, MoH has introduced a proforma for Health Centres
based on a
‘family planning norm’ of technical information on appropriate
family planning methods.
- In
May 2000, MoH collaborated with the MoE Curriculum Unit on the teaching of
reproductive health (along with other areas, such as
food and nutrition, and
adolescent development) in primary schools, with the participation of agencies
such as BFLA. This is an
important reinforcement of the gains made in child
awareness of reproductive health issues. A 1993 study of female adolescent
pregnancy
in Belize noted that 65% of 15-24 year olds had received such
education at school (although this was only so for 23% of Mayan
respondents).[29] This rate
would have improved since then, and this effort needs to be maintained in view
of its evident success.
- Of
all deliveries, 78% occur within the public health system, 17% in the private
health system, 3% are non-institutional deliveries
using a TBA, and the
remaining 2% are by empirical birth attendants. It is important to note the
primary importance of the public
health system in child-birth, and the
accompanying capacity of the MCH Unit to ensure effective monitoring, screening
and vaccination
services. This is presently important in view of the recent
pilotting of a National Health Insurance (NHI) Scheme, which may unintentionally
jeopardise the integrity of the present public system in this regard, due to an
emphasis on the development of private health services
at the direct expense of
a public system which is clearly a solid basis upon which to develop a
comprehensive and accessible national
reproductive health system. In 2001, PAHO
evaluated prenatal centres using the standardised evaluation framework for
pregnant women
developed by the Latin American Perinatal Centre (CLAP). That
evaluation concluded that services to pregnant women was being very
adequately
implemented within the public health centres across the country. Nevertheless,
pregnancy complications (including abortions)
is the leading cause of
hospitalisation among 10-19 year old females.
- MoH
has recently introduced standardised reporting on pap smear testing within the
public and private health centres. Material on
cervical cancer screening was
also recently prepared for both health workers and the public. Training of
public and rural health
nurses was undertaken in 2000. The MCH Unit, in
conjunction with BFLA, is currently increasing the provision of pap smear
screening
from 30-40 per month to 400 per month. Substantial progress has
already been made in reaching this target, which was set in April
2001.
- Apart
from the MCH Unit, BFLA performs a central role in the reproductive health area.
This NGO works in family life education and
family planning services, and now
has offices in all districts of Belize, except Corozal, which is serviced from
Orange Walk District.
With the exception of its Stann Creek office, BFLA is
located within government health facilities. An effective but informal system
of referrals exists between the Primary Health Care (PHC) Units and BFLA, and
its outreach to rural areas is coordinated with government’s
PHC
program.
- BFLA
opened a Teen Centre in Belize City in 1997, and focusses its efforts on males
and females of child-bearing age, especially adolescents.
It makes condoms
freely available, although it reports that most young people who come to it are
already pregnant females. An increasing
number of schools invite BFLA to
address their students. It presently proposes to add testing for HIV and other
sexually transmitted
diseases to its services.
- In
summary, the success of education and public awareness efforts over the past
decade, combined with improved access to public health
services and to chosen
reproductive health practice, are evident in the related statistical indicators.
It is clearly important to
maintain such effort, whilst the sustainability of
such progress is ascertained.
HIV/AIDS
- The
Initial Report described Belize as suffering HIV and AIDS in “epidemic
proportions”, with an AIDS incidence rate of
13.5 per 100,000 people just
seven years after the first known case. According to the National AIDS
Commission – established
in 1999 by the Minister for Human Development,
with a specifically multidisciplinary approach – Belize has the highest
per
capita incidence in Central America, with 1700 confirmed cases and
approximately 17,000 people infected (7% of the total population).
During 2001,
72 persons were diagnosed with AIDS and 310 tested HIV positive. A 1999 draft
situational analysis of HIV/AIDS in Belize,
which examined cumulative data for
1986-1996, states that the main mode of transmission (93%) is sexual contact
(71% heterosexual,
15% bisexual, 7% homosexual), and approximately 6% of cases
resulted from perinatal transmission and 2% from blood transfusion.
(There is
negligible intravenous drug usage in Belize.)
- HIV/AIDS
is increasing at a faster rate for women than for men, and the rate of perinatal
transmission is expected to increase in
the near future. Between 1985 and 1994,
there were two cases attributed to perinatal transmission (and three to blood
transfusion).
Up until 1998, a total of six children under the age of one year
had been diagnosed with HIV, a further four were diagnosed in 1999,
and another
11 in 2000. Seven children aged one to nine years of age had been diagnosed
with HIV until 1998, a further one was diagnosed
in 1999, and another three in
2000. It is estimated that more than 350 children have lost their mother or
both parents to AIDS while
they were still under the age of 15 years.
- Factors
contributing to the rise in HIV/AIDS cases are attributed to promiscuous
behaviour by both sexes, but particularly men, lack
of knowledge of the ways in
which HIV is transmitted, failure to take preventative action (even among
persons who recognise that
they are at risk), initiation of sexual activity at
an early age, and cultural practices which put women at risk. As for
women’s
greater vulnerability, the male:female HIV ratio was 1:9 in 1996,
1:6 in 1998 and 1:2 in 2000. The associated risks to infants and
children
correspondingly increases.
- HIV
testing is a voluntary part of prenatal testing. The situation for women in
Belize City is graphically illustrated by the fact
that, of 600 women tested at
Cleopatra White Health Centre in 1994, 0.8% tested HIV positive, of 500 women
tested at Matron Roberts
Health Centre in 1996, 2.5% tested positive, and of 500
women tested at Port Loyola Health Centre in 1998, 4.8% tested positive.
The
growth rates for women (including pregnant women) are of very grave concern. In
2001, the Women’s Department initiated
workshops in rural areas on women
and HIV, especially directed towards young women. As one example, 12 villages
have been covered
in Corozal District with an average of 20 participants.
- Mother
to child HIV transmission occurs at a rate of 25-35% without intervention. The
MCH Unit introduced the Mother to Child Prevention
of HIV Transmission program
in December 2000. This aims to reduce HIV transmission via antiretrovirals
(stocks of which GOB has
acquired) and promotion of alternative feeding methods.
Of particular concern is that an increasing percentage of HIV-positive mothers
are single mothers, and this compounds the nature of the problem and its
effective treatment. A further concern is of what to do
with children once they
have passed the 0-10 month mark, as ongoing screening is necessary given that
the child has a 30% chance
of a subsequent positive infection status.
- The
National AIDS Task Force has formulated a National Strategic Plan for the
HIV/AIDS Epidemic in Belize 1999-2003, and the five
priority areas are attitudes
and practices, intersectoral coordination, services, budget, and monitoring and
evaluation. MoH, in
conjunction with PAHO, adopted a national protocol on
HIV/AIDS in June 2001. In December 2001, legislation was passed which
criminalises
its reckless transmission, providing up to five years imprisonment
on summary conviction and up to 10 years imprisonment for conviction
on
indictment (Criminal Code Act, new S. 46:01 (2)).
Water and
Environmental Sanitation
- National
coverage of safe water was 91% by 1999, up from 71% in 1990. The most progress
was achieved in the rural areas where access
to safe water increased from 51% to
82% in that period; for urban areas 100% coverage was achieved, up from the 1990
rate of 95%.
A distinction is made between ‘safe’ and
‘clean’ water: ‘safe’ referring to water that is
chemically
treated, ‘clean’ simply referring to water that is not
contaminated. In Belize, studies which refer to safe water, in
fact are
referring to clean water within rural areas.
- The
Water and Sanitation Authority – Belize Water Services, since the
authority’s privatisation in 2000/01 – is
mandated to perform water
supply functions within declared water supply areas. All urban areas are
designated water supply areas
and are being provided with continuing service and
water quality that meets PAHO/WHO recommendations. However, the 100% urban
coverage
needs to be qualified in view of some households, especially on urban
outskirts, remaining unconnected to the water mains and not
having water piped
to their homes, or even their yards.
- MoH
is mandated by law to monitor water quality and does so through the Public
Health Bureau (PHB), albeit only to a limited extent
and concentrated in rural
areas. By 1999 there were approximately 670 functional water pumps in rural
Belize, down from 711 in 1992.
That decrease was mainly due to the
disconnection of water pumps in the Stann Creek District, to facilitate the
construction of
the Hummingbird Highway. The continued reduction in hand water
pumps mainly reflects the construction of rudimentary water supply
systems,
although a number of hand pumps are maintained in the event of emergency
situations, such as hurricanes. While approximately
37% of water pumps were
tested by the PHB in 1992 (with less than 20% testing positive for fecal
coliform), only 6% were tested in
1999 (with about 50% testing positive).
- The
decrease in water quality monitoring and associated increase in fecal coliform
was largely due to the 1995 closure of the Rural
Water Supply and Sanitation
Program, and the onset of rust and deterioration of equipment. That Program was
reestablished in April
1999 within the new Ministry of Rural Development, along
with the initiation of associated projects through the SIF and the BNTF.
Testing is now essentially carried out by that Program at installation, and it
has instituted a rapid response to treat water pumps
testing positive.
- Basic
sanitation coverage remains unacceptable, even though the applicable goal was
met. Whilst urban coverage increased from 59%
to 71% between 1990 and 1999,
rural coverage increased from 21% to just 25%, yielding a national level in 1999
of 45%. It is unlikely
that sanitation coverage has improved since 1999, with
the greater emphasis on improvements to the water supply system since that
time.
Data indicate that rural Stann Creek and Cayo Districts have the lowest coverage
at 19% and 14% respectively. Caution must
also be used with the data since
there may be some limitations to the proper distinction between
‘sanitary’ and ‘unsanitary’
latrines and septic
tanks.
- There
is a strong link between lack of access to adequate water and sanitation, and
intestinal diseases including cholera. Although
Belize suffers from periodic
outbreaks of cholera, there is a diminishing number of cases each time. An
estimated 159 cases of cholera
were recorded in 1992, while only 12 cases were
recorded in 1999; there were no cholera cases in 2000 or 2001. The most cases
annually
have always been recorded either in the Cayo or Toledo Districts.
- Of
course, Belize is heavily impacted by Central American migration patterns,
especially within rural areas and urban fringe areas.
The Population Census
2000 notes that immigration to Belize was more pronounced in the 1990s than in
the 1980s when Belize experienced
such an influx from neighbouring countries
suffering civil wars and internal strife. It estimates that, under current
trends, Belize’s
population will double within 26 years. This obviously
places substantial pressure on more than just water and sanitation services,
but
it is particularly problematic in this regard given that such movements of
population are often temporary or unpredictable and
constitute a challenge to
the planning and construction of infrastructure for essential
services.
C. Social security and child care services and
facilities
Article 18 (3)
States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that children
of working parents have the right to benefit from child-care
services and
facilities for which they are eligible.
Article 26
(1) States Parties shall recognize for every child the right to benefit from
social security, including social insurance and shall
take the necessary
measures to achieve the full realization of this right in accordance with their
national law.
(2) The benefits should, where appropriate, be granted, taking into account the
resources and the circumstances of the child and
persons having responsibility
for the maintenance of the child, as well as any other consideration relevant to
an application for
benefits made by or on behalf of the child.
- The
situation is generally as described in the Initial Report. In Belize District
there are 15 day-care centres serving about 147
children, including two
Government-managed centres. The national situation is presently unknown, as all
organised day-care centres
are in Belize District, plus two centres in Stann
Creek District, with an unknown number of informal centres outside of Belize
District.
FSD is responsible for the training and development of a national
licensing process for all day care providers, but implementation
had not been
possible due to financial and human resource constraints. Day-care facilities
have continued to operate without systematic
oversighting and
monitoring.[30]
- As
earlier noted, an Inspector for Social Service Agencies has now been appointed
and has commenced attending to such matters. The
Inspector’s roles are to
develop minimum standards for the operation of social services agencies, develop
licensing procedures,
monitor and evaluate those agencies, train agency
personnel, and network with relevant organisations concerning agency standards.
With no specific support staff, it has been necessary for the
- Inspector
to set priorities, which are presently child day-care centres and residential
children’s homes.
- In
1997, the NCFC produced manuals for the establishment and operation of child
day-care centres. Some NGOs – notably the YWCA
– have also been
active in this area in more recent years. For example, during 2001, the YWCA
conducted a short (three week)
training program for Day and Night Care
Providers, with 13 women being certified upon graduation (this especially
focusses on the
provision of baby-sitting services), and conducted a seven month
Day Care Providers training program, with 16 graduates being certified
(four
trainees withdrew, two due to transportation problems from a remote area), and
conducted a seven week training course for Managers
of Day Care Centres, with 18
graduates. The YWCA is now establishing a registry of trained and licensed Day
Care Operators. In
2001, it also produced two manuals: a ‘Training
Curriculum for Child Care Providers’ and a ‘Training Curriculum
for
Managers of Child Care Centres’.
- Nevertheless,
there remains insufficient capacity within day care centres for working parents,
and that many female single parents
in particular would be more readily able to
enter the workforce if access and affordability were improved. However, much
progress
has been made to strengthen the quality of facilities, the quality of
management of centres, and the professionalism of workers within
them.
- For
children aged 3-5 years, MoE’s Preschool Unit plays a strong oversighting
and monitoring role. The Unit is responsible
for developing the preschool
curriculum and offers annual training for managers of the preschools and
teachers. The Ministry provides
some grant funds to some preschools, leaving
most of the funding for teacher salaries, teaching aids and infrastructure to
the school
and its community. Only 0.5% of 2001/02 recurrent education
expenditure was allocated to preschool education. This primarily reflects
the
fact that MoE has a specific mandate for the resourcing of compulsory education,
which is for the 5-14 year age group, and that
the pre-school education sector
is largely developing as a for-private-profit sector.
- In
2001, there were 99 preschools, of which 35 were private, 38 were community- or
organisation-based, and 26 were denominational,
with 59 in urban areas and 40 in
rural areas. In 2000, there were 98 preschools, compared to 81 in 1991. There
were 3542 children
enrolled in 2001, a small decline on both 1999 and 2000 but a
25% increase since 1991, and an increase in preschool coverage from
23.9% to
28.7% in 1999, which had slipped back to 26.8% in 2001: still very low coverage.
Belize City is the location of 30% of preschools
(4% are in Toledo District).
Enrolment is evenly divided by gender.
- The
Preschool Unit tries to offset the lack of teacher training by providing some
in-service training. In 1999, MoE developed a national
curriculum in early
development, and this is being pilotted in 2002 in the Belize and Corozal
Districts (for maximum coverage).
In 2001, 20 teachers were provided preschool
teacher training. In 2000, 20% of preschool teachers had no better than a
primary education,
and 71% had completed some or all of the four years of
secondary school. A total of 66% of 2000/01 preschool teachers had completed
pre-service training. For preschool coverage to increase significantly, MoE
would need to expand its definition of basic education
to include preschool
level and undertake a stronger role in financing its development and
operation.
- The
major reform in the social security area has been amendments in 2001 to the
Social Security Act to enable introduction of the
NHI Scheme. This is “a
financing and purchasing mechanism for ensuring affordable and acceptable health
care services to all
NHI beneficiaries” (new S. 70 (1)), and is being
piloted in the southside area of Belize City and in southern villages. All
Belizean nationals and Belizean residents are eligible to benefit from the
Scheme, and all employees, employers, self-employed and
pensioned retirees may
be required to pay contributions. GOB will meet the levies for eligible
contributors who are indigent (no
visible means of income, or income below
family subsistence levels, or retirees on low pensions) (S. 71). The NHI Scheme
provides
such health care services as primary health care, hospital out- and
in-patient services, diagnostic and other medical examination
services,
prescription drugs, and other approved services. These latter services include
the provision of spectacles to the visually
impaired (via BCVI) and the
provision of reproductive health and contraceptive services (including via
BFLA). These NGOs will –
with increased burden of administrative
compliance – derive benefits to their financial sustainability on a
fee-for-service
basis.
- As
earlier noted, there is a risk that this government-induced expansion of private
health sector based services at a time when public
agencies, notably the MCH
Unit, have achieved a high quality and extensive geographic coverage, may weaken
that comprehensive service.
On the other hand, as the MCH Unit is a party to
the NHI Scheme, there is also an opportunity for such an agency to adopt a
stronger
role in developing and implementing monitoring standards and service
protocols, across the wider public, private and non-profit health
service
network. The adoption of such standards and protocols will require consistent
political support in the face of likely private
sector claims of undue public
interference and
regulation.[31] At the same
time, there is an imperative to ensure the intended ‘safety net’
role of the Scheme, as the move from a
free universal scheme to the NHI-based
scheme means that health services will be fee-paying and may result in
unintended instances
of people on low incomes falling through that net: this is
an important element of the current pilot scheme.
- As
has been noted earlier, improvements have been made in the Families and Children
Act and the Belize Family Court concerning child
maintenance provisions, which
are viewed as being the first priority in ensuring the financial security of the
child prior to the
formal social security system serving as a safety net in this
regard. Despite those improvements, there remains a problem with enforcement,
and it has been suggested that an important starting point in addressing this,
is changing attitudes of Police officers, putting
in place reciprocal
maintenance agreements with the USA, and establishing implementation protocols
to give effect to existing agreements
with other Commonwealth
states.
D. Standard of living
Article 27
(1) States Parties recognize the right of every child to a standard of living
adequate for the child's physical, mental, spiritual,
moral and social
development.
(2) The parent(s) or others responsible for the child have the primary
responsibility to secure, within their abilities and financial
capacities, the
conditions of living necessary for the child's development.
(3) States Parties, in accordance with national conditions and within their
means, shall take appropriate measures to assist parents
and others responsible
for the child to implement this right and shall in case of need provide material
assistance and support programmes,
particularly with regard to nutrition,
clothing and housing.
- Reference
has earlier been made to the provisions of the Families and Children Act in
establishing a legislative basis to the right
of the child to an adequate
standard of living. Particular reference should be made to Chapter III, Section
B, and Chapter V, Section
B.
- In
November 1999, through the SHAPES program, 15 primary schools in the Stann Creek
and Toledo Districts introduced feeding programs
that were linked to the school
curriculum. A total of 760 children benefitted on a daily basis, although
difficulties were experienced
with food procurement and storage, high turnover
of food preparation staff, and lack of supervisory SHAPES personnel to ensure
food
quality and quantity. In September 2000, the program was expanded to
include 27 new schools and extend support to ten existing programs.
A further
82 primary schools with feeding programs receive some training assistance from
SHAPES.
- The
high number of students living in low income households is an indicator of the
value of school-based feeding and nutrition programs.
A 1999 survey of 15% of
government and government-assisted primary schools concluded that 59% of
students’ parents are in
the under-$5000 per annum income bracket. A
survey of 18% of urban and 25% of rural primary schools and 54% of urban and 82%
of
rural secondary schools – focussing on disadvantaged households –
concluded that 69% of the parents interviewed earned
less than $2000 per
annum.[32]
- In
February 2001, GOB launched a Food and Nutrition Security Policy for Belize,
which recognised that certain segments of the population
– rural
populations, the elderly, the disabled, single income households and female
headed households – are at risk of
food insecurity due to lack of
purchasing power. The policy calls for, among other things, a Food and
Nutrition Commission supported
by a Secretariat, and its objectives include to
“ensure adequate intake of macro and micro-nutrients combined with
adequate
health care, especially women and children throughout the
country”. GOB’s commitment to this policy is yet to be matched
with
the resources to give it full effect. The MCH Unit sought assistance from PAHO
in 2000 for the development and implementation
of a national food and security
policy, but this was deferred due to competing priorities in the wake of
Hurricanes Keith (2000)
and Iris (2001).
- The
Population Census 2000 shows that household size is declining (households of
five or more persons constituted 44% of households
in 2000, down from over 50%
in 1991; urban areas down from 45% to 38%, and rural areas remaining high: down
from 56% to 50%). Overcrowded
homes continue to be a problem, with the number
of houses with less than three bedrooms declining from 63% to 60% in that
period.
Since 1999, GOB – through its Ministry of Housing – has
embarked upon an ambitious program to construct 10,000 low-cost
houses over a
five year period, with the aim of making them available to low-income households
via affordable loans through Belize’s
Development Finance
Corporation.
- A
Poverty Assessment Study due to be commenced in late 2001 had to be postponed
due to the impact of Hurricane Iris within the southern
districts. It was
completed in 2002, and the report is now expected in early 2003. Finally, as
mentioned in the previous sub-section,
the adoption of the NHI Scheme is
expected to ensure improvements in the health standards of living of the entire
population –including
by enabling expanded preventative services in the
primary health care area – but is still in its pilot
stage.
- EDUCATION,
LEISURE AND CULTURAL ACTIVITIES
A. Education, including vocational
training and guidance
Article 28
- States
Parties recognize the right of the child to education and with a view to
achieving this right progressively and on the basis
of equal opportunity, they
shall, in particular:
- (a) Make
primary education compulsory and available free to all;
- (b) Encourage
the development of different forms of secondary education, including general and
vocational education, make them available
and accessible to every child and take
appropriate measures such as the introduction of free education and offering
financial assistance
in case of need;
- (c) Make higher
education accessible to all on the basis of capacity by every appropriate
means;
- (d) Make
educational and vocational information and guidance available and accessible to
all children;
- (e) Take
measures to encourage regular attendance at schools and the reduction of
drop-out rates.
- States
Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that school discipline is
administered in a manner consistent with the
child's human dignity and in
conformity with the present Convention.
- States
Parties shall promote and encourage international cooperation in matters
relating to education, in particular with a view to
contributing to the
elimination of ignorance and illiteracy throughout the world and facilitating
access to scientific and technical
knowledge and modern teaching methods. In
this regard, particular account shall be taken of the needs of developing
countries.
- A
fairly comprehensive description of the Belize education system was provided in
the Initial Report. School tuition within Belize
is free, virtually up until
the end of secondary school. Education is compulsory for those aged five to
fourteen years, although
enforcement of attendance and classroom capacity
continues to be a problem. It is the parent’s responsibility to ensure
the
child’s attendance, and the Chief Education Officer’s
responsibility to ensure that parents comply (Education Act, Ss.
35 &
36).
- Education
in Belize continues to be in English, and there is no program of bilingual
education. Children are taught, as a part of
their social studies curriculum,
about the different cultures that co-exist in Belize. Primary school children
are supposed to be
taught Spanish as a subject throughout primary school, and
teaching of Spanish continues as an elective subject in the secondary
school.
English is considered to be the medium of instruction, but MoE actively
encourages primary school teachers to be cognisant
of the need to communicate
with the child in their first language as they strive to be English-proficient.
Even so, it is reported
that there is a growing number of children being
detected at 14-15 years of age with no English proficiency, such that this is
placing
increasing pressure on some NGOs working in the area and schools for
special remedial
measures.[33]
- Belize’s
literacy level remains disturbingly low. The CSO has adopted the convention of
many countries to equate literacy with
those people who have completed Standard
V or above (or equivalent) as being literate. On that basis, the Population
Census 2000
places Belize’s literacy rate in the low 70s. The CSO had
similarly estimated the literacy rate at 70% in 1991 and 75% in
1996. It felt
that migration patterns, rather than literacy programs or improvements in
primary education, directly affect these
rates, and significant differences have
been observed according to ethnicity, geographical distribution and country of
birth. In
the earlier studies, Belize District had the highest rate at 92% and
Toledo the lowest at 59%; Creoles had the highest rate at 91%,
and the Maya the
lowest at 48%.
- MoE
similarly acknowledges that literacy rates are unacceptably low, but cites the
inherent difficulties in an ethnically diverse
nation like Belize, where
literacy is defined in terms of English proficiency. Even so, the convention
adopted by CSO estimates
literacy regardless of language spoken, and could still
be regarded as overstated with consideration to competent literacy and
comprehension.
A 1996 study by the Belize Literacy Council and CSO estimated
the functional adult literacy rate at 42.5%, based on a reading and
comprehension survey administered to a sample population of
adults[34]. The CSO is to
conduct further analysis of the 2000 Census results in this regard.
- Current
issues emphasised by various agencies working with children and families are
that:
- the policy of
‘free’ education is unaffordable to too many families, given the
range of costs imposed upon students for
books, uniforms, excursions, classroom
materials, administration fees, and so forth – this problem appears to be
deepening;
- there is a
strong need for extra effort to address the incidence of primary school children
who are engaged in commercial activities,
domestic work or agricultural labour
during school hours – frequently not so much for their own financial
benefit, but at the
behest of their parents or another adult for no remuneration
(for example, to supplement or otherwise assist household income);
- there is a
parallel problem within some communities – primarily Mennonite and Mestizo
– for children to attend school
clearly exhausted from domestic work and
agricultural labour out of school hours;
- a practice
persists, especially within Mayan communities, of withdrawing girls from formal
education once they leave ‘childhood’
with the onset of
puberty;
- increasingly
frequent anecdotal evidence from various children’s agencies of girls
submitting to sexual abuse or carnal knowledge
to derive financial or material
benefits in order to maintain themselves in the education system; and
- reports that
students may be denied the sitting of qualifying examinations or assessment if
they have not fully paid outstanding fees.
- With
respect to the question of education fees, it is noted that, in primary schools,
tuition is free and some fees are allowed, but
must be approved by the Minister.
The main problem is within the secondary schools, where – since 1996
– GOB pays for
the tuition costs for the four years, but individual
schools have adopted a seemingly growing range of fees for students. There
has
also been concern expressed that this exacerbates inequities within the
education system.
- “The
unplanned development of cost-reimbursement to secondary schools has allowed a
grossly inequitable system to develop in
which the more affluent schools receive
a disproportionate share of the budget. Currently, schools in higher
socio-economic areas,
mostly in cities, set higher tuition fees than those in
less affluent areas. ... To date government’s agreement to pay those
fees
without questioning the different amounts set ... [serves to sustain] the gap
between advantaged and disadvantaged
schools.”[35]
- Prior
to 1996, GOB controlled tuition fees. MoE is sufficiently concerned about the
increasing levying of fees on students across
secondary school that it has
initiated an internal review of the practice to enable a reform of policy in
this regard. The problem
is mainly understood to be that of a disparity between
schools based on the different quality of inputs (such as qualification of
teachers, standard of materials and equipment provided, student:teacher ratios),
which in turn influences the fee level.
- Socio-economic
inequities continue to be a concern. A recent survey of primary schools (18% of
urban and 25% of rural) and secondary
schools (54% of urban and 82% of rural),
primarily selected on perceived socio-economic grounds, found that:
- the highest
dropout rates are between Standard III and Form II (grades 5-10);
- 69% of parents
interviewed (a skewed cohort representative of significant school community
populations) earn less than $2000 per annum;
- the average
annual cost to parents of education is $1000 per child; and
- there are many
out-of-school children who would like the opportunity to
return.[36]
- That
survey also found that GOB spends approximately $0.5 million per annum in
educating children who do not live in Belize or who
are not permanent residents
of Belize. At the same time, it is noted that in the school year 1999-2000,
primary and secondary school
grade repeat rates cost GOB a total of $5.7
million.
- In
a major effort to address continuing structural weaknesses in the education
system and to improve student performance, a ten-year
Education Sector Strategy
was approved by GOB in 1999 with an overall objective of achieving universal
educational access between
the ages of 3-16 years, by addressing the key
constraints while mitigating fiscal restraints, particularly through the
revision of
the school financing mechanism and increased cost-recovery. The
Strategy is couched within the context of the UN Educational, Scientific
and
Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Education for All framework, and includes
performance reporting and monitoring against the associated
Dakar Goals.
- GOB
has also been introducting the Schools-wide Area Network, which aims to
establish computer laboratories in all schools by the
end of 2003, with intranet
access between all primary and secondary schools, and internet access, plus the
current creation of a
national website to make mathematics and science
curriculum material available to all students.
Primary
Schooling
- Primary
education received 58% of MoE recurrent education expenditure in 2001/02,
compared to 64% in 1991, although more than 92%
of that expenditure goes toward
salaries for teacher and education personnel, leaving little for materials,
equipment, in-service
training and regular supervision of schools. GOB
allocates approximately $829 per annum per primary school student. In 2001/02
there were 234 government and government-assisted primary schools, of which 50
were government, 167 denominational and 17 others,
and with 74% located in the
rural areas.
- Between
1991 and 1999, the overall primary school participation rate fell from 90% to
81%, with Belize District at 73% and Stann Creek
and Cayo Districts being the
highest at 87%. The enrolment in primary schools of school age boys and girls
was fairly even. The
primary school repetition rate was 8.3% for 2000/01, down
from 10.3% for the 1997/98 school year and the rate of 9.2% for 1993/94
when the
indicator was first measured. The rate remains highest for Infant I (15% 00-01,
13% 93-94, 12% 97-98), and Orange Walk
District had the highest overall rate
(12.1%) and Belize District the lowest (6.3%). A high proportion of the grade
repetition rate
can be attributed to the practice of church-run primary schools
having unregulated beginners' classes against stated education policy.
Specifically, 21% of ‘automatic fails’ were of 5 year olds in these
classes. The total dropout rate is estimated to
be 0.7%. When the repetition
and dropout rates are compared to the completion rates, it is clear that there
is under-reporting of
the dropout
incidence.[37] Dropout rates
are highest in Toledo (1.4%) and lowest in Belize District (0.2%).
- The
percentage of fully trained primary school teachers was 56% in 2001 (up from 47%
in 1991), with 67% in urban areas and 46% in
rural areas. The pupil:teacher
ratio remained constant over the decade, and in 2000 was 1:27 in urban areas and
1:23 in rural areas.
It is emphasised, however, that multi-grade teaching
occurs in rural areas, where there are fewer trained teachers, so that the
quality of rural teaching may be compromised even though the teacher:pupil ratio
shows no significant advantage to urban areas.
- A
1999 study of a sample of 40 schools (15% of government and government-assisted
primary schools in Belize) found that:
- 77.5% of
principals are “relatively inexperienced”;
- 95.0% of schools
have had 1-5 teachers leave during the year of the study (1997/98);
- 23.1% of
students’ parents have no formal education, and a further 44.6% have only
a primary education;
- 58.8% of
student’ parents are in the $0-5000 per annum bracket;
- there is a high
absenteeism rate in lower and upper divisions, and high rates of lateness in the
upper division; and
- there continues
to be inadequate classroom space and
seating.[38]
- It
is apparent that, despite strengthened budget provision, an expansion of school
capacity and access, and extra teacher training
effort, student primary school
participation and retention remain unsatisfactory. MoE has taken several
initiatives in recent years
to try to address such issues, including the
establishment of SHAPES, the introduction of the Textbook Loan Program, and the
transformation
of truancy services into the School-Community Liaison Officers
service.
- SHAPES
was set up in 1999, and is currently undergoing evaluation. It has facilitated
the incorporation of a health curriculum into
all primary schools and developed
and oversighted the provision of school food and nutrition programs in many
schools (especially
where there is greatest need). The School-Community Liaison
Officers commenced in 2000, and are field-based staff who address problems
in
non-attendance, including investigating more persistent instances. They
emphasise community-based responses to poor attendance
as a more sustainable
approach to overcoming it. Some NGOs – such as the YMCA – have also
participated in these efforts.
The YMCA has catered to about 50 young people
over the three years to 2001, although numbers being assisted have been
declining,
reportedly due to difficulties between it and MoE on the level of
tuition fee reimbursement. In addition, there are now school wardens
placed in
all schools (primary and secondary) in Belize City, and in some schools in Cayo
and Stann Creek Districts. This was in
response to widespread community concern
about the safety of young females in the wake of the disappearances and murders
of a number
of pre-teenage girls in 1998 and 1999.
- The
Textbook Loan Program provides households with the option of seeking the
placement of textbooks which the student’s family
may not otherwise afford
into a school and loaned to that student for the relevant academic year.
Application may either be made
via the local political constituency’s
representative or via the school principal, who refers the application on to the
District
Education Office.
- Finally,
it is estimated that more than 1000 early school leavers have returned to school
in the two years to 2001, primarily in Belize
District. Unfortunately, the
level of support promised to schools in this regard has not yet been adequate,
and this may serve to
jeopardise further rates of return. As noted elsewhere in
this report, several NGOs also make an important contribution in this
regard,
especially in catering to the return to school of girls – including young
mothers – or in providing bridging
or refresher courses to enable such
return. In the context of persistent high rates of school withdrawal, it is
considered that
such efforts warrant more adequate resource
commitments.
Secondary Schooling
- Secondary
education received 26% of recurrent education expenditure in 2001/02,
representing an annual cost to GOB per student of
$1752 (twice the rate for
primary students and a 22% increase on the 1998/99 rate). Just 36% of
Belize’s 36 secondary schools
are government schools, 55% are
government-aided or –assisted, and 9% are private (2001/02 data). Those
schools are mainly
in urban areas (75%) and cater to 13,143 students (52%
female), although boys make up 52% of enrolments in government schools. Of
students in Form IV (final year), 44% of females, but only 34% of males, were
aged 16 years or less.
- The
transition rate from primary to secondary schooling in 2001 is estimated at
87.4% (89.2% for boys, 85.6% for girls), compared
to 87.0% in 2000 (83.6% for
boys, 90.4% for girls) (the 1991 estimate was 76%, comprising 82% females and
70% males). As the rates
for both boys and girls in Belize District exceed
100%, this suggests rural-to-urban drift which would also make the rates for
other
districts appear lower than they actually are. According to the
Population Census 2000, 17.4% of the urban population, but only
7.4% of the
rural population, have reached the secondary level of education (18.7% for
Belize District, 6.4% for Toledo). The CSO
notes that these figures may conceal
a rural-to-urban drift for the more highly educated who follow job
opportunities. This would
be exacerbated by the immigration movement of less
educated peoples into Belize’s rural areas. Even so, the census data
indicate
the high rate of primary school withdrawal prior to completion.
- For
2000 the secondary school repetition rate is estimated at 8.4% (ranging from
13.0% for boys in Corozal District, to 4.5% for girls
in Cayo District), and the
dropout rate is estimated at 9.7% (ranging from 18.8% for boys in Toledo
District, to 7.1% for girls in
Stann Creek District; an increase in the 1999
rate of 8.0% which ranged from 16.0% for boys in Corozal District to 2.8% for
girls
in Stann Creek District).
A 1999 study noted that:
“ Only 34% of secondary school age children are in secondary school. A
small number of others are in one of the few technical
schools or short-term
training programmes. Only a few get the limited jobs (unemployment of those
under 24 (65% of the population)
is 25%) available and can perform well at them.
The majority ends up doing nothing or contributes to growing social problems
such
as crime, drug use, and teen-age
pregnancy.”[39]
- For
2001, whilst only 19% of teachers are graduate trained (down from 32% in 2000),
another 36% are graduates (up from 25% in 2000)
and a further 9% possess
professional teacher training /7% in 2000). The remaining 35% have been
educated to high school or sixth
form, constituting 47% of teachers in
government schools, 37% of teachers in community schools, and 25% of teachers in
denominational
schools. The teacher:pupil ratio in 2001/02 is 1:15 (1:17 for
government schools, 1:16 for rural schools).
Another 1999 study,
covering all 29 secondary schools in Belize, found that:
- GOB contributed
86.2% to schools’ annual budgets in the study year (1997/98);
- student
performance and achievement is generally low in relation to financial
input;
- the annual
average cost of secondary school education is $1820 per student;
- a total of 43.7%
of teachers are untrained;
- schools with the
highest percentage of trained teachers have the lowest level of student
achievement in tests; and
- neither teacher
training nor building facilities seem to adversely affect student
achievement.[40]
- Despite
improvements in capacity and access, and in the training levels of school staff,
it is clear that there is major room for
improvement within the secondary school
system in Belize.
Vocational and Technical Education
- The
Centres for Employment Training have expanded in recent years to the various
districts and now are located in all districts except
Orange Walk and Stann
Creek, which it is intended will also have such Centres by August 2003.
Training areas include the various
building trades, hospitality management,
automotive trades, and computer maintenance and repair. Efforts are being taken
to boost
female participation in non-traditional trade areas, although this is
hindered by lack of support services such as childcare and
financial constraints
on the women.
- Other
agencies providing services in this regard are the National 4H and Youth
Development Training Centre (although intake levels
have been reduced by the
decision to amalgamate the two previous centres, and young women can no longer
be accommodated as residential
students), the Youth Enhancement Service (YES)
(which specifically caters to girls who are early school leavers or otherwise
‘at
risk’, and actively promotes their study of non-traditional
trades), the YWCA (likewise) and YMCA. The certification obtained
by
participation in these agencies is not as widely recognised and accepted as in
the Centres for Employment Training, but their
value is primarily in fostering a
return to education by many (especially young females) who have in some way been
failed by the
formal education system.
B. Aims of education
Article 29
1) States Parties agree that the education of the child shall be directed to:
(a) The development of the child's personality, talents and mental and physical
abilities to their fullest potential;
(b) The development of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and
for the principles enshrined in the Charter of the
United Nations;
(c) The development of respect for the child's parents, his or her own cultural
identity, language and values, for the national values
of the country in which
the child is living, the country from which he or she may originate, and for
civilizations different from
his or her own;
(d) The preparation of the child for responsible life in a free society, in the
spirit of understanding, peace, tolerance, equality
of sexes, and friendship
among all peoples, ethnic, national and religious groups and persons of
indigenous origin;
(e) he development of respect for the natural environment.
2) No
part of the present article or article 28 shall be construed so as to interfere
with the liberty of individuals and bodies to
establish and direct educational
institutions, subject always to the observance of the principle set forth in
paragraph 1 of the
present article and to the requirements that the education
given in such institutions shall conform to such minimum standards as
may be
laid down by the State.
- Practice
remains broadly as stated in the Initial Report, with respect to the development
of awareness to Belize’s cultural
and ethnic diversity, religious
education, and environmental awareness within school curriculum.
- An
inherent difficulty is the tension between the liberty of institutions and
individuals in educational content and practice and
the MoE in exercising its
overarching responsibilities and in ensuring due compliance with principles and
national policies. This
has earlier been commented on with respect to the
policy and practice of corporal punishment. The strength of private and
church-based
schools in Belize – regardless of the level of financial
assistance which GOB provides them – means that they limit the
capacity of
MoE to adequately enforce or implement such principles and policies. The close
interrelationship between state and church
in educational provision raises
occasional tensions, for example, in the school-based treatment of pregnant
students. There is concern
that many schools continue to expel such students
with impugnity, without equal treatment of the other party (if a male student)
– or, more appropriately, without the pregnant student being treated
equally with her male student counterpart. In a different
vein, it is noted
that a teacher was dismissed in late 2001 for involving his classroom in an open
debate on a currently highly controversial
environmental issue about which
Government has already made a firm decision.
- With
respect to teenaged mothers, some heavily under-resourced NGOs (notably the YWCA
and YES) are endeavouring to cater to the educational
needs of such students.
YES, for example, encourages enrolment in its training centre of teenage mothers
as well as early school-leaver
girls, and has an annual intake to its two-year
program of around 40 girls. YES also operates a Centre for Teenage Mothers in
Belize
City, adjacent to MoH’s Cleopatra White Health Clinic, from where
it provides information on sexual and reproductive health.
YES’s training
centre focusses on teaching remedial education, personal development and
self-esteem, and non-traditional vocational
skills, and has been successful in
the proportion of its graduates proceeding to further schooling, employment or
vocational training.
The YWCA also caters to high rates of socially
disadvantaged young people (especially females), and reports that – of a
survey
in 2000/01 of past students – 81% went on to secondary school, of
which 50% graduated, 25% had left due to failure or financial
reasons or
pregnancy, and 23% had proceeded to work or self-employment or active
job-seeking or unemployment. Of early school-leaving
females that it assists,
64% are from single-parent families, 15% are with a guardian or in an
institution and just 21% come from
a two-parent family. It is difficult to
overestimate the social and economic value of such interventions to make the
education and
vocational training system more accessible.
- Nevertheless,
school-based practice with respect to teenage mothers and pregnant students
remains of concern. MoE has no policy on
the treatment of pregnant students,
leaving this to the discretion of the Principal or the School Board. MoE
reports that an increasing
number of schools are taking a more lenient position
in this regard. Common practice seems to be that if a student in Forms I-IV
becomes pregnant, then she will likely be removed from the school either as soon
as she is visibly pregnant or once the Principal
becomes aware of the pregnancy,
and that, if the student is in her final year, she would increasingly be
permitted to remain at school
– if possible – to complete her
studies. The granting of discretion to schools and the absence of MoE policy is
likely
in large part due to the difficulty in MoE being able to secure the
cooperation of non-public schools, despite the substantial level
of funds which
the Ministry allocates to private and church-based schools. MoE has moved to
address these issues and, in August
2001, the Women’s Department completed
a study on educational discrimination of pregnant students and of pregnant
unmarried
teachers. It and MoE are now developing an advocacy plan and
standardised policies.
- Sanctioning
(through non-intervention) individual schools to expel pregnant students or to
not readmitting and accommodating young
student mothers, sits uncomfortably with
the provisions of the Education Act that the education system “shall be
sensitive to the particular needs of the female gender” (S. 25 (1)).
Similarly, the requirement of the Education Rules that “the education
system shall ensure equitable access to education
at all levels for both
genders” (S. 112 (1)) hardly applies if it permits individual schools to
implement inequitable practices
in the treatment of young mothers and young
fathers. It is of even greater concern for girls of compulsory schooling age
for whom
a pregnancy may lead the school to deny them their legally-mandated
obligation for school attendance.
- Given
that there is only one school in many rural areas, some young people can be
further disadvantaged if the only accessible school
is a denominational school
which either coerces embrace of that faith, or else excludes students on the
basis of faith if there is
insufficient capacity. There is a current example of
tension in a rural centre where students of one denomination are declining
to
participate in some school-based practices in the one local school which is
Roman Catholic. Also, there are occasional reports
of denominational schools
citing lack of enrolment capacity in effectively excluding a child from a
different denomination a place
at the school.
- Many
teachers have continued to lack a specific awareness of the provisions of the
Convention and of human rights. This has been
tackled by MoE’s Curriculum
Unit, through its Quality Assurance and Development Services (QUADS) initiative,
in which approximately
750 primary school teachers received training in human
rights and children’s rights during 2000/01. This was pilotted in
middle-division
schools in 1999/2000. In 2000/01, it was introduced to all
middle-level schools and pilotted in 60 upper-division schools. In 2001/02,
it
was introduced to all upper-division schools. Teachers are duly accredited for
their participation. Even so, it is noted that
this is still far from
representing a comprehensive coverage of primary school teachers.
- HRCB
has given specific attention to the human rights of children, with the
establishment of a temporary post – staffed via
the UK volunteer services
organisation – of Children’s Rights Coordinator. This post has
particularly focussed on the
education sector. In 2000, it conducted workshops
concerning school absenteeism and attendance, and has promoted ‘Classrooms
of Kindness’ as a means of promoting enrolments within selected pilot
schools (two in Orange Walk District, two in Cayo District
and, since late 2001,
two in Stann Creek District). HRCB has catered to other schools upon request.
Three priorities emerged from
the participating children: behaviour in schools,
parental involvement, and human rights education (within the curriculum and in
teacher-training). Late in 2001, a volunteer Children’s Rights Action
Group was established to actively promote child-friendly
schools and the
associated right of the child to education. Training workshops were conducted
for the volunteers, who are from each
of the districts, and other agencies
– such as YMCA, NCFC, MoE and NOPCA – facilitated training sessions.
HRCB also produced
and distributed nationwide an illustrated booklet on the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in English and Spanish. The position
of
Children's Rights Coordinator at HRCB ended in mid-2002.
C. Leisure, recreation and cultural activities
Article 31
- States
Parties recognize the right of the child to rest and leisure, to engage in play
and recreational activities appropriate to
the age of the child and to
participate freely in cultural life and the arts.
- States
Parties shall respect and promote the right of the child to participate fully in
cultural and artistic life and shall encourage
the provision of appropriate and
equal opportunities for cultural, artistic, recreational and leisure
activity.
- Most
effort is focussed through the education sector, especially primary schools.
SHAPES, in collaboration with the National Sports
Council, has incorporated
physical education within the primary school curriculum. This has also been
accompanied by increased efforts
in teacher training in physical education.
- A
number of NGOs conduct a range of recreational leisure programs, especially
during school vacation. For example, the YMCA conducts
summer education and
leisure programs, as well as Campus Y, a leadership building program operating
at the district level. The House
of Culture also conducts annual summer camps.
In 2001, 120 children participated in a six-week summer camp designed and
implemented
by the Young Artists Association. An 11-week Garifuna Training
Program was held in Belize City in early 2001, and such courses are
now also
offered in a couple of districts (Cayo and Stann Creek). The Belize Arts
Council also conducts workshops for children and
teachers in a wide
cross-section of the arts, including dance, music, art and drama.
- Despite
efforts to improve the situation, it is acknowledged that there remains a
general lack of recreational facilities, such as
playgrounds, organised
recreational programs and after-school leisure services.
VIII. SPECIAL PROTECTION MEASURES
A. Children in situations of emergency
Article 22
- States
Parties shall take appropriate measures to ensure that a child who is seeking
refugee status or who is considered a refugee
in accordance with applicable
international or domestic law and procedures shall, whether unaccompanied or
accompanied by his or
her parents or by any other person, receive appropriate
protection and humanitarian assistance in the enjoyment of applicable rights
set
forth in the present Convention and in other international human rights or
humanitarian instruments to which the said States
are Parties.
- For
this purpose, States Parties shall provide, as they consider appropriate,
co-operation in any efforts by the United Nations and
other competent
intergovernmental organizations or non-governmental organizations co-operating
with the United Nations to protect
and assist such a child and to trace the
parents or other members of the family of any refugee child in order to obtain
information
necessary for reunification with his or her family. In cases where
no parents or other members of the family can be found, the child
shall be
accorded the same protection as any other child permanently or temporarily
deprived of his or her family environment for
any reason, as set forth in the
present Convention.
Article 38
- States
Parties undertake to respect and to ensure respect for rules of international
humanitarian law applicable to them in armed
conflicts which are relevant to the
child.
- States
Parties shall take all feasible measures to ensure that persons who have not
attained the age of fifteen years do not take
a direct part in hostilities.
- States
Parties shall refrain from recruiting any person who has not attained the age of
fifteen years into their armed forces. In
recruiting among those persons who
have attained the age of fifteen years but who have not attained the age of
eighteen years, States
Parties shall endeavour to give priority to those who are
oldest.
- In
accordance with their obligations under international humanitarian law to
protect the civilian population in armed conflicts, States
Parties shall take
all feasible measures to ensure protection and care of children who are affected
by an armed conflict.
Article 39
States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to promote physical and
psychological recovery and social reintegration of a child
victim of: any form
of neglect, exploitation, or abuse; torture or any other form of cruel, inhuman
or degrading treatment or punishment;
or armed conflicts. Such recovery and
reintegration shall take place in an environment which fosters the health,
self-respect and
dignity of the child.
- Belize
has never been involved in armed conflict at the local, regional or
international levels. However, it has been the recipient
of substantial numbers
of refugees and displaced persons fleeing poverty and civil strife within the
neighbouring Central American
countries, during the 1980s and extending into the
1990s. A Refugee Department was established in 1984, and was downgraded to a
Refugee Desk in 1998. An Amnesty Program was conducted in 1999 (see Chapter IV,
Section B). This ensured that an estimated 27,000
children may have been
provided with Belizean documentation, although there could be at least half that
number again who remain undocumented.
- Although
open discrimination against such Central American immigrants is not sanctioned,
they may experience difficulties in such
ways as:
- language as a
barrier to accessing health services, and perhaps as a factor in persistent low
primary school education participation
rates in areas with concentrations of
regional immigrant families;
- being largely
limited to employment as elementary workers, such as manual labourers in the
citrus and banana industries and as domestic
labourers in Belizean homes;
- their
willingness to accept lower wages than Belizean workers for such elementary
work, such that they may be subject to greater exploitation
by employers seeking
to lower their production costs and weaken occupational safety standards, with
dependent children consequently
living in even more vulnerable
circumstances;
- their living
conditions – including housing quality, water and sanitation – being
worse than the average local conditions,
particularly around the citrus and
banana belts; and
- the reactions of
Belizeans concerned about the shift in the cultural balance between Creoles and
Mestizos[41], the added
pressure of new Mestizos on limited services, and their perceived
‘taking’ of local job opportunities.
- The
vast majority of former refugee and displaced households settle in the more
remote rural areas, so that they are more likely to
also suffer from poor access
to essential services. This is not such an issue now with respect to maternal
and child health care
(provided, of course, that GOB maintains a strong
comprehensive nationwide public health service), but remains a problem for many
children in their schooling, and for household access to clean water and
sanitation.
- This
places an enormous pressure on GOB’s scarce resources, and it needs to be
noted that, whilst much of the international
support to Belize which originated
in the refugee influx of the 1980s was withdrawn during the 1990s due to the
official end of such
regional conflicts, Belize experienced a higher influx
throughout the 1990s than it did during those most difficult years. The
Population
Census 2000 shows that Belize has had greater immigration after those
conflicts than during them: immigration in the 1990s was 13%
higher than it was
in the 1980s. It is, however, acknowledged that the more recent immigrants are
unlikely to have the range of
psychological traumas and effects of conflict of
the earlier immigrants. Nevertheless, the pressure on national infrastructure,
services and social fabric is greater and unabated. Foreign-born persons now
constitute 16% of the rural population of Belize.
As noted earlier, whilst
foreign development assistance – coinciding with that increased rate of
immigration – has declined,
the targeting of that foreign assistance to
basic social services has not been strong.
- With
respect to the armed forces, the Defence Act provides that volunteers for
enlistment must be at least 18 years (S. 16 (2)).
Military conscription is at
the Governor-General’s determination, and it is considered inconceivable
that this would ever be
set at an age below the age of voluntary enlistment.
Nevertheless, there is merit in GOB reviewing whether this should be established
within the provision of the Act.
B. Children involved with the system of administration of juvenile
justice
Article 37
States Parties shall ensure that:
(a) No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment. Neither capital punishment
nor life imprisonment
without possibility of release shall be imposed for offences committed by
persons below eighteen years of age.
(b) No child shall be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily.
The arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child
shall be in conformity with the
law and shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest
appropriate period of
time;
(c) Every child deprived of liberty shall be treated with humanity and respect
for the inherent dignity of the human person and in
a manner which takes into
account the needs of persons of his or her age. In particular, every child
deprived of liberty shall be
separated from adults unless it is considered in
the child's best interest not to do so and shall have the right to maintain
contact
with his or her family through correspondence and visits, save in
exceptional circumstances;
(d) Every child deprived of his or her liberty shall have the right to prompt
access to legal and other appropriate assistance, as
well as the right to
challenge the legality of the deprivation of his or her liberty before a court
or other competent, independent
and impartial authority and to a prompt decision
on any such action.
Article 39
States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to promote physical and
psychological recovery and social reintegration of a child
victim of: any form
of neglect, exploitation, or abuse; torture or any other form of cruel, inhuman
or degrading treatment or punishment;
or armed conflicts. Such recovery and
reintegration shall take place in an environment which fosters the health,
self-respect and
dignity of the child.
Article 40
- States
Parties recognize the right of every child alleged as, accused of, or recognized
as having infringed the penal law to be treated
in a manner consistent with the
promotion of the child's sense of dignity and worth, which reinforces the
child's respect for the
human rights and fundamental freedoms of others and
which takes into account the child's age and the desirability of promoting the
child's reintegration and the child's assuming a constructive role in society.
- To
this end and having regard to the relevant provisions of international
instruments, States Parties shall, in particular, ensure
that:
- (a) No child
shall be alleged as, be accused of, or recognized as having infringed the penal
law by reason of acts or omissions that
were not prohibited by national or
international law at the time they were committed;
- (b) Every child
alleged as or accused of having infringed the penal law has at least the
following guarantees:
- (i) To be
presumed innocent until proven guilty according to law;
- (ii) To be
informed promptly and directly of the charges against him or her, and, if
appropriate, through his or her parents or legal
guardians and to have legal or
other appropriate assistance in the preparation and presentation of his or her
defence;
- (iii) To have
the matter determined without delay by a competent, independent and impartial
authority or judicial body in a fair hearing
according to law, in the presence
of legal or other appropriate assistance and, unless it is considered not to be
in the best interest
of the child, in particular, taking into account his or her
age or situation, his or her parents or legal guardians;
- (iv) Not to be
compelled to give testimony or to confess guilt; to examine or have examined
adverse witnesses and to obtain the participation
and examination of witnesses
on his or her behalf under conditions of equality;
- (v) If
considered to have infringed the penal law, to have this decision and any
measures imposed in consequence thereof reviewed
by a higher competent,
independent and impartial authority or judicial body according to law;
- (vi) To have
the free assistance of an interpreter if the child cannot understand or speak
the language used;
- (vii) To have
his or her privacy fully respected at all stages of the proceedings.
3) States Parties shall seek to promote the
establishment of laws, procedures, authorities and institutions specifically
applicable
to children alleged as, accused of, or recognized as having infringed
the penal law, and, in particular:
(a) The establishment of a minimum age below which children shall be presumed
not to have the capacity to infringe the penal law;
(b) Whenever appropriate and desirable, measures for dealing with such children
without resorting to judicial proceedings, providing
that human rights and legal
safeguards are fully respected.
4) A variety of dispositions,
such as care, guidance and supervision orders; counselling; probation; foster
care; education and vocational
training programmes and other alternatives to
institutional care shall be available to ensure that children are dealt with in
a manner
appropriate to their well-being and proportionate both to their
circumstances and the offence.
- Belize
currently has the highest percentage in Central America of its population
incarcerated (490 per 100,000) and the second highest
in the Caribbean after the
Cayman Islands. The majority of inmates at the Hattieville Correctional
Facility (the national prison)
spend less than one year there, with almost a
half of inmates sentenced for less than six months. Anecdotal evidence from key
informants
suggests a recidivism rate in the range of 70%, and the records show
that 96% of inmates aged 18 years or less (and 93% of those
aged 25 years or
less) were first time offenders.
- Theft,
drugs (mostly marijuana possession) and illegal entry (border incursions)
accounted for between 59%-77% of all incarcerations
between 1993-98. Persons
between the ages of 16-35 years represent the overwhelming majority of prisoners
between 1996-98. There
has been a fourfold increase in the number of juveniles
currently serving time in prison over the past decade. Males between 21-25
years represented the most incarcerated cohort (22.7%), whilst females only
comprised 6.5% of the total prison population (with under
18 year old females
numbering in single
digits[42]). At the same
time, it needs to be noted that there is a lack of statistical evidence to
support a widespread public and media perception
that juvenile crime is on the
increase, or that there has been an increase in illicit drug usage. There is,
however, evidence of
an increasing rate of imprisonment for such offences,
mainly possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal
use.[43]
[44]
- It
is a graphic reminder that imprisonment most impacts the poorer sections of the
population to note that, for over 60% of those
incarcerated, there was the
option of paying a fine for their offence. Clearly, there are large numbers of
juvenile males sentenced
to a period of incarceration for minor first-time
offences, and for which the capacity to pay a fine would have avoided such
detention.
- Even
so, the Juvenile Offenders Act, Probation of Offenders Act 1944 and Criminal
Justice (Community Service Orders)
Regulations[45] make
appropriate provisions for the administration of juvenile justice which includes
alternatives to detention, as described in
the 278. 278. Initial Report (pp
72-74).[46] At that time,
mention was made of efforts in 1995 to strengthen deinstitutionalisation of
children (especially with the closure
of Listowel Boys Training School) and to
improve alternatives (especially with the diversion of budgetary savings into
probation
and counselling services).
- However,
the problem has remained one of inadequate implementation of those provisions.
Notably, it is untenable to argue that incarceration
of young and/or first-time
offenders – especially for minor offences – is a last resort, or
that there is adequate separation
of children in detention from adult prisoners.
Rather, there has been a lack of political and resource commitment to putting
existing
provisions into effect. This has been a difficult issue to address,
due to entrenched cultures of practice within the judicial and
law enforcement
professions, the absence of appropriate alternatives for court consideration,
and the continuing political failure
to ensure suitable facilities and
support.
- There
continue to be well-sourced reports that the police are interrogating juveniles
without an adult present, and are routinely
denying the juvenile’s right
to contact a parent. Nevertheless, there has been some effort within the Police
Department to
better support preventative and rehabilitative strategies. Zone
Beat Liaison Officers have been employed, with two in each district
and ten in
Belize City. They promote community-based cooperation in policing, the
oversighting of neighbourhood watch, and the visitation
of police to schools
(especially primary schools). The Police Youth Corps continues to operate,
catering to 8-17 year olds, but
mainly comprising primary school age males. It
has 150 participants in Belize City, who undergo a program of training,
drilling,
lectures, voluntary work and trips. The First Offenders Scheme was
established in 1991, and is a police-administered scheme which
provides formal
cautioning and diversionary conferences for alleged first-time offenders for
lesser offences, when deemed likely
to act as a means of minimising
reoffending.
- To
some extent, the improvements in the Family Court have resulted in some
associated improvements in the treatment of young offenders.
That court is
committed to making incarceration a last resort option and has ensured that its
personnel are conscious of the UN
Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration
of Juvenile Justice (Beijing Rules). During 2002, it developed a 'policy and
procedures
manual' (supported by UNICEF), which includes codes of practice
drawing directly on the provisions of the CRC, and UN instruments
such as the
Beijing Rules, the Guidelines for the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency (Riyadh
Guidelines), and the Rules for the Protection
of Juveniles Deprived of their
Liberty. The manual also emphasises a primary focus on alternative dispute
resolution, and includes
guidelines for case management for matters involving
children.
- The
Family Court has noted the lack of alternatives available to it in sentencing
young people, and that it is also dependent upon
the quality of pre-sentence
reports, which are often of variable quality and generally “lack analysis
and objectivity, tend
towards judgmental attitudes and do not always assist
magistrates in assessing the likelihood of further offending or the impact
of
certain
dispositions”[47]. In
its 2002 Action Plan, the Family Court is focussing on post-sentencing
follow-up, due to a need to ensure that probationary
options are more adequately
implemented, and will be making regular visits to juvenile justice
institutions.
- As
noted elsewhere, however, the Family Court only effectively exists in Belize
City, so that juveniles charged with an offence in
the other districts continue
to come before other courts. There is certainly strong support amongst agencies
involved in working
with young people, children and families for the
establishment of a Family Court in each district, especially given the progress
which it has made in being family- and child-friendly in its administrative and
judicial operations.
- Whilst
the CRC requires that “every child alleged as or accused of having
infringed the penal law [shall...] have his or her
privacy fully respected at
all stages of the proceedings” (Article 40(2)(b)), the Families and
Children Act only ensures this
right once those proceedings have reached the
court (S. 153 (2)). This means that a child detained or arrested for allegedly
committing
an offence may be identified in the media. Whilst the media
generally extend such privacy to all stages with respect to children,
some do
not, and the Act needs to be amended to ensure full compliance with Article
40.
- There
continue to be reports of inadequate procedures and conditions in the
magistrates courts and police holding cells throughout
Belize. Coupled with the
frequent absence of due legal advice to young people, this too often continues
to mean that children brought
before the courts are not represented, are unable
to access legal advice, are held in inadequate conditions, and are incarcerated
for minor offences. The latter seems to be as much to do with a
magistrate’s decision to ‘teach a lesson’ to the
child as with
the absence of sentencing options (in the past year alone, children have been
incarcerated for petty theft such as
stealing a coconut or
confectionary[48]). According to Hancock,
“ As there are few formal protocols or checks on the above
procedures abuses can, and do, occur. The HRCB has received many
reports on the
mistreatment of juveniles in the criminal justice system, most involving police
harassment, humiliation, intimidation
and brutality. Abuses normally occur when
the correct procedures are not followed, for instance, Police interview of
children without
a responsible adult present. There are reports of parents
being refused permission to see their children in police custody, as well
as
documented evidence of violence committed by police officers in their
questioning of juveniles. Most abuses appear to occur before
the child has
reached the point of Court proceedings, usually before they have even been
charged, which perhaps prevents them from
coming to the attention of others
involved in the system. However, there are also concerns relating to
insensitive treatment by
professionals such as teachers and social
workers.” (op cit, p. 20)
- Until
recently, juvenile offenders were mainly housed at the Youth Enhancement Academy
(YEA) which was located at a well-regarded
facility in Ladyville, several miles
away from the Hattieville prison
facility[49]. Due to a
decision to move the women’s prison to that separate location, the YEA was
relocated to be merged with the Boot
Camp inside the prison complex, and the
women’s prison was moved back to the prison and the Ladyville complex
closed. Rightly
or wrongly, some people working with young offenders believe
this was a planned and conscious decision to bring juveniles within
the prison
system for financial reasons. This view is strengthened by the failure to date
to allocate sufficient resources to the
construction of a separate juvenile
facility adjacent to the prison.
- This
now means that all young people sentenced to a period of detention are now
housed in the Boot Camp building within the prison
complex – down to the
age of 12 years (legally and potentially, as young as nine
years[50]). As at
mid-December 2001, there were 77 male juveniles in the Boot Camp facility, of
whom 63 were sentenced and 14 were on remand.
There is minimal and ineffective
security between the young males and adjacent maximum security. The prison
authorities state that
practice is that all under 18 year olds are placed in
Boot Camp, where they are provided a training and educational curriculum.
Commencing in July 2001, prison officers were also receiving training, in a
rights-based approach to working with juveniles. A total
of 20 officers
received two weeks training, based on a manual developed specifically for that
purpose.[51]
- The
prison authorities also state that all juveniles placed on remand are now
accommodated in Boot Camp rather than within the remand
facility with adult
prisoners and that the practice of housing adult prisoners needing protective
custody (such as sex offenders
and former police officers) as well as
maintenance defaulters (normally sentenced to between one and three months) in
the youth facility
ceased earlier in
2001.[52]
[53]
- The
current Boot Camp facility is patently totally unacceptable as a juvenile
detention facility, due to its location within the prison,
the sub-standard
nature of its physical amenities,
overcrowding[54], the
presence of adult prisoners, and the staffing by adult prison personnel
untrained in juvenile rehabilitation. The merging of
the Boot Camp and YEA has
certainly exacerbated these problems, regardless of whatever the rationale for
doing so may have been.
This has also meant accommodating sentenced and
remanded juveniles together, in contravention of the UN Rules for the Protection
of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty (S. 17), although it needs to be
emphasised that states with smaller populations and fewer
resources have more
limited capacity in this regard.
- Cognisant
of the need for concerted action in this regard, the National Assembly –
in December 2001 – passed new legislation.
The Penal System Reform
(Alternative Sentencing) Act is an Act to:
- provide for the
establishment of the Community Rehabilitation Department;
- enlarge the
powers of the criminal courts to pass in proper cases non-custodial community
sentences; and
- lay down
sentencing principles to be observed by criminal courts.
- That
Act also makes consequential amendments to the Juvenile Offenders Act, the
Probation of Offenders Act and the Certified Institutions
(Children's
Reformation) Act which had already made adequate legislative provisions for
non-custodial options, but for which there
had been inadequate steps taken to
implement those measures. The establishment – earlier in 2001 – of
a specific Department
to be responsible for this new Act augurs well for its
implementation, provided that adequate resources are allocated to it for such
purposes.
The Penal System Reform (Alternative Sentencing) Act
requires the CRD to:
- prepare pre-
and/or post-sentencing reports for the courts in respect of community
orders;
- offer
counselling to juvenile offenders and their parents;
- supervise
offenders sentenced to community service work or probation orders and, at the
court's request, at the post-sentencing stage;
- identify
suitable places for community service and monitor their standards of
compliance;
- report to the
court within 72 hours any breaches of the terms and conditions of community
service orders;
- manage certified
children's institutions established or operated by government; and
- compile
statistics, prepare operational manuals and undertake research relevant to these
roles.
- A
community order includes a community service order, a conditional discharge, a
probation order, an order detaining a juvenile in
a certified children's
institution, or an order combining community orders and/or a fine or custodial
sentence. Such an order may
be applied by the court in lieu of a custodial
sentence for an offence specified in Schedule I of the Act (unless such other
sentence
is mandatory or exceeds three years), and primarily comprises such
first time offences as common assault, minor theft, those carrying
a maximum
penalty not less than six months imprisonment or $100 fine, petty misdemeanours
or petty offences, possession of cannabis
or other controlled drugs in a
quantity less than that deemed to constitute trafficking, or cannabis or cocaine
use. It also applies
to what would otherwise be a sentence of imprisonment for
a person's failure to pay child maintenance under the Families and Children
Act.
- If
the community order takes the form of a community service order, then the
offender must consent to that order (S. 12 (3)(a)), which
shall not exceed one
year's duration or eight hours per weekday (S. 14 (1)). Such orders remain in
force until the expiration of
the required hours of work or of twelve months or
the revokation or extension of the order, whichever occurs first (S. 17).
Section
20 (2) specifies the grounds for which an order may be varied. Schedule
II prescribes the types of work that may be ordered: work
at or for any hospital
or charitable, educational, cultural or recreational organisation, work at or
for any organisation for old,
infirm or handicapped persons, or work on any
public lands. If the offender does not consent to a community order, then a
custodial
sentence may be imposed (S. 51 (3)). The Act emphasises that
community sentences and custodial sentences may only apply to offences
considered to be serious enough to warrant such a sentence (Ss. 49 (1) & 51
(2)(a)).
- Community
service orders are to be managed by Community Rehabilitation Officers (CROs),
under the supervision of the CRD Director.
CROs replace and extend the roles of
the former Probation Officers. The Act also provides for a National Committee
on Community
Service. It comprises government, non-governmental, judicial and
law enforcement representation, and the CRD Director as its Secretary
(S. 22).
Its functions are to:
- monitor the
operation of community service orders;
- propose measures
to improve operations; and
- receive and
consider complaints by offenders concerning such
orders,
and it is to also comprise district-based
committees (S. 23).[55] The
Minister of Human Development has, during 2002, committed additional resources
to the implementation of the Act's provisions,
including the establishment of
two CRO positions in Belize District, and one CRO each in another four districts
(with one CRO serving
the two northern districts). This is viewed as a welcome
but still inadequate level of staffing for undertaking the scope of roles
and
demands of the Act.
- The
Act also included a number of consequential amendments to other legislation. By
amending the definition in the Juvenile Offenders
Act of a child from under 14
years to under 16 years, and of a young person from 14-15 years to 16-17 years,
that Act has stronger
provisions concerning children in court proceedings,
greater quarantining of children from adult offenders (both in court and in
detention), and an extension to 16-17 year olds of provisions for children of
privacy in court proceedings, bail, and pre-court detention.
It correspondingly
raises the upper age to under 18 years for the court to make a custody or care
order, and adds community service
work to penalty options in place of a sentence
of imprisonment (whilst retaining detention as a custodial option). Amendments
to
the Probation of Offenders Act are largely terminology changes which redefine
probation as community rehabilitation, and locate probation
supervision roles
with CRD. Similar amendments to the Certified Institutions (Children’s
Reformation) Act raise coverage from
under-16 to under-18 years, bring
institutions under the responsibility of CRD and remove prison as a court
option, as well as setting
down the ‘principles of judicial
sentencing’ concerning community and custodial sentences.
- The
new Act is a substantial reform in the area of juvenile justice and in giving
effect to an overdue need for the systematic and
large-scale provision of
alternatives to the detention of young offenders, as well as to put in place
measures which finally address
the comparative absence of adequate measures to
reduce recidivism and promote the rehabilitation of offenders. The primary
concerns
have been that:
- there is
insufficient resource commitment to enable the new Department to adequately
carry out its mandate (since mid-2002, GOB has
afforded some additional
resources to the
Department)[56];
- the lack of
staff to implement the Act is compounded by inadequate expertise in the juvenile
justice area;
- the volume of
juvenile offenders eligible to benefit from community orders will, for some
time, far exceed the availability to the
courts of sufficient placement
options;
- inadequate
infrastructure at the outset may undermine the Department’s capacity to
secure sufficient and recurrent community
placement opportunities;
- the entrenched
culture across the court system and within the police force will test the
appropriate application of community orders;
- the urgency felt
by many in the judiciary and juvenile justice areas to apply alternatives to
detention may threaten the integrity
of the development of proper protocols and
administrative
arrangements[57];
- political
commitment to the legislation is likely to be tenuous in the inevitable
occurrence of even a minor infringement by an offender
of the terms of an order
(especially in the face of media scaremongering); and
- the
consequential importance of securing media and public familiarity of and support
for the legislation.
- This
is perhaps the most important current area of reform in Belize relevant to
improved compliance with the CRC. It certainly warrants
strong commitment by
the international community, as well as explicit political commitment. Any
public support for strengthening
attention to rehabilitative aspects of juvenile
justice is likely to be tenuous in a climate which seeks stronger punative
treatment
for even minor offences, and government acknowledges its need to be
consistent in ensuring that this legislation receives strong
support in
political, administrative and resource terms. This will need to include early
attention to the establishment by the Minister
of enabling regulations, and
securing of resources to provide the necessary capacity-building within the CRD
to ensure the legislation's
success.
- There
are also parallel needs to address the young person’s access to legal
advice and assistance during the judicial process,
to establish offices of the
Family Court in each district, to proceed with the construction of a separate
juvenile detention facility
outside the prison complex and to establish a
trained juvenile justice unit within the Police Department, with formal liaison
with
CRD personnel. It will also be necessary to monitor the operations and
security of the Family Court to the extent that the new legislation
will bring
young offenders into that court from the magistrates court, when it has been so
well oriented to dealing with the needs
of families and children, and could thus
compromise that
climate.[58]
C. Children
in situations of exploitation, including physical and psychological recovery and
social reintegration
Article 32
- States
Parties recognize the right of the child to be protected from economic
exploitation and from performing any work that is likely
to be hazardous or to
interfere with the child's education, or to be harmful to the child's health or
physical, mental, spiritual,
moral or social development.
- States
Parties shall take legislative, administrative, social and educational measures
to ensure the implementation of the present
article. To this end and having
regard to the relevant provisions of other international instruments, States
Parties shall in particular:
- (a) Provide for
a minimum age or minimum ages for admission to employment;
- (b) Provide for
appropriate regulation of the hours and conditions of employment;
- (c) Provide for
appropriate penalties or other sanctions to ensure the effective enforcement of
the present article.
Article 33
States Parties shall take all appropriate measures, including legislative,
administrative, social and educational measures, to protect
children from the
illicit use of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances as defined in the
relevant international treaties and
to prevent the use of children in the
illicit production and trafficking of such substances.
Article 34
States Parties undertake to protect the child from all forms of sexual
exploitation and sexual abuse. For these purposes, States Parties
shall in
particular take all appropriate national, bilateral and multilateral measures to
prevent:
(a) The inducement or coercion of a child to engage in any unlawful sexual
activity;
(b) The exploitative use of children in prostitution or other unlawful sexual
practices;
(c) The exploitative use of children in pornographic performances and
materials.
Article 35
States Parties shall take all appropriate national, bilateral and
multilateral measures to prevent the abduction of, the sale of or
traffic in
children for any purpose or in any form.
Article 36
States Parties shall protect the child against all other forms of
exploitation prejudicial to any aspects of the child's welfare.
Child Labour
The situation is as described in the Initial Report. The Labour Act sets the
following minimum ages for work:
- employment in
work which is hazardous: 14 years (S. 169);
- part-time
employment: 12 years (S. 169); and
- full-time
employment: 14 years (S. 54).
Since the Initial Report, Belize has
become a signatory to a number of ILO conventions relevant to children and
families. These are
set down in Chapter 1:
- ILO Convention
No. 100: Equal Remuneration Convention 1951
- ILO Convention
No. 111: Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention 1958
- ILO Convention
No. 138: Minimum Age Convention 1973
- ILO Convention
No. 156: The Workers with Family Responsibilities Convention 1981
- ILO Convention
No. 182: Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention 1999.
The Families
and Children Act reinforces the provisions of the Labour Act by providing
that:
“ Subject to the provisions of the Labour Act and the District Courts
(Procedure) Act, no child shall be employed or engaged
in any activity that may
be detrimental to his health, education, or mental, physical or moral
development”. (S. 7)
- However,
enforcement remains a problem, and numbers of children clearly of compulsory
school age can continue to be seen assisting
household members in produce
markets and vending refreshments at bus stops, as well as reportedly working in
household or local market
gardens or in domestic labour. Often this will be for
no direct remuneration, but at the direction of a parent or other adult.
There
are anecdotal reports of children of 12 years and younger being employed on
farms to remove stones from market gardens, and
in the planting and cutting of
sugar cane. There are also anecdotal reports of children being involved in
bringing contraband produce
into Belize from Mexico and being paid in alcohol.
Such reports prove difficult to establish and prosecute, as there usually is
no
complainant.
- A
2000/01 Child Labour Project in the Corozal District – managed by NOPCA
– aimed to eliminate the worst (more hazardous
and exploitative) forms of
child labour, and to foster improved school participation by under-14 year olds,
and to ensure that working-age
children were guaranteed non-exploitation,
appropriate working hours and proper wages. This Project placed 25 children
back in primary
school, and awarded ten scholarships (a girl to high school,
four young people to the National 4H Training Centre, two to the National
Youth
Cadet Corps, and three to the Centre for Employment Training). The results of
its research were not formally published, evidently
due to methodological
problems casting doubt on the validity of a number of its conclusions.
- The
CSO has recently conducted a Child Activity Survey which is due for release in
late 2002, and will provide useful data concerning
aspects of child labour.
That survey was focussed on Corozal District (which has a substantial sugar
industry and borders Mexico)
and is expected to show a persistent problem with
child labour occurring with the following characteristics:
- at the expense
of the child’s education;
- at the direction
of the parent or another significant adult;
- not necessarily
remunerated, such as assisting in work on the milpa or in domestic labour;
and
- not necessarily
confined to households with significant financial
need.[59]
- The
CSO and Ministry of Labour are presently conducting a national child labour
research project (Compilation of Qualitative Data
for the Statistical
Information and Monitoring Programme on Child Labour (SIMPOC)). This project is
also due to report in late 2002,
and will include recommendations on measures to
improve the situation in Belize concerning child labour.
- There
is general consensus that child labour – informal and casual, during
school hours and outside school – is of considerable
concern in Belize.
The availability of ttwohree studies of child labour in Belize in late 2002 will
enable concerted and well-informed
attention to associated public policy and law
reform. This is a role which should be embraced jointly by NHDAC and NCFC, in
collaboration
with NOPCA and the Ministry of Labour, to produce a consolidated
policy document for GOB’s
consideration.
Drug Abuse
- The
Initial Report noted the absence of relevant data in this area, and this
generally remains the case. A 1998 survey carried out
by the relevant
Government agency, the National Drug Abuse Control Council (NDACC) showed that
the most prevalent drugs used by upper
school children were marijuana and
alcohol, and that the age of experimentation had fallen from 16 years to ten
years (54% reported
alcohol usage since the age of ten). This is a practice
primarily amongst boys, although there are reports of alcohol abuse by girls
at
levels to be of concern. Other drugs of particular concern are cocaine and
crack, although usage is largely within the adult
age groups. There continues
to be very minimal intravenous drug usage in Belize.
- NDACC
has established stronger roles since 1999/2000, coinciding with a strengthened
relationship with the Minister and within its
Ministry (Health) and its greater
credibility with educators and the education system. Its work with young people
has focussed on
the education system, and emphasised a preventative approach.
Coinciding with the adoption of the new national educational curriculum
in 2000,
NDACC has collaborated with MoE in the integration of drug education into the
school curriculum for Infant I through to
Standard IV, and is presently drafting
curriculum material to extend coverage to Standards V and VI.
- Also
in 2000, every primary school and some secondary schools appointed a nominated
School Liaison Officer on drug education, who
are being trained by NDACC in
three phases, in each of the years 2000, 2001 and 2002. In 2001 it produced
classroom resource
materials.[60]
- In
2000, it established Parent In Action groups nationwide, which are supported by
NDACC coordinators within each district, as well
as district-based Task Forces
which comprise community representation. In January 2002, NDACC opened a
drop-in centre in Belize
City for young people.
- NDACC
reports problems with prescription and over-the-counter drugs, and in mid-2000
MoH particularly tackled the problem of pharmacists
who sell prescription drugs
without prescriptions. Of particular concern are increasing reports (now
averaging one per week) of
the use of so-called ‘date rape’ drugs
(such as rohipnol). NDACC is presently pursuing the declaration of such drugs
as prescription drugs, and has commenced conducting educational workshops in
schools on strategies to minimise the risk of exposure
to such drugs.
- As
part of its 2002 Strategic Plan, NDACC proposes to develop a parent training
manual, draft a school-based drug and alcohol policy,
conduct a nationwide
survey which will produce better data at district level and by ethnicity, and
introduce a drug treatment program
within the prison
system[61]. A parallel
consequence of the strengthened preventative and educational strategy developed
by NDACC has been corresponding shortcomings
evident in efforts in the treatment
area (proposals for the prison notwithstanding), and this warrants prompt
attention.
- As
mentioned in Chapter II, the Intoxicating Liquor Licensing Act was amended in
late 2001 to strengthen the provisions against the
sale or serving of alcohol to
under 18 year olds in licensed premises.
Commercial Sexual
Exploitation
- As
earlier noted, the laws concerning the rape, sexual abuse and carnal knowledge
of children have been substantially strengthened
since 1996, both in terms of
the coverage and scope of those provisions and in the accompanying penalties for
perpetrators. However,
despite the urging in the Initial Report to afford such
equal protection to boys, these provisions essentially still relate only
to
girls. This needs to be urgently addressed. Even so, it is acknowledged that,
whilst there continue to be difficulties in proceeding
with complaints of abuse
against girls – primarily because of the prevalence of such abuse from
adult men within or close to
the girl’s family – there will be
difficulties in adequately enforcing such laws when applied to abuse of boys,
often
because of entrenched homophobia which reduces the willingness to come
forward with a complaint.
- A
survey and study of the commercial sex work industry in Belize was undertaken in
2000, funded by UNICEF[62].
It found that many sex workers have been ‘trafficked’ into Belize;
often brought into Belize illegally and working
without legal work permits. The
majority of these workers are Mestizo girls and women from neighbouring Central
American states
and Mexico. Most of the established brothels are in the
northern districts, and the sex workers there are 95% Mestizo. Nationally,
about 50% of sex workers were born in Central America, not including Belize
(around three-quarters of sex workers in Belize City
are Creole). Outside of
Belize City, the vast majority of workers are recruited from neighbouring
Central American countries by
intermediaries who are predominantly Belizean.
Sex workers are generally aged 15 years and over, although the survey learnt of
workers
as young as 12 years. Under-18 year old workers are predominantly
working outside of Belize City.
- The
survey questioned workers, operators, clients and intermediaries (arguably the
traffickers, although operators are usually closely
linked to intermediaries).
It revealed an indifference by the Police to the industry, with many clients
being police or defence
officers.
- A
large majority of the workers report that their first sexual experience was
‘violent’ (suggesting non-consensual) rather
than
‘pleasure’ (suggesting consensual) (Orange Walk: 79%, Belize
District: 36%).[63] Some of
the characteristics about the sex workers from the survey are that:
- approximately
50% have not proceeded beyond primary school (Orange Walk: 79%, Belize District:
36%);
- at least 50% in
Belize District/City have completed secondary school;
- approximately
75% in the northern districts work 7 days per week;
- approximately
75% in the northern districts work more than 10 hours per day;
- approximately
50% commenced in the industry before the age of 18 years;
- approximately
50% commenced in the industry before coming to Belize;
- many of the
other immigrant workers report having been promised domestic work or waitressing
positions when they arrived;
- approximately
75% have health checks at least every six months;
- approximately
80% always use protection (100% in Belize City);
- more than 80% of
foreign clients seek sex with minors, but this is not confined to foreigners
(75% of Belize City clients seeking
an underage worker are
Belizean).
- There
was also a high reported incidence of young women workers whose
‘boyfriend’ is much older and financially assists
them. These men
often tend to be family friends, and in a reportedly largely consensual
friendship, although the original relationship
usually stemmed from the
female’s professed financial hardship.
- Since
the Initial Report, a new dimension has been added to the commercial sexual
exploitation of children, in the form of internet
child pornography. The survey
suggested that around 15% of clients in the two southern districts, and 28% of
clients in the tourist
destinations on the island cayes, want to take videos or
photographs. Typically, these would likely be intended for personal use,
but
this is, of course, impossible for the worker to regulate after the event.
Belize is at least as helpless as other more powerful
states to effectively
address this problem which, regardless, requires national diligence to try to
detect such occurrences of abuse,
but a global effort in tackling circulation of
such material.
- There
is an urgent need – due to the threats to Belize’s sexual health
efforts, its emphasis on the foreign tourist industry,
the need to ensure
adequate protection to sex workers and, most importantly, the need to safeguard
girls from sexual exploitation
– for GOB to examine measures to more
stringently regulate the sex work industry. This may require legislation to
legalise
and license brothels, register workers and mandate contraceptive use
and regular health checks. There is also a need to repeal some
existing
provisions and properly enforce others, including examining the adequacy and
enforcement of penalties for operators engaging
minors in commercial sex work,
and those found trafficking minors into the industry. As stated, it is also
necessary to acknowledge
and address the issue of male sex workers, and the
vulnerability of boy minors to sexual exploitation. A number of these matters,
especially concerning the employment of, trafficking in or soliciting of sex
workers aged under eighteen years, could – in
the first instance, and
pending the development of more comprehensive legislation for the industry
generally – be addressed
by the Minister for Human Development via
regulations under the Families and Children Act (S.
154)[64].
D. Children
belonging to a minority or an indigenous group
Article 30
In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities or
persons of indigenous origin exist, a child belonging to such
a minority or who
is indigenous shall not be denied the right, in community with other members of
his or her group, to enjoy his
or her own culture, to profess and practise his
or her own religion, or to use his or her own language.
- Belize
is a very multicultural and ethnically diverse nation with, in descending order
of population magnitude, Mestizo, Creole, Garifuna,
Kek’chi Maya, Mopan
Maya, Mennonite, East Indian and Yucatec
Maya[65] populations, plus
(with less than 1% share each) Chinese (mainly Taiwanese), caucasian/white and
black/African populations, and ‘other’
(1.1%). However,
conventional notions of ethnic division are very problematic, given the
prevalence of inter-ethnic unions over
the generations. Often, a person’s
ethnicity will better reflect their cultural identity than their ethnic descent.
Either
way, there has been a well-developed individual and collective awareness
of and pride in the nation’s ethnic diversity. To
some extent, some
ethnic groups – primarily the numerically smaller groups, such as the
Kek’chi, Mopan and Yucatec Maya,
and Garifuna (who comprise 5.3%, 4.0%,
1.3% and 6.4% of the national population, respectively) – have had to
occasionally assert
their cultural significance, but the result is a rich and
valued mix of ethnic and indigenous
minorities.[66]
- More
recently, Belize has also received a number of Taiwanese residents, who have
taken efforts to establish racial harmony and mutual
respect as they settle.
This has not been without its tensions, as they tend to settle in urban areas
alongside largely Creole populations,
but to display substantially more
affluence, at a time when the Creole composition of Belize has been declining
(from 40% in 1980,
to 30% in 1991, to 25% in 2000). Although there is a
perception of quite a sizeable number of Taiwanese moving to Belize, the 2000
Census records just 0.7% of the population as ‘Chinese’, the same as
the ‘caucasian/white’ population.
- This
also means that Belize possesses a number of different languages. English
remains as the official language, although just 54%
report speaking it
‘very well’, whilst 20% do not speak it at all. The corresponding
figures for Spanish are 44% and
45%. A large proportion of Belizeans continue
to speak Creole as their everyday language, and smaller populations speak
different
Mayan languages, Garifuna (who have been successfully developing
awareness of both their spoken and written language), German (essentially
within
the Mennonite communities), and Mandarin. However, popular broadcasting is
primarily in English, plus Creole and Spanish,
whilst English is the language
within the education system, alongside the expected teaching of Spanish as a
second language in primary
schools, and as an elective in secondary
schools.
- This
does not, however, mean that there are no longer any ethnic or linguistic
barriers for children in Belize. As has already been
observed, some
Spanish-speaking Mestizo children in rural areas continue to experience
difficulties in adequately coping with the
school system due to language
barriers. This can be even more problematic for Maya-speaking populations in
remote areas. The consequence
can sometimes be the child’s withdrawal
from formal education. These are problems which MoE continues to attempt to
address.
- There
are no noticeable instances of denial of religious rights, including with or
towards the small Muslim community of Belize since
September 2001. In some
rural areas, the only available school may sometimes be a denominational school,
and this can cause some
difficulties when the school denies enrolment to
students of a different faith due to space limitations, or coerces participation
in some activities which are faith-based. This problem is more to do with the
comparative compliance of the public education authorities
within a state-church
partnership in which the churches assert their autonomy in such matters, than
with any religious discrimination
per se, and has accordingly been commented on
in Chapter VII, Section B.
- The
Education Rules provide that denominational schools may conduct up to one class
period a day in religious observance and instruction
(S. 121) and, for public
schools, religious instruction may not exceed one class period per week (S.
122). Non-participation requires
the parent’s written objection. The
Population Census 2000 reported that, since the 1991 census, the major
variations in religious
attachment were an eight percentage point fall (to
49.6%) in those describing themselves as ‘roman catholic’, and a
four
percentage point
increase[67] (to 9.4%) in
those describing their religion as ‘none’.
Amongst
relevant concerns which may be of an ethnic or racial nature are:
- reports of some
children – generally Mennonite and Mestizo – attending school tired
from long hours of domestic labour;
- the need to
raise the marriage age from its present 14 years (with parental consent) to 16
years (there is a current opportunity to
do so because of reports that, within
some Maya communities – where most early marriages occur – there is
support from
elders for such a
measure)[68].
- A
formal agreement between the former British Honduras Government and the
Mennonite community affords certain guarantees to the latter
“for all time
so long as the Mennonites observe and fulfil the conditions imposed upon them by
this agreement”. These
include:
- the right to run
their own schools, with their own teachers, in their own German language,
according to their own religion;
- entire exemption
from any military service;
- exemption from
any social security or compulsory system of
insurance.[69]
- The
agreement provides that the Mennonites will, “subject to this agreement,
observe and obey the laws of British Honduras”.
Mennonite schools use
their own curriculum, although there are reports of some schools converting to
the national curriculum, which
is a trend which is expected to continue as the
community grows and there is greater blending with non-Mennonite communities and
students.
- Finally,
and as reported in Chapter IV, Section G, the CAC conducted a Cultural Expo in
1997 to highlight the strengths and benefits
of Belize’s diverse cultural
heritage. This is increasingly valued as Belize continues to develop a diverse
tourism industry
based on its natural and cultural heritage.
SYNTHESIS & CONCLUSIONS
- This
report has provided an update of the situation concerning children in Belize,
with particular regard to the provisions of the
CRC, since the Initial Report of
1996. It has tried to be comprehensive up until the end of 2001. This has
included reference to
changes in legislation, updated statistical information,
the development of public policy, progress in the delivery of services and
programs, and relevant research findings. The commentary in this report has
endeavoured to be objective in highlighting not only
the wide range of advances
made in these respects – and the associated improvements in Belize’s
compliance with the CRC
– but also a number of shortcomings that continue
to exist, such that GOB may be better prepared to strengthen its efforts
in the
period leading up to the next Periodic Report.
Committee on the
Rights of the Child: Observations & Recommendations (1999)
- The
January 1999 ‘Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of
the Child: Belize’ included a number of recommendations
for GOB’s
consideration to strengthen overall compliance with the CRC. These
recommendations are summarised in Attachment F, together with the
relevant paragraph reference in the Committee’s response and a brief
comment on the present status of such
recommendations.
- Whilst
there was no formal obligation on GOB with respect to act upon these
recommendations, it is acknowledged that those recommendations
serve as a
valuable guide to addressing existing weaknesses and shortcomings in
Belize’s compliance. It is noted that substantial
progress has been made
in improving compliance in terms of the Committee’s response. Many of the
recommendations have been
implemented and many others have actions currently
underway.
- One
important benefit of including Attachment F will be for national
consideration and information, given that the Committee’s response had not
earlier been circulated to
relevant agencies.
World Summit Goals
for Year 2000
- Belize’s
achievements according to the World Summit for Children Goals are shown in
Attachment C. This table shows – where possible or applicable
– data for the 1990 base reference year, the associated year 2000 goal,
the actual year 2000 data, and relevant minimum and maximum data by district or
other appropriate measure.
- It
needs to be noted that a number of indicators are qualitative in nature, and
that there are some additional goals and indicators.
The latter are due to
Attachment C relating to the subsequent Lima Accord Year 2000
Commitments, which incorporates all of the World Summit Goals as well as some
additional
goals specific to the Latin American and Caribbean
region.
- The
following table refers to the Goals as presented in The State of the
World’s Children 2002 (UNICEF, 2001) and is a summary of the principal
indicators.
WORLD SUMMIT FOR CHILDREN GOALS: BELIZE (1990-2000)
|
1990
Base
|
2000 Goal
|
2000 Actual
|
Comment
|
1
|
Reduce infant mortality rate by 33%
|
43
|
29
|
21.5
|
GOAL MET (including in most districts)
|
|
Reduce under-5 mortality rate by 33%
|
53 (1988)
|
35
|
26.0
|
GOAL MET (including by district)
|
2
|
Reduce maternal mortality ratio by 50%
|
190
|
95
|
69
|
GOAL MET (data too small to comment by district)
|
3
|
Reduce severe and moderate under-5 malnutrition by 50%
|
not known
|
|
not known
|
Data unavailable
|
4
|
Universal access to safe drinking water (%)
|
urban rural
|
94
51
|
96
63
|
100
82
|
GOAL MET (including rural) (refers to 25% reduction in population without
access)
|
5
|
Universal access to sanitary means of excreta disposal (%)
|
urban rural
|
59
21
|
66
34
|
71
25
|
GOAL MET (nationally, but not in rural areas) ) (refers to 25% reduction in
population without access)
|
6
|
Universal access to basic education (%)
|
90
|
|
81 (1998)
|
GOAL NOT MET (evidence of deterioration)
|
|
Completion of primary education by 80% of children
|
not known
|
|
not known
|
GOAL NOT MET (net primary enrolment only 81%)
|
|
Reduce adult illiteracy rate to 50% of the 1990 level (%)
|
30 (1991)
|
15
|
not known
|
GOAL NOT MET (subject of further research)
|
7
|
Improve protection of children in especially difficult circumstances:
|
|
|
|
|
TABLE (continued)
|
Goal
|
1990
Base
|
2000 Goal
|
2000 Actual
|
Comment
|
Goal
|
|
AIDS and child mortality
|
2
(85-94)
|
|
11
|
Refers to cases of perinatal HIV transmission
|
|
Percentages births not registered
|
|
|
50 (est.)
|
Very poor rate by global standards
|
From this table and the more detailed table at Attachment C, it will
be noted that:
- Belize
has performed quite well in meeting the majority of performance indicators for
which data are available; and
- there
is a need to strengthen statistical recording for many relevant indicators (this
will partly be addressed by such means as improved
computerised health records
and data recording for infants and children, as well as current measures to
initiate SIC capacity-building).
- At
the same time, it is important to acknowledge a number of areas where
performance must be improved. This is especially so in such
areas as primary
and secondary school enrolment and completion, iron deficiency in women,
breastfeeding rates, birth registration
and literacy levels.
- World
Summit Goals which remain difficult to determine due to data unavailability or
limitations include child malnutrition levels,
which may have now been addressed
through the revised Care and Growth Charts.
Priorities for Review
and Action
- The
Initial Report included an attachment which described a wide range of measures
which could be taken to improve overall compliance
with the CRC. That was
designed primarily for domestic purposes, which was of limited utility due to
the non-circulation of the
report. Nevertheless, a number of the identified
actions were reflected in the subsequent recommendations of the Committee on the
Rights of the Child.
- Given
the substantial progress which has been made since that time against so many of
those recommendations, Attachment B presents
a similar but updated inventory of
current concerns and issues which are deemed to warrant further consideration,
drawn from the
text of this report. Attachment B foreshadows both the
circulation of this report within Belize and continuing dialogue within GOB,
and
between GOB and relevant NGOs and others, on public policy, law reform and
program development with respect to child development
and protection.
- It
is far from being a catalogue of shortcomings in Belize with respect to the CRC
and the status of children. Rather, it is a reminder
of the progress made in
Belize in pursuit of its continuing commitment to the CRC and the opportunities
emerging in the wake of progress
to-date and from the opportunity for
re-examination afforded by the preparation of a Periodic
Report.
Concluding Comment
- The
Government of Belize takes the opportunity afforded by this Periodic Report to
reaffirm its strong commitment to the CRC. This
report has documented a wide
range of improvements which Belize has continued to make in this regard since
the previous (Initial)
Report, as well as a number of shortcomings in our
continuing efforts. It has also provided a useful means by which a number of
opportunities for further progress may be identified. The circulation of this
report to relevant government and non-governmental
agencies will enable GOB and
NCFC to determine action priorities and to implement reforms in the period
leading up to the next CRC
reporting
period.
PRIMARY REFERENCES
Avila, M, Hoy, D, & Santos, C (1998),
Belize Study: 20/20 Initiative: A Review of Public Expenditures on Basic Social
Services,
Resource Management Associates Ltd.
Central Statistical Office (2001), Population Census 2000: Major
Findings
Central Statistical Office (2001), 1999 Belize Family Health Survey:
Females
Central Statistical Office (2001), 1999 Belize Family Health Survey:
Males
Gillett, Ellajean (2000), Survey to Enhance Access to Education for
Children from Socially and Economically Disadvantaged
Families and Communities,
Ministry of Education & Sports
Gillett, Ellajean (1999), School Effectiveness Report: A Study of Primary
Schools in Belize, Ministry of Education & Sports
Gillett, Ellajean & Ijo, Joseph (1999), School Effectiveness Report:
A Study of Secondary Schools in Belize, Ministry
of Education & Sports
GOB/UNICEF (2000), National Report on Follow-up to the Lima Accord
Towards the World Summit for Children Goals, for the 5th
Ministerial Meeting on
Children and Social Policy
GOB (1998), Belize: United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
(supplementary report to Initial Report to the UN
Committee on the Rights of the
Child)
GOB (1996), The Convention on the Rights of the Child: Initial Report,
Belize
Hancock, F (2000), Assessment of Juvenile Justice in Belize, UNICEF
Heusner, G K (2001), Study on the Sexual Exploitation of Women and
Children: Sex Providers, Belize, NCFC/UNICEF
Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (2002), Education Statistical
Digest 2000-2002, Planning, Projects and Performance
Measurement Service
Area
Ministry of Education & Sports (2001), Abstract of Education
Statistics 2000-2001
Ministry of Education (2000), Handbook of Policies and Procedures for
School Services
Ministry of Education, Belize Education Statistical Digest 1998-99,
Planning Unit
Ministry of Human Development, Women & Civil Society (2001), Annual
Report 2000
PAHO/UNDP/UNICEF (2001), UN Common Country Assessment: Belize (First
Draft)
Paredes, Sandra (2001), Situational Analysis from a Gender Perspective,
National Women’s Commission (Draft)
UNICEF (1996), The Report of the Caribbean Conference on the Rights of
the Child: Meeting The Post Ratification Challenge,
Belize City, 7-10 October
1996.
ATTACHEMENT A
The Laws of Belize, 2000: Titles and Chapters
(Selected List)
Chapter
|
Title
|
197
|
Administration of States Act
|
4
|
|
161
|
Belizean National Act
|
121
|
Certified Institutions (Children’s Reformation)
Act
|
90
|
Court of Appeal Act
|
101
|
Criminal Code Act
|
135
|
Defence Act
|
178
|
Domestic Violence Act
|
36
|
|
95
|
|
173
|
Families and Children Act
|
93
|
Family Courts Act
|
156
|
Immigration Act
|
96
|
Indictable Procedure Act
|
1
|
|
150
|
Intoxicating Liquor Licencing
|
119
|
Juvenile Offenders Act
|
297
|
Labour Act
|
174
|
Marriage Act
|
4
|
|
..
|
Penal System Reform (Alternative Sentences) Act
|
30
|
Pensions Act
|
119
|
Probation of Offenders Act
|
156
|
Registration of Births and Deaths Act
|
42
|
School Teachers Pensions Act
|
44
|
Social Security Act
|
45
|
Social Services Act
|
98
|
Summary Jurisdiction (Offences) Act
|
99
|
Summary Jurisdiction (Procedure) Act
|
88
|
Village Councils Act
|
203
|
|
Regulations Criminal Justice (Community Service Orders) Regulations
Families and Children (Child Abuse) (Reporting) Regulations
Families and Children (Protection of Children) (Belize City)
Regulations
ATTACHMENT B
Inventory of Opportunities and Priorities for
Action
I. General Measures of Implementation
- provide
resource assistance to capacity-building of the Social Indicators Committee
- a
formal decision needs to be made about the status and nature of a National Plan
of Action for Children
- examine
the comparatively poor targeting of foreign aid effort to basic social
services
- examine
the opportunity to improve annual GOB budget reporting on outlays for
children
- distribute
this Periodic Report to relevant GOB and non-governmental agencies
- distribute
the subsequent report by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child to relevant
GOB and non-governmental agencies
II. Definition of the Child
- conduct
a thorough review of the Laws of Belize to make provisions for minimum ages more
comprehensive and more consistent
- amend
Belizean laws to redress different treatment of boys and girls, especially
concerning sexual abuse and exploitation (and gender
assumptions of
perpetrators)
- further
review the raised age of criminal responsibility in order to facilitate
establishment of a regional standard
- make
legal provision for establishing a minimum legal age at which a child may
receive independent medical and legal advice and consent
to medical
treatment
- examine
a possible loophole in the Juvenile Offenders Act concerning the imprisonment of
10-13 year olds compared to 14-15 year olds
(Ss. 11 &
12)
III. General Principles
- attention
needed to the establishment of the Family Court within each district
- review
the application in judicial and administrative processes of the Families and
Children Act move from decision-making on the
basis of the best interests of the
child as “a primary” to “the paramount”
consideration
- examine
the need for specific legislation for people with a disability, including
children
- ensure
collaboration between the Vital Statistics Office and National Health
Information System in the registering of deaths
- examine
the comparative merit of – and consult with relevant NGOs on –
establishing a position of Children’s Rights
Ombudsman as an independent
authority with investigative powers beyond government and statutory authorities,
or of resourcing the
Ombudsman with dedicated investigative capacity for matters
concerning children, including outreach capacity
- formulate
and adopt a comprehensive Children’s Code within
legislation
IV. Civil Rights and Freedoms
- adopt
measures to strengthen birth registration, including attention to
recommendations of recent reviews and closer cooperation with
and from health
centres
- examine
the merit of a further amnesty program for undocumented children
- afford
the CAC improved annual support
- jointly
review the role and structure of the CAC and the Youth Advisory Council
- review
the adequacy of existing provisions for children sentenced to life imprisonment
to seek parole or a review of that sentence
- strengthen
support for the Community Counselling Centre
- examine
the relevance of the Belize City curfew and the adequacy of its
implementation
V. Family Environment & Alternative Care
Parenting & Institutionalisation
- ensure
adequate resourcing of the role of Inspector of Social Service Agencies with
respect to the range of responsibilities
- review
the arrangements made in relocating youth institutions – especially
reduced access and capacity – and adequacy
in dealing with marginalised
and at risk children
- examine
apparent diminished effectiveness of efforts in working with urban youth
gangs
- review
policies and procedures for the periodic placement of children in
institutions
- abolish
provisions for ‘uncontrollable behaviour’ and strengthen efforts in
parent effectiveness
- (whilst
‘uncontrollable behaviour’ is retained) examine current practices in
order to reduce the associated incidence
of institutionalisation of young
people, by mandating parental counselling and utilising existing provisions for
parental financial
contributions to the child’s institutional care
(including the redirection of any child maintenance payments).
Fostering & Adoption
- implement
measures to strengthen foster care in its quality and capacity
- ensure
formal separation in adoption process between the applicant’s advocate
(lawyer) and the child’s guardian ad litem
- ensure
that guardians ad litem are appointed under the Minister’s control and are
registered with DHS
- examine
merit of enabling guardians ad litem to be supervised by an appropriate external
agency (eg. NOPCA)
- strengthen
DHS data records on adoption, including of intercountry adoptions and de facto
adoptions
- amend
the Families and Children Act to ensure that inter-country adoptions are only
approved on the basis of due attention to the
child’s ethnic, cultural,
religious and linguistic background (as per Article 20 (3))
- amend
the Families and Children Act to ensure that inter-country adoptions are only
approved on the basis of due attention to suitable
domestic remedies having been
exhausted (as per Article 21 (b))
- examine
and pursue anecdotal reports of continuing informal adoptions
- make
legislative provision for the adoption of non-Belizean children resident in
Belize (such as the child of an undocumented person)
- join
as a state party to the 1993 Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and
Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry
Adoption
Maintenance
- adopt
and enforce measures for the collection by court officers or police officers of
maintenance subject to court orders
- extend
the maintenance entitlements of the children of unmarried parents to the
children of married parents
- apply
any costs of collection of late or defaulted payments on the payer, and not the
payee (or, more accurately, the child)
- establish
and implement formal procedures for the collection of maintenance payments due
to or from residents of other Commonwealth
states
- pursue
the adoption of a reciprocal maintenance agreement with the USA
- examine
the merit of joining as a state party to the Hague Convention on the Recognition
and Enforcement of Decisions relating to
Maintenance
Obligations
Abuse & Neglect
- examine
FSD resource needs due to the introduction of mandatory reporting and associated
six-fold increase in cases
- require
police to inform DHS of all instances of abuse and neglect, including of all
instances where parents seek to withdraw a complaint,
for investigation
- prepare
a procedures manual for the handling of child abuse cases, including guidelines
for courts
- address
problems in medical assessment and reporting of child abuse, including the
development and implementation of standardised
protocols, mandatory reporting by
doctors, and revision of the Medico-Legal Form
- extend
the notion of guardian ad litem (or amicus curiae) to other matters related to
the child’s welfare within the judicial
system
- review
the effects of FSD officers having multiple roles in child cases, such as
investigating officer, prosecutor, guarantor of child’s
best interest and
child’s witness
- examine
measures needed to address socio-cultural attitudes which may inhibit the
reporting of sexual abuse against young males
- urgently
examine the incidence and nature of girls ‘consenting’ to sexual
abuse to derive material benefit to facilitate
continuation of schooling
- investigate
reports of sexual exploitation (and drug and alcohol problems) of children
within the Corozal Commercial Free Zone
Corporal Punishment
& Alternative Forms of Discipline
- until
corporal punishment is prohibited within the education system, at least enforce
the legal requirement that it only apply as
a last resort to ‘serious and
repeated offences’
- require
that a serious offence be recorded in the school’s Log Book, with the date
and that a warning has been given that repetition
may result in corporal
punishment
- require
that the use of corporal punishment be recorded in the school’s Log Book,
stating both the nature of the serious offence
and the prior dates upon which
appropriate warnings had been issued
- prohibit
the use of corporal punishment within public detention and residential
institutions
- specifically
review the appropriateness and rehabilitative merit of the reintroduction of the
flogging of juveniles in the Prison
facility
- retain
and strengthen efforts in national training of teachers, parents and officers in
youth institutions on effective alternative
forms of discipline
VI. BASIC HEALTH & WELFARE
Disability
- urgently
reinstate systematic disability screening of infants
- urgently
finalise the divestment of general disability services
- review
adequacy of NGO disability structures and capacity-building
requirements
Child & Infant Health
- ensure
dedicated attention to the promotion of breastfeeding practices
- pursue
the registration of hospitals – starting with Corozal and Toledo –
as Baby-Friendly Hospitals
- complete
research and statistical analysis on child stunting and growth retardation
- ensure
the maintenance of a strong public health system in primary health care for
children, as the NHI Scheme expands reliance on
private providers
- ensure
that private health providers comply with existing MCH record-keeping related to
infants and children (viz. Care and Growth
Charts)
Reproductive
Health
- adopt
and implement a national reproductive health policy
- maintain
– and continue to strengthen – reproductive health education and
services to young people, especially in schools
HIV/AIDS
- closely
monitor perinatal HIV transmission and male-to-female transmission
- maintain
efforts in administering antiretrovirals and alternative infant feeding
methods
Water & Sanitation
- examine
the rate of improved rural sanitation coverage to ensure WSG are met for
2005
Social Security & Child Care Services
- attention
needed to continuing inadequate capacity in child day care centres and preschool
centres
- need
to improve formal teacher training of preschool teachers
- examine
the adequacy of standards in preschool centres and resource requirements
- maintain
focus on primary school nutrition and feeding programs
- ensure
– via MCH and other appropriate GOB agencies – the establishment of
and compliance with national service standards
within the NHI Scheme
VII. EDUCATION, LEISURE & CULTURAL ACTIVITIES
- formulate
and implement a proactive national literacy strategy
- abandon
the payment by GOB of tuition fees which reinforce inequities
- ensure
that no child is denied access to assessment or examinations on the basis of a
parent having not paid fees
- urgently
address persistently poor enrolment and completion rates within the primary
school sector
- strengthen
measures to improve primary school attendance rates
- ensure
sufficient resourcing of efforts to accommodate out-of-school young people who
wish to return to formal education
- strengthen
GOB support for NGOs (such as YES, YWCA) catering to the educational and
developmental needs of out-of-school girls and
marginalised young people
- urgently
address poor secondary school enrolment rates
- adopt
a strong policy across the education system to ensure no discrimination against
the right of a student who is pregnant or a
teenage mother to continue in her
education
- ensure
that all students are made aware of the provisions of the CRC and of human
rights provisions and instruments
- examine
the incidence of denominational schools adopting practices which effectively
exclude students on the basis of religious attachment.
- Special
Protection Measures
Situations of Emergency
- review
the merit of incorporating an 18-year age limitation within Defence Act
provisions for conscription
Juvenile Justice
- examine
court sentencing practices of children for minor offences and last resort
compliance – to ensure no breach of Article
37 (b)
- urgently
construct a separate juvenile detention facility outside of the prison complex
– to ensure no breach of Article 37
(a)
- examine
the lack of access by young people to legal advice and of access to legal
assistance – to ensure no breach of Article
37 (d)
- ensure
sufficient resource commitment to and strong political support for the new
juvenile justice (alternative sentencing) legislation
- commit
sufficient resources to capacity-building, implementation effort and judicial
operating agreements, within the Community Rehabilitation
Department
- monitor
Family Court operations with the extension of its roles to young offenders
- amend
the Families and Children Act (S. 153) to satisfy Article 40 (2)(b) concerning
the right to privacy of a child alleged as or
accused of infringing the penal
law
Child Labour
- need
for NHDAC and NCFC to examine current reviews of child labour in Belize, in
collaboration with NOPCA and the Ministry of Labour,
to formulate legislative,
policy and program reforms
Drug Abuse
- examine
the need for improved effort in the provision of drug treatment programs
- monitor
compliance with stronger laws governing the sale of alcohol to minors in
licensed premises
- review
merit of adopting laws prohibiting the sale of tobacco to children
- classify
so-called ‘date rape’ drugs as prescription
drugs
Commercial Sex Work
- introduce
a Regulation under the Families and Children Act concerning minors and ensuring
police attention to their employment, trafficking
and soliciting
- examine
the merit of legalising and regulating the industry, with sex work premises
registered, sex work confined to registered premises,
workers required to have
regular health checks, mandatory use of condoms, and harsh accompanying
penalties for employing or soliciting
under-age workers
- establish
a minimum legal age for sex work at 18 years
- amend
laws governing sex work to include equal protection to young
males
Minorities & Indigenous Groups
- amend
the Marriage Act to provide that the minimum age for marriage is sixteen
years.
ATTACHMENT C
PRINCIPAL STATISTICAL INDICATORS
WORLD
SUMMIT & LIMA ACCORD YEAR 2000 COMMITMENTS
The
Lima Accord commitments comprise all those Goals contained in the World Summit
Goals, plus several additional Goals considered
to strengthen compliance with
the Convention within the Latin American and Caribbean region. The following
tables follow the Lima
Accord’s use of four thematic groupings: Health,
Nutrition and Environment; Education; Child Protection; and Gender Equity
and
Women.
Goal/Indicator
|
Base Data (1)
|
2000 Target
|
2000 Data (2)
|
Min.
|
Max.
|
Comment
|
A. HEALTH, NUTRITION & ENVIRONMENT RIGHTS
|
GOAL A.1: Reduction of infant and under-five child mortality rates by
one-third or to 50 and 70 per 1000 live births respectively,
whichever is
less
|
1. Under-five Mortality Rate
|
53 (88)
|
35
|
26.0
|
18 (Orange Walk)
|
33 (Stann Creek)
|
Goal met, nationally and by district.
|
2. Infant Mortality Rate
|
11 (90)
|
7
|
21.2
|
6 (Corozal)
|
31 (Stann Creek)
|
Goal not met, nationally or by district (except one). Rate has been
increasing. (1990 the lowest rate.)
|
GOAL A.2: Reduction of maternal mortality rate per 100,000 live births
by half
|
3. Maternal Mortality Rate
|
190 (90)
|
95
|
60
|
Goal met, but the actual data are very small and subject to fluctuation.
District data too small.
|
GOAL A.3: Reduction of severe and moderate malnutrition among
under-five children by half
|
4. Underweight prevalence
|
|
|
|
|
|
Data from census of 6-9 year olds. Anecdotal reports from medical staff
indicate numerous cases of malnutrition among under-5 year
olds
|
5. Stunting prevalence
|
|
|
15.4% (96)
|
4% (Belize)
|
39% (Toledo)
|
6. Wasting prevalence
|
|
|
|
|
|
GOAL A.4: Reduce Iron Deficiency Anaemia in women by
one-third
|
7. Anaemia: non-pregnant women
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
8. Anaemia: pregnant women
|
40.2% (89)
|
27%
|
52% (99)
|
No progress (probable deterioration). Data relate only to women who attend
Prenatal Clinic and are tested (not all women who attend
Clinic are
screened).
|
GOAL A.5: Virtual elimination of iodine deficiency disorders
|
|
|
|
|
|
9. Iodised salt consumption
|
|
|
|
Previously thought to not be a problem, as 80% of imported salt was
iodised. However, there is now a belief that this percentage
has
declined.
|
10. Low urinary iodine
|
|
|
|
TABLE (continued)
|
Goal/Indicator
|
Base Data (1)
|
2000 Target
|
2000 Data (2)
|
Min.
|
Max.
|
Comment
|
GOAL A.6: Virtual elimination of Vitamin A deficiency and its
consequences, including blindness
|
11. Children receiving Vitamin A supplements
|
|
|
|
Vitamin A supplementation program began through MCH Clinics in October
1999.
|
12. Mothers receiving Vitamin A supplements
|
|
|
|
Vitamin A supplementation program began through MCH Clinics in October
1999.
|
13. Low Vitamin A
|
55% (89)
|
|
|
|
GOAL A.7: Universal access to safe drinking water; 25% reduction in the
proportion of the population without access to safe drinking
water
|
14. Use of safe drinking water: urban/rural
|
71% (90)
|
96%/ 63%
|
91% (99)
|
82% (rural)
|
100% (urban)
|
Goals met, but doubt over whether water quality meets required standards,
due to the definition.
|
GOAL A.8: Universal access to hygienic means of excreta disposal; 17%
reduction in the proportion of the population without access
to basic
sanitation
|
15. Use of sanitary means of excreta disposal: urban/rural
|
59%/ 21% (90)
|
66%/ 34%
|
71%/ 25% (99)
|
14% (Cayo)
|
|
Met overall, but not met in rural areas.
|
GOAL A.9: Eradication of poliomyelitis
|
16. Polio cases
|
na
|
na
|
na
|
|
|
Eradicated before the 1990s.
|
GOAL A.10: Elimination of neonatal tetanus
|
17. Neonatal tetanus cases
|
0
|
na
|
0
|
|
|
Goal met
|
GOAL A.11: Reduction by 95% in measles deaths, and reduction by 90% in
measles cases (compared with pre-immunisation levels)
|
18. Under-five deaths from measles
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
|
|
Goal met
|
19. Under-five Measles cases
|
7
|
6
|
0
|
|
|
Goal met
|
GOAL A.12: Maintenance of a high level of immunisation coverage (at
least 90% of children aged under one year by 2000) against diphtheria,
whooping
cough, tetanus, measles, poliomyelitis, tuberculosis and against tetanus for
women of child-bearing age
|
20. DPT
|
85%
|
90%
|
91%
|
|
|
Goal met
|
21. Measles (MMR)
|
80%
|
90%
|
96%
|
|
|
Goal met
|
22. Polio
|
82%
|
90%
|
91%
|
|
|
Goal met
|
23. Tuberculosis
|
85%
|
90%
|
91%
|
|
|
Goal met
|
24. Children protected against neonatal tetanus
|
|
90%
|
|
|
|
Pregnant women are routinely administered vaccine.
|
TABLE (continued)
|
Goal/Indicator
|
Base Data (1)
|
2000 Target
|
2000 Data (2)
|
Min.
|
Max.
|
Comment
|
GOAL A.13: Reduce deaths from Acute Diarrhoea Disease by 50% in
children under-5 years
|
25. Diarrhoea cases, number of episodes per child
|
|
|
|
Although the data are not compiled in the manner needed, other statistics
indicate that gastro-enteritis is the leading cause of death
in 1-4 year olds.
The number of cases in 1998 was one and a half times that of the previous year,
but this could be partly due to
improved data collection. There are indications
that ORT given or recommended by nurses has increased.
|
26. ORT use
|
44% (of <5yr olds)
|
|
97% (99) (of cases MCH aware of)
|
27. Home management of Diarrhoea
|
|
|
|
GOAL A.14: Reduce deaths from Acute Respiratory Infections by 25% in
children aged under 5 years
|
28. Care-seeking for Respiratory Infections
|
40.3%
|
|
65.9% (99)
|
62% (urban)
|
68% (rural)
|
Data relate to treatment in clinic/hospital
|
GOAL A.15: Provide all couples with access to information, education,
communication and services to prevent pregnancies that are too
early, too
closely spaced, too late or too numerous
|
29. Contraceptive prevalence |
33.5% (47% in union)
|
|
47% (56% in union) (99)
|
|
|
|
30. Total Fertility Rate
|
4.5
|
|
3.7 (99)
|
|
192 (20-24yrs)
|
|
GOAL A.16: Provide pregnant women with access to prenatal care, trained
attendants during childbirth, and provide care and attention
in cases of
high-risk pregnancies and obstetric emergencies
|
31. Antenatal Care
|
40.3%
|
|
50.3% (99)
|
25% (Maya)
|
65% (Creole)
|
BFHS 91 & 99 Approximately ¾ of births are being attended to by
skilled personnel. Although there was not much improvement over the decade,
the
recent upgrading of services at the district level should have an impact in the
near future.
|
32. Childbirth Care (Newborn checkup)
|
58%
|
|
76% (99)
|
46% (Maya)
|
92% (Creole)
|
33. Obstetric Care per 500,000 comprehensive basic
|
|
|
10.5 18.9
|
|
|
34. Caesarian deliveries
|
|
|
10% (98)
|
|
|
Relates to recorded hospital births
|
Goal/Indicator
|
Base Data (1)
|
2000 Target
|
2000 Data (2)
|
Min.
|
Max.
|
Comment
|
GOAL A.17: Reduction of the low birth weight (less than 2.5kg) rate to
less than 10%
|
35. Birth weight below 2.5kg
|
4% (96)
|
|
2% (99)
|
|
|
Goal met
|
GOAL A.18: Ensure exclusive breast-feeding during the first six months
of life, and to continue breastfeeding, with complementary
food, up to the
second year
|
36. Exclusive breastfeeding rate <4mths <6mths
|
23.7%
|
|
(99) 24.2
|
|
|
|
37. Timely complementary feeding rate
|
41.2%
|
|
|
|
|
|
38. Continued breastfeeding rate 12-17mths 18-23mths
|
35.8% 22.3%
|
|
(99) 44.5%
|
34% (urb)
|
54% (rur)
|
99 data: 15-18mths
|
39. Number of mother-friendly facilities
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
GOAL A.19: Undertake universal promotion of child growth and
psychosocial development in children under 5 years of age, with a focus
on both
malnutrition and obesity
|
40. Growth chart coverage
|
|
|
|
|
|
Comprehensive coverage with introduction of revised Care and Growth Charts
in 1999
|
41. Growth monitoring coverage
|
|
|
|
|
|
42. Obesity
|
|
|
|
|
|
GOAL A.20: Ensure access of parents to relevant information about child
rearing, child and adolescent develoment, and a healthy family
life
|
No Indicators defined
|
COMPAR, NOPCA, Women’s Dept., BFLA provide some training, mostly on
an ad hoc basis.
|
GOAL A.21: Develop prevention programs to reduce the incidence of
disability in girl and boy children, and which permit the routine
evaluation and
diagnosis of physical and mental illness in early childhood
|
43. Disability screening
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
44. Total Child Disability Rate
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
GOAL A.22: Ensure universal access to information, education,
communication, and to the appropriate means for the prevention and
control of
infection from HIV/AIDS, STDs, and their consequences
|
45. Knowledge of preventing HIV/AIDS
|
99 data
|
That virus is transmitted by: male sexual intercourse: 48%M /
26%F heterosexual intercourse: 88%M / 89%F
|
Other: blood transfusion: 55%M / 52%F sharing needles: 54%M /
48%F
|
46. Knowledge of misconceptions of HIV/AIDS
|
99 data
|
That virus is transmitted by: giving blood: 29%M / 21%F insect bite:
15%M / 3%F
|
Other: shake hands/hug: 9%M / <1%F in room with AIDS person: 9M /
<2%F sharing personal items: 12%M / 4%F
|
Goal/Indicator
|
Base Data (1)
|
2000 Target
|
2000 Data (2)
|
Min.
|
Max.
|
Comment
|
47. Knowledge of mother to child transmission of HIV
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
48. Attitude to people with HIV/AIDS
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
49. Women who know where to be tested for HIV
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
50. Women who have been tested for HIV
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
51. Attitude toward condom use
|
/84%F /16%F /2%F
|
aware have used are using
|
97%M/95%F 73%M/45%F 45%M/15%F
|
(99 data)
|
|
Data for those who perceive themselves at risk of getting HIV
|
52. Adolescent sexual behaviour
|
|
aware have used are using
|
99%M/93%F 63%M/26%F 49%M/19%F
|
(99 data)
|
|
Above data (51.) for 15-19 year olds
|
GOAL A.23: Provide integrated care to 50% of children under 5 years who
require care for childhood illnesses
|
53. Home management of illness
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
54. Care seeking knowledge
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
55. Bednets
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
56. Malaria treatment
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
GOAL A.24: Promote food safety for all households, implying universal
access to households of culturally acceptable nutrition food
in adequate
quantities
|
No indicators defined
|
The malnutrition indicators (Goal A.3) will serve for reporting
purposes.
|
GOAL A.25: Encourage action on environmental conservation as set forth
in the UN Conference on Environment and Development, promoting
education and
awareness-raising activities for different sectors of society
|
No indicators defined
|
Activities in this area have been undertaken by the Dept of Environment,
Coastal Zone Management Program, CSO, Census questionnaire
|
B. RIGHT TO EDUCATION
|
GOAL B.1: Reduction of adult illiteracy, with emphasis on female
literacy
|
57. Literacy rate
|
70.3%
|
|
75.1% (96)
|
|
|
‘Ófficial’ rate is 92%. CSO is to undertake detailed
analysis of 2000 Census data (est. in ‘low 70s’)
|
GOAL B.2: Expand early childhood development activities, including
low-cost interventions among families and communities
|
58. Preschool development
|
23.9% (91/92)
|
|
27.5%
|
4.5% (Toledo)
|
60.4% (Belize)
|
Pre-school coverage remains low, unaffordable, variations in geographic
access
|
GOAL B.3:
- Universal
access to basic education and full primary education for at least 80% of
children of school age through either formal or
non-formal education that
provides equal standard of learning and puts emphasis on reducing disparities
between girls and boys;
- Universal
access to primary education in equal terms from the viewpoints of gender,
geographic location, ethnic, socio-economic background
and special needs
groups
|
59. Children reaching grade 5
|
71% (90/91)
|
|
84% (98/99)
|
|
|
Concern increases over dropout and completion rates
|
60. Net primary school enrolment ratio
|
90% (90/91)
|
|
95% (01/02)
|
|
|
61. Net primary school attendance rate
|
|
|
|
|
|
62. Proportion entering school
|
87.8% (91/92)
|
|
82.3% (98/99)
|
|
|
|
Goal/Indicator
|
Base Data (1)
|
2000 Target
|
2000 Data (2)
|
Min.
|
Max.
|
Comment
|
GOAL B.4: Improve the access by individuals and families to the
acquisition of knowledge, skills and values to enhance their life
quality, and
make them available through all educational channels, including the mass media,
other traditional and modern means of
communication and social action, with
effectiveness measured in terms of the modification of behavioural
patterns
|
No indicators defined
|
|
|
C. CHILD PROTECTION RIGHTS
|
GOAL C.1:
- Provide
improved protection of children in especially difficult circumstances and tackle
the root causes leading to such situations;
- Promote
programs, projects or specific activities aimed at enforcing the civic rights of
children as set forth in the CRC
|
63. Child Labour
|
|
|
|
Belize became party to a number of applicable ILO conventions in 1999 and
2000. Current studies of child labour will inform public
policy and law
reform.
|
64. Exploitative Child Labour
|
|
|
|
65. CRC and Legislation
|
|
|
|
Families & Children Act 1998, 1999 Amendments and amendments to
the Criminal Code. There is no systematic evaluation of new laws to
ensure compliance with CRC.
|
66. Juvenile & Family Courts
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
67. Juvenile incarceration
|
1.4% (90)
|
|
3.9% (98)
|
|
|
Under 16 year olds as % of prison population
|
68. Child abuse (annual average)
|
201 (95-98 ave.)
|
|
586 (99-01 ave.)
|
|
|
Referrals to FSD for abuse or neglect; reporting mandatory since 1999:
regulations amending the Families & Children Act 1998
|
69. Land Mine Conventions
|
na
|
|
na
|
|
|
|
GOAL C.2: Ensure the immediate registration of boys and girls upon
their birth to guarantee their right to a name, to have a nationality,
to know
who their parents are, and to be taken care of; guarantee and facilitate the
administrative process for the immediate registration
of the birth of all boys
and girls in the Civil Registries in all localities
|
70. Birth Registration
|
|
|
50% (est.)
|
|
|
|
71. Children’s living arrangements
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
72. Orphans in household; orphans in institutions
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
D. GENDER EQUITY & WOMEN
|
GOAL D.1: Ensure that the implementation of gender indicators are
available in national statistics, including the appropriate recording
of cases
of child abuse and violence against women and girls, rape, incest and sexual
harassment, and quantitative records of household
work
|
73. Reporting violence against women
|
1992: Domestic Violence Act 1996: Sexual Harassment Act 1999:
amendment to Criminal Code to include marital rape
|
National Plan of Action re Violence has been developed (multi-sectoral
approach); education & training; systematisation of reporting
|
GOAL D.2: Ratify the Inter-American Convention to Prevent, Sanction and
Eradicate Violence Against Women (Belem Do Para, Brazil 1994)
and ensure its
dissemination and compliance
|
74. Ratification of Belem Convention
|
Ratified 1996
|
Belize is compliant with the Convention
|
GOAL D.3: Contribute to providing assistance and support to victims of
domestic violence, rape, sexual harassment and incest in all
urban centres,
through confidential programs for the different age groups, in collaboration
with NGOs that address women and youth-related
issues
|
No indicators defined
|
|
Haven House, and counselling services by FSD & Women’s Dept
|
GOAL D.4: Provide counselling and integrated care to all adolescent
mothers and ensure their continuing education and development
|
No indicators defined
|
|
Skills training offered by various organisations
|
GOAL D.5: Give priority to poor women in programs such as loan and
training programs designed to reduce and eradicate poverty
|
No indicators defined
|
|
Women´s Dept monitors Small Farmers Bank, National Development
Foundation, Development Finance Corporation. 35% of SFB loans
go to women
|
GOAL D.6: Develop programs to increase men’s equitable
participation in family life and in the rearing and care of children
|
No indicators defined
|
|
Masculinity Workshop and other training provided by Women’s
Dept
|
GOAL D.7: Review and update national policies on women, and strengthen
national institutions for the advancement of women and the
adoption of a gender
perspective in development
|
75. CEDAW and Legislation
|
|
Gender Mainstreaming Strategies are being developed; Women’s
Commission developed a National Gender Policy (2002)
|
GOAL D.8: Promote the establishment of programs designed to meet the
special needs of adolescents
|
No indicators defined
|
|
|
na data not applicable
Notes: 1. Base Data are for 1991, unless
otherwise specified.
2. 2000 Data are for 2000, unless otherwise
specified.
ATTACHMENT D
LEGISLATIVE AMENDMENTS SINCE INITIAL REPORT
|
No relevant legislation adopted
|
|
1998
|
Belizean Nationality (Amendment) Act
|
Provides for the amendment of a certificate of citizenship by registration
to include the names of minor children of the applicant,
and that a child who
attains 18 years may apply for citizenship irrespective of the residency
requirements applicable to the parent
|
|
Immigration (Amendment) Act
|
Provides that persons who entered Belize as minors and continuously resided
in Belize for at least 10 years are eligible to apply
for permanent
residency
|
|
|
Reforms and consolidates the law relating to families and children, to
provide for the care, protection and maintenance of children,
to make provision
with respect to the fostering and adoption of children, and to repeal the
Adoption of Children Act, the Family Maintenance Act, the
Infants Act, the Status of Children Act, the Children Born out
of Wedlock Act and the Legitimacy Act
|
|
Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act
|
Inter alia, repeals attempted suicide as an offence in the
Criminal Code; amends the Indictable Procedures Act by imposing
life imprisonment on those aged under 18 years at the time of committing an
offence otherwise punishable by a sentence
of death; amends the Evidence
Act so that, in rape trials, a woman victim’s “generally immoral
character” may no longer be introduced as evidence,
but that the
“sexual experience of a complainant with a person other than the
defendant” may only be raised in trial
with the leave of the judge; and
empowers senior police officers to apply to a magistrate for a ‘sex
offender order’
to be granted for at least 5 years against a person
previously convicted of a sex offence (or found not guilty by reason of insanity
or disability), who has subsequently acted in a way to give reasonable cause to
believe there is a possible risk
|
1999
|
|
Requires employers who employ illegal immigrants to pay the cost of
repatriation of such persons
|
|
Families and Children (Amendment) Act
|
Provides for the establishment of the National Committee for Families and
Children, and its functions and terms of reference
|
|
Married Persons (Protection) (Amendment) Act
|
Removes provision that orders to a married woman re custody or maintenance
may be denied if she has committed adultery, and removes
adultery by a woman as
grounds for discharging an order (leaving just the ground of resumption of
cohabitation with the husband)
|
|
Criminal Code (Amendment) Act
|
Increases the age of criminal responsibility from 7 years to 9 years;
provides for the offence of marital rape; rationalises the penalties
for the
offence of carnal knowledge of a female child; provides for a mandatory sentence
of life imprisonment for habitual sex offenders;
makes special provisions for
the treatment and reporting of sex offenders; and provides for imprisonment with
labour
|
|
International Labour Organisation Conventions Act
|
Provides that ILO Conventions ratified by Belize shall have the force of
law in Belize, and that, where there is a conflict with the
Labour Act,
the present Act shall prevail
|
|
Families and Children (Child Abuse) (Reporting) Regulations
|
Provided for the mandatory reporting of suspected cases of child abuse and
child sexual abuse, the child’s placement (where
deemed necessary) into
protective custody, associated procedures for investigating and reporting, and
the initiation of criminal
proceedings against alleged perpetrators
|
|
Families and Children (Protection of Children) (Belize City)
Regulations
|
Established a curfew between the hours of 8pm and 6am in Belize, for
children aged under 16 years, provided for (where deemed necessary)
the
child’s placement into protective custody, and associated reporting and
investigatory provisions
|
2000
|
Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Act
|
Strengthens provisions for district-level registration and increases
penalties for non-compliance, including for the failure of a
person required to
notify a birth or death to do so (generally for a birth, the parent)
|
|
Family Courts (Amendment) Act
|
Changes the status of the Family Court to that of a Magistrates Court, and
appoints a Director of the Family Court, under the Chief
Justice’s
supervision, “responsible for the day-to-day administration of the Courts,
the supervision of the social welfare
staff, the integration of legal and social
services and the development of general policy guidelines in respect of all
matters relating
to the Courts”
|
|
Non-Governmental Organisations Act
|
Provides for the establishment and registration of Non-Governmental
Organisations, regulates their operations to create transparency
and
accountability, and specifies minimum standards which must be observed by all
registered NGOs
|
|
Law Revisions (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act
|
Amends Interpretations Act and consequential amendments to other
laws; renumbers the Chapter numbers of all Laws of Belize
|
|
|
|
2001
|
Social Security (Amendment) Act
|
Provides for a National Health Insurance Scheme and expands the composition
of the Social Security Board
|
|
Penal System Reform (Alternative Sentences) Act
|
Provides for the establishment of a Community Rehabilitation Department,
enlarges the powers of courts to pass non-custodial sentences,
and lays down
sentencing options to be observed by criminal courts
|
|
Criminal Code (Amendment) Act
|
Provides for the offence of deliberately or recklessly spreading HIV/AIDS,
and associated penalties
|
|
|
|
2002
|
No relevant legislation adopted
|
(to 30 September 2002)
|
ATTACHMENT E
FAMILIES AND CHILDREN ACT, 1998
FIRST SCHEDULE (SECTION
3)
GUIDING PRINCIPLES IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ACT
|
1) Whenever the state, a court, a Government agency or any person
determines any question with respect to –
(a) the upbringing of a child; or
(b) the administration of a child’s property or the application of any
income arising from it; the child’s welfare shall be the
paramount consideration.
|
Time
to be
of essence
|
2) In all matters relating to a child, whether before a court of law or
before any other person, regard shall be had to the genderal
principle that any
delay in determining the question is likely to be prejudicial to the welfare of
the child.
|
Criteria
for
decisions
|
3) In determining any question relating to circumstances set out in
subparagraphs (a) and (b) of paragraph 1, the court or any other
person shall
have regard in particular to-
(a) the ascertainable wishes and feelings of the child concerned considered in
the light of his or her age and understanding;
(b) the child’s physical, emotional and educational needs;
(c) the likely effects of any changes in the child’s circumstanes;
(d) the child’s age, sex, background and any oter circumstances relevant
in the matter;
(e) any harm that the child has suffered or is at the risk of suffering;
(f) where relevant, the capacity of the child’s parents, guardians or
others involved in the care of the child in meeting his
or her
needs. |
Rights of the child
|
4) A child shall have the right –
(a) to leisure which is not morally harmful and the right to participate in
sports and positive cultural and artistic activities;
(b) to a just call on any social amenities or other resources available in any
situation of armed conflict or natural or man-made
disasters;
(c) to exercise, in addition to all the rights stated in this Schedule and the
Act, all the rights set out in the U.N. Convention
on the Rights of the Child
with appropriate modifications to suit the circumstances in Belize, that are not
specifically mentioned
in the Act or in this Schedule. |
ATTACHMENT F
SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS MADE BY COMMITTEE ON
THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD IN ITS CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS ON BELIZE’S INITIAL
REPORT
|
Recommendation
|
Comment
|
7
|
Undertake a review of domestic legislation to ensure full conformity with
CRC principles and provisions
|
A legislative review was conducted by NCFC and resulted in the Families
and Children Act 1998
|
7
|
Consider the possibility of enacting a comprehensive code for
children
|
Has not, to date, been considered
|
8
|
Consider the possibility of acceding to the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
|
Signed 6 September 2000
|
8
|
Consider the possibility of acceding to the International Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
|
Ratified 14 November 2001
|
9
|
Seek to use a comprehensive approach to the implementation of CRC by,
inter alia, ensuring the introduction of measures at the local level to
promote and protect children’s rights
|
Now being addressed by NCFC and its partners
|
9
|
Take further steps to strengthen efforts to coordinate through the NCFC,
particularly at the local level
|
Now being addressed by NCFC and its partners
|
9
|
Implement the National Plan of Action for Children and the National Plan of
Action for Human Development
|
Replaced by the National Human Development Report
|
10
|
Review the system of data collection with a view to incorporating all the
areas covered by CRC, with special emphasis on those who
are particularly
vulnerable
|
Being pursued through the recently reconstituted Social Indicators
Committee
|
11
|
Make an independent child-friendly mechanism accessible to children to deal
with complaints of violations of their rights and to provide
remedies for such
violations
|
Ombudsman post established July 1999, capacity to investigate complaints
initiated from public or self-initiated; more comprehensive
measures could be
considered in context of deliberations on a Children’s Code
|
11
|
Introduce an awareness raising campaign to facilitate the effective use by
children of such a mechanism
|
Needs specific resourcing of Ombudsman’s Office and/or relevant NGOs
(eg. NOPCA, HRCB)
|
TABLE (continued)
|
Para
|
Recommendation
|
Comment
|
12
|
Pay attention to the full implementation of article 4 of the CRC by
prioritising budgetary allocations to ensure implementation of
the economic,
social and cultural rights of children
|
Comes within the role of NHDAC; needs joint collaboration with NCFC
|
13
|
Make greater effort to ensure that CRC provisions are widely known and
understood by adults and children alike, residing in both rural
and urban
areas
|
This is ongoing and being coordinated by NCFC
|
13
|
Continue efforts to make the CRC available, including through oral popular
forms, in all minority and indigenous languages
|
Needs attention, especially in popular form, by NCFC
|
13
|
Reinforce adequate and systematic training and/or sensitisation of
professional groups working with and for children
|
The introduction in 1999 of COMPAR has been a major boost to the ongoing
training activities of relevant public and nongovernmental
agencies
|
13
|
Seek measures to raise the awareness of the media and the public at large
on the rights of the child
|
The media are regularly appraised on the rights of the child; evidence of
stronger media awareness and interest
|
13
|
Seek to ensure that the CRC is fully integrated into the curricula at all
levels of the educational system
|
Included in primary school curriculum, with teacher training, and now
extending to secondary schools
|
14
|
Review legislation in order to bring it into conformity with CRC provisions
(including the low minimum legal age for marriage and
the prohibition on young
people to pursue medical and legal counselling without parental consent)
|
Still outstanding; needs to also include attention to including boys within
the protective provisions of laws dealing with sexual
abuse – could be
incorporated in consideration of a Children’s Code
|
14
|
Set a legal minimum age for conscription at 18 years
|
This is not considered to be a likely problem, but the Defence Act
should be reviewed for possible amendment
|
15
|
Take further efforts to ensure that CRC principles not only guide policy
discussion and decision-making, but are also appropriately
integrated in all
legal revisions, judicial and administrative decisions, and projects, programs
and services
|
Following the Families and Children Act, effort has been made to
integrate these principles in the judicial area, and in administrative decisions
in projects and programs
impacting children; subsequent experience suggests the
need for further efforts, which could be incorporated in consideration of
Children’s Code
|
TABLE (continued)
|
Para
|
Recommendation
|
Comment
|
16
|
Increase efforts to ensure implementation of the principle of
non-discrimination and full compliance with article 2, particularly
relating to
vulnerable groups of children
|
Could be incorporated in consideration of Children’s Code
|
17
|
Seek to develop a systematic approach to increasing public awareness of the
participatory rights of children and encourage respect
for the views of the
child within the family and the care and judicial systems
|
The NCFC has worked with relevant agencies, such as schools, to promote
these issues, and this needs to be a recurrent focus of its
attention (embrace
of a systematic approach)
|
18
|
Undertake legislative reform to ensure that fathers are also made
responsible for the registration of their children and that children
born out of
wedlock are guaranteed their right to preservation of identity, name and family
relations
|
Some of these were incorporated in the Families and Children Act, as
well as in other legislation, such as amendments to the Administration of
Estate Act
|
18
|
Take necessary measures to ensure that birth registration is made
accessible to all children
|
Vital Statistics Office adopting some measures in 2002
|
18
|
Seek to implement the proposed introduction of the mobile birth
registration program, and additional district facilities to reach
families in
remote rural communities
|
This is an outstanding issue, although some attempt has been made to
establish additional registration facilities in remote areas
|
18
|
Increase efforts to raise awareness among government officers, community
leaders and parents to ensure that all children are registered
at birth
|
Vital Statistics Office adopting some measures in 2002
|
18
|
Adopt measures to regularise the situation of immigrant children and
provide them with documentation to guarantee their rights and
facilitate their
access to basic services
|
In 1999, the Government held an Amnesty Program for all immigrants which
gave them the opportunity to regularise their legal status
(although many
children remain undocumented)
|
19
|
Take all appropriate measures, including legislative, to prohibit corporal
punishment within school, the family, the juvenile justice
and alternative care
systems and generally within society
|
The Education Rules inadeqately apply the legislation re schools;
entrenched resistance to perceiving corporal punishment as cruel,
abusive or
inappropriate
|
TABLE (continued)
|
Para
|
Recommendation
|
Comment
|
19
|
Conduct awareness raising campaigns to ensure that alternative forms of
discipline are administered in a manner consistent with the
child’s human
dignity and the CRC, especially article 28.2
|
A number of NGOs and government agencies providing support for children
(such as NOPCA, NCFC) are pursuing this, including promoting
alternatives
amongst teachers and parents
|
20
|
Increase efforts in providing support, including training, for parents,
especially fathers, to discourage the abandonment of children
|
Government and non-government agencies (such as NOPCA, NCFC, DHS) are
providing these types of support
|
20
|
Develop additional programs to facilitate alternative care, including
foster care, provide additional training for social and welfare
workers and
establish independent complaint and monitoring mechanisms for alternative care
institutions
|
Measures have been taken to further promote fostering, FSD regularly
reviews institutional placement, and an Inspector of Social Service
Agencies has
been appointed
|
21
|
Take all necessary measures, including implementation of proper monitoring
procedures, to prevent the abuse of the practice of informal
adoption
|
DHS has strengthened the adoption process and reduced the incidence of
informal adoptions, reinforced by provisions in the Families and Children
Act (which repeals and replaces the Adoption of Children Act);
nevertheless, the practice continues and needs further action
|
21
|
Consider the possibiliy of acceding to the 1993 Hague Convention on the
Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry
Adoption
|
Cabinet papers have been prepared with assistance from Belize’s UN
Mission in New York
|
22
|
Undertake studies on domestic violence, ill-treatment and sexual abuse in
order to adopt adequate measures and policies and contribute
to changing
traditional attitudes
|
This needs examination, in the wake of specific measures which have been
taken to strengthen implementation of domestic violence and
sexual abuse
laws
|
22
|
Properly investigate cases of domestic violence, ill-treatment and sexual
abuse of children within child-friendly judicial procedures,
sanctions applied
to perpetrators and publicity given to decisions taken in such cases, with due
regard to protecting the child’s
right to privacy
|
The Family Court has adopted and implemented child-friendly judicial
procedures, and the media generally have protected the right
of privacy of child
victims; however concerns remain about reporting, prosecution and sanctions that
need review, especially within
magistrates courts and measures to devolve some
roles from FSD
|
TABLE (continued)
|
22
|
Take measures to ensure the physical and psychological recovery and social
reintegration of victims in accordance with CRC article
39, and the prevention
of criminalisation and stigmatisation of victims
|
This still needs attention
|
22
|
Introduce the proposed legislation which makes the reporting of child abuse
mandatory and undertake legal reform to ensure that boys
are protected
|
These provisions have been implemented through Statutory Instruments
|
23
|
Undertake studies on play involving mother and child interaction with a
view to developing adequate programs and policies
|
This still needs attention
|
24
|
Develop comprehensive policies and programs to reduce the incidence of
child and infant mortality, to promote and improve breast feeding
practices, to
prevent and combat malnutrition, especially in vulnerable and disadvantaged
groups of children
|
There have been marked improvements in child and infant mortality due to
more comprehensive services, which need to be maintained;
a national
breastfeeding policy was adopted in 1998 but implementation has been
problematic
|
24
|
Consider technical assistance for the Integated Management of Childhood
Illnesses and other measures for child health improvement
|
The MCH Unit has introduced reforms which have markedly improved management
and monitoring of child health
|
25
|
Increase efforts in promoting adolescent health policies and strengthening
reproductive health education and counselling services
|
Apart from MoH, BFLA is actively pursuing such initiatives; surveys suggest
improved adolescent awareness and practice
|
25
|
Undertake a comprehensive and multidisciplinary study on the scope of
adolescent health problems, including the special situation
of children infected
with, affected by or vulnerable to HIV/AIDS and STDs
|
There have been studies on HIV/AIDS, including with respect to children,
legislative changes, new protocols adopted; however, there
remain grave concerns
about growth of mother-to-child transmission and rapid rate of infection of
women
|
25
|
Undertake measures, including the allocation of adequate human and
financial resources, to develop youth-friendly care and rehabilitation
facilities for adolescents
|
GOB has established the National Youth Cadet Corps, and the Community
Rehabilitation Department to address the need for further such
measures; there
are serious concerns about current resource capacity and implementation
|
TABLE (continued)
|
Para
|
Recommendation
|
Comment
|
26
|
Develop early identification programs to prevent disabilities, increase
efforts to implement alternatives to the institutionalisation
of children with
disabilities, establish special education programs for children with
disabilities
|
GOB’s decision to divest its Disability Services Division has meant
discontinuation of its regular screening of infants; MoE
has established
measures for alternatives to institutionalisation and special education
programs
|
26
|
Seek technical cooperation for the training of professional staff working
with and for children with disabilities
|
MoE has trained educational personnel, otherwise (since closure of DSD)
currently pending outcomes of ‘divestment’ policy
|
27
|
Take all appropriate measures to improve the quality of education and to
provide access for all children
|
Refer MoE’s 1998-2003 Education Policy and its new national
curriculum
|
27
|
Seek to implement additional measures to encourage children to stay in
school, particularly during the period of compulsory education
|
Limited progress has been made by MoE, for example, in replacing the
Truancy Program with School-Community Liaison Officers
|
27
|
Seek to ensure the child’s right to rest and leisure and to engage in
play and recreational activities
|
Within schools, SHAPES has set physical education within the primary
curriculum, and established programs with the Sports Council
|
27
|
Review educational policies and programs with a view to ensuring that they
adequately reflect the multicultural and ethnic diversity
of the
population
|
This is an integral part of MoE’s 1998-2003 Education Policy
|
28
|
Introduce monitoring mechanisms to ensure the enforcement of labour laws
and protect children from economic exploitation
|
Some measures have been taken by the Ministry of Labour, but needs more
concerted attention
|
28
|
Undertake a study on the situation of children engaged in hazardous work,
especially those employed in the banana industry
|
This still needs to be addressed (some work is being done in the sugar
belt)
|
28
|
Consider ratifying ILO Convention No. 138 concerning Minimum Age for
Admission to Employment
|
Ratified on 6 March 2000
|
TABLE (continued)
|
Para
|
Recommendation
|
Comment
|
29
|
Take all appropriate measures, including legislative, administrative,
social and educational measures, to protect children from illicit
use of
narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances and to prevent use of children in
their illicit production and trafficking
|
NDACC is involved in educational and preventative work with children in
schools, especially since 1990: drug education integrated
into school
curriculum, training of liaison officers in each school, work with parents,
etc
|
29
|
Support rehabilitation programs dealing with children victims of drug and
substance abuse
|
Little progress made; NDACC opened drop-in centre for youth (January 2002),
introducing programs with prisoners in 2002
|
30
|
Take additional steps to reform the juvenile justice system in the spirit
of the CRC, in particular articles 37, 40 and 39, and other
UN standards in this
field
|
New Act enacted during 2002, CRD established, as specific measures to
implement reform of juvenile justice system
|
30
|
Direct attention to considering deprivation of liberty only as a measure of
last resort and for the shortest possible period of time,
protecting the rights
of children deprived of their liberty, and ensuring that children remain in
contact with their families while
in the juvenile justice system
|
These are being addressed by CRD, in collaboration with the courts and
prison system, and via implementation of community service
orders
|
30
|
Organise training programs on relevant international standards for all
those professionals involved with the system of juvenile justice
|
Being addressed by CRD, in context of implementation of community service
orders
|
30
|
Increase the legal minimum age for criminal responsibility and ensure
legislative conformity with CRC in this regard
|
The law has been amended, and the minimum age of criminal responsibility
raised to 9 years
|
31
|
Make the Initial Report and written replies widely available to the public,
and consider publication of the report, along with relevant
summary records and
the concluding observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the
Child
|
This was not done with respect to the Committee’s concluding
observations
|
[1] The 20/20 initiative
advocates a mutual commitment by developing country governments and developed
country donor governments to respectively
commit at least 20% of public budgets
and 20% of donor aid funds toward basic social services within the developing
country. In
marked contrast to Avila et al, the National Human
Development Report 1998 (NHDAC, 1999, p. 45) puts Belize’s 1998 figure
(human expenditure ratio) at 8.9%. The difference seems attributable to
difficulties
in disaggregating GOB annual estimates of expenditure, and in
determining what data comprise BSS outlays.
[2] By virtue of the recent
amendments made by the Penal System Reform (Alternative Sentences) Act,
there may be an unintended treatment of 10-13 year olds compared to that for
14-15 year olds, with respect to imprisonment.
[3] Thompson-Ahye, Hazel
(2001?), Juvenile Justice in the Caribbean “A Rights Approach to
Children in the Juvenile Justice System” (draft), UNICEF Caribbean Area
Office, p. 5. The relevant
states are Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Belize,
British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St Kitts
& Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent & the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad &
Tobago, and Turks & Caicos Islands.
[4] NCFC relocated to
improved and more spacious premises in mid-2002.
[5] Although not presently
accommodated within the NHIS, there may be capacity to have it serve as the
means of lodging birth registration
details.
[6] These abductions and
murders led to various actions, including proclamation of a nightime curfew for
children, placement of security
personnel in schools, and a rally of over 5000
students and adults.
[7] This should also take
into account the role and structure of the national Youth Advisory Council,
oversighted by the Youth Department.
The Council is presently being
rejuvenated, and covers an age range up to 29 years.
[8] Since the Initial
Report of 1996, NOPCA has expanded beyond its then sole Belize City office, to
now have offices in all districts
except Stann Creek.
[9] As a useful reminder of
the importance of results of the CAC’s Children’s Election,
HRCB’s survey revealed that
the aspects of school which children least
like are: the behaviour of other students (71% of respondents), physical abuse
and corporal
punishment by teachers (38%), and an unpleasant physical
environment (31%). Conversely, 54% of children said that they like school
because of helping or caring teachers.
[10] In 1999, this was
the case for 29% of committed males and 23% of remanded males, and for 67% of
committed females and 76% of remanded
females. (Fiona Hancock (2000),
Assessment of Juvenile Justice in Belize, p 24)
[11] In this regard, for
example, S 53 (1) clearly accepts that either the father or the mother of a
child may have custody, and may
therefore make an application for maintenance.
Such gender neutrality is general throughout the maintenance provisions, except
when
dealing with the collection of maintenance for a child born out of wedlock
(for example, Ss. 64, 65 & 69), albeit with some exceptions
(for example,
Ss. 72 & 75). Whilst the gender neutral language is preferred in the
legislation, this report makes the assumption
that the parent with custody is
the mother, as this is the almost universal practice.
[12] Penal System
Reform (Alternative Sentences) Act; see Chapter VIII, Section B for further
details.
[13] As previously noted,
there has not been a specific appointment of Registrar made, but the
responsibilities of the Inspector satisfy
the Act’s requirements with
respect to a Registrar (at least within the limitations of the capacity of a
single officer).
[14] In mid-2001, the
Youth Department was again transferred, this time to the Ministry of Education
& Sports.
[15] The National 4H and
Youth Development Training Centre was destroyed by fire in January 2002,
although prompt interim arrangements
were made to minimise disruption in its
work, and a new facility was constructed.
[16] It is understood
that there is a notable population of former Listowel boys who have been
sentenced to the Hattieville Prison for
quite serious offences.
[17] In several parts of
this report, reference is made to ‘anecdotal reports’. In all such
instances, the source of the
anecdotal report is one or more government or
non-governmental agencies engaged in the area and considered to have sufficient
grounds
to make such comment. The decision not to name the agency has normally
been made at the discretion of the author on the basis of
the confidentiality of
the agency given the nature of the issue.
[18] Family Violence
Units were established within the Police Department in all districts in November
1999, and DHS has assisted it in
providing training for police officers (this is
also now a part of police cadet training). Officers in those Units are
responsible
for undertaking initial investigations of all child abuse and
neglect cases.
[19] ‘Family
Strengthening Consultation Report’, Ministry of Human Development, Women
and Civil Society, Belize City, 12
January 2001.
[20] The Education
Act requires that such punishment shall be neither excessive nor harmful to
the child (S. 24C). ‘Harmful’ does not appear in the Rules.
[21] C B Hyde, “A
Call for Discipline and Order”, Amandala Belize, 2 December 2001,
p. 12. Of course, the Education Act specifically empowers principals in
this regard, rather than taking away their ‘authority’.
[22] Dorian A Barrow,
PhD, “Road Block: why many of our teachers won’t teach our kids the
new national curriculum”,
ibid, p. 30
[23] A 2000 study by MoE
found that there is still inadequate provision being made for students with a
disability. (Gillett, Ellajean
(2000), Survey to Enhance Access to Education
for Children from Socially and Economically Disadvantaged Families and
Communities, Ministry of Education & Sports.)
[24] Steps were initiated
in early 2002 to try to ensure the development of an appropriate NGO to assume
the divested roles.
[25] Belize Council for
the Visually Impaired (2001), B.C.V.I. Action Plan, June 2001 to June
2004
[26] ibid
[27] It is claimed that,
despite the efforts of the Breast Is Best League in the educational, community
awareness, training and counselling
areas of promoting breastfeeding practices,
there was inadequate improvement in such practice.
[28] Ministry of
Education (1996), Closing the Gap: National Height Census of School Children
in Belize, 1996
[29] Jagdeo, Tirbani P
(1993), Girl Talk: Perspectives on Adolescent Pregnancy Among Young Women in
Belize, BFLA, p. 36
[30] A day-care centre is
defined as a place which caters to at least five children. This does not
include private babysitting or similar
arrangements for fewer children, which
are prevalent throughout the country.
[31] A comparison with
the role of non-public providers of education services is valuable, to the
extent that government has been either
unwilling or unable over many years to
ensure universal compliance with such policies and standards as the treatment of
pregnant
students, enrolment practice between different denominational students,
corporal punishment practices, etc.
[32] Gillett, Ellajean
(1999), School Effectiveness Report: A Study of Primary Schools in
Belize, Ministry of Education & Sports; Gillett, Ellajean (2000), op
cit.
[33] This is likely to
reflect the rate of continuing movement across Belize’s border of
Spanish-speaking families, rather than
an inherent failing in the school
system.
[34] Literacy Council of
Belize & Central Statistical Office (1997), 1996 National Literacy
Survey
[35] Surridge, Mary &
Vernon, Dylan (1999), Belize Education Sector Strategy Social Assessment
(Draft), p 17.
[36] Gillett (2000),
op cit.
[37] Reporting problems
are acknowledged. It is possible that a student may be thought to have dropped
out of school, but to have transferred
to another school. As this would infer
that drop-out rates could be over- rather than under-stated, it is clear that
improved recording
and monitoring of absenteeism is required. A 2001 survey of
about 1000 primary school students by HRCB estimated absenteeism at
greater than
8%, with 55% of that absenteeism due to the child working, and the majority of
the remainder due to engaging in leisure
activities.
[38] Gillett (1999),
op cit.
[39] Surridge &
Vernon (1999), op cit, p 21.
[40] Gillett, Ellajean
& Ijo, Joseph (1999), School Effectiveness Report: A Study of Secondary
Schools in Belize, Ministry of Education & Sports.
[41] The national
censuses of 1980, 1991 and 2000 show that the population shares of Creoles and
Mestizos were 40%, 30% and 25%, and
33%, 44% and 49%, respectively. The balance
has more than reversed, due to lower Creole fertility rates, the continued
influx of
Mestizos, and Creole emigration rates (92% of Belizean emigration is
to the USA, and more than 50% are in the 15-24 year age group).
[42] Under 18 year old
female inmates have better conditions than their male counterparts and are
incarcerated for shorter periods, but
are housed together with adult female
prisoners.
[43] Fiona Hancock
(2000), op cit, pp 9-11, drawing on the following reports for her
observations: Shaun Finnetty (1999), Criminality and Human Vulnerability: A
Case Study of Citizen Security in Belize City and Belmopan (Draft) and
Louise Cantley (1999), Report on the Current Situation Regarding Treatment
and Rehabilitation Services in Belize (NDACC).
[44] There are, however,
serious concerns about increasing reports of violence within the community,
which seem to be indiscriminate
against citizens, rather than the previous
gang-on-gang violence. Within the general population, there has certainly been
a substantial
increase in homicide rates, with 21 murders in Belize in two
months since December 2001. In January 2002, GOB established a Task
Force,
chaired by the Prime Minister, to examine this problem and to propose responses
to it.
[45] The Regulations were
adopted in 1994 and implemented with an inadequate administrative system, poor
staff training and insufficient
public sensitisation. The associated community
service orders consequently fell into disrepute and became barely used (orders
were
often not completed and sometimes inappropriately applied to serious
offences).
[46] As alluded to in
Chapter II concerning deprivation of liberty, there may be an unintended
loophole in the Juvenile Offenders Act (Ss. 11 & 12) whereby the
minimum age of imprisonment is 10 years, but there is a required preference for
alternatives for 14-15
year olds, without mandating such a preference in the
treatment of 10-13 year olds.
[47] Fiona Hancock
(2000), op cit, p. 21
[48] The juvenile
sentenced for stealing a coconut reportedly received a five-year sentence.
[49] YEA was opened in
1997 and was originally intended as a residential option for first-time male
offenders aged 16-25 years.
[50] The age of criminal
responsibility – raised from 7 years to 9 years in 1999 – may itself
warrant further review, including
in striving to establish uniformity within the
region.
[51] Juvenile Offender
Training Manual: A Tool for Juvenile Justice Officers (2001).
[52] On a December 2001
visit to the Hattieville Correctional Facility in the drafting of this report,
it was noted that, despite these
assurances, at least five juveniles were in the
adult remand unit, and that there were 18 adult prisoners in the Boot Camp on
protective
custody. This was on the same day as the assurances to the contrary
were given. (This practice had previously been justified on
the basis of their
being ‘entrusted’ with roles to assist in the juvenile program.) It
is noted, however, that all the
young inmates spoken to at that time stated that
there were no problems arising from the presence of those adult prisoners (there
were, however, problems stated with the minimal security from the adult prison,
abuse from some prison personnel, and inadequate
protection from abuse by other
juvenile inmates). The prison administration also advised that there was just
one juvenile –
a 14 year old male on remand for murder – housed in
maximum security, due to his having escaped from other settings and his
disruption to other inmates.
[53] Of the 10 young
inmates spoken to in the preparation of this report, none had received any
advice or assistance in the judicial
process, and they had been held in police
cells awaiting trial for up to a week. They all generally appreciated the Boot
Camp program,
including the educational and craft skills segments. Those who
had been in the Ladyville facility were upset by the far inferior
state of the
Hattieville facility.
[54] Some youth are
sleeping in cells on a foam mattress on the floor of otherwise full six-person
cells, and it is reported that, as
occasional punishment, a youth may have his
foam removed for the night.
[55] In anticipation of
the new legislation, the National Committee on Alternative Sentencing was
established in late 2001. The Act
formally took effect from January 2002. In
September 2002, the Minister for Human Development formally established a new
National
Committee on Community Service, and commenced the establishment of
district-level Committees.
[56] The British
Department for International Development had, since 1999, supported the need for
alternatives to custody in Belize and
undertook to assist GOB in its
introduction of new reforms (especially concerning staffing and
capacity-building of CRD and in ensuring
sustainable implementation of the new
Act), but – at the end of 2001 – advised that it would not now
extend such assistance.
[57] In September 2002,
CRD – with assistance from UNICEF – initiated a consultancy project
to establish such protocols and
arrangements, together with staff development
and agency capacity-building.
[58] It is also noted
that there are presently no holding cells at the Family Court.
[59] CSO report to UNICEF
Programme Review/Planning Meeting, November 2001.
[60] See, in particular,
NDACC (2001), An NDACC School Drug Prevention Education Resource Book
[61] A prison survey
undertaken in 1997 revealed that approximately 41% of inmates at that time
admitted to committing a crime whilst
under the influence of drugs and that 39%
had committed a crime to buy drugs. The absence of a specific drug education
and rehabilitation
program within the prison system has been a major
oversight.
[62] Heusner, G K (2001),
Study on the Sexual Exploitation of Women and Children: Sex Providers,
Belize, NCFC/UNICEF
[63] Compare this rate
with a BFLA study, in which the first sexual experiences of adolescent females
appears to be predominantly consensual.
(Girl Talk, op cit, p. 47)
However, this is an equivocal conclusion given the high rate of respondent
agreement that sexual activity is often to please
or keep a boyfriend.
[64] Regulations made
under this Act may prescribe penalties of up to a $5000 fine or two years
imprisonment or both (S. 154 (3)).
[65] The Yucatec Maya are
now known as Maya Mestizo, however the former term is used here in conformity
with that used in the source
documents.
[66] One Belizean
academic has described Belize as undergoing a ‘creolization’ and the
emergence of ‘the new Belize
Creole’ (Joseph M Palacio (1988),
“May the New Creole of Belize Please Rise”, reprinted in abridged
form in Ideas, Society for the Promotion of Education and Research, Vol.
6 No. 1 (August 2001). Since this proposition, Belize’s population
has
shifted to the Mestizos being the single largest group, but the point of a
primary ethno-culture and identity regardless of specific
ethnicity may well
remain valid.
[67] The rate of increase
may be greater: the 1991 Census combined ‘none’ and ‘not
stated’. The 1991 ‘not
stated’ rate has been assumed at the
same rate as it was in the 2000 Census (0.6%).
[68] It is noted,
however, that according to the Population Census 2000, Mayan – and
Mennonite – marriages are the most likely
to endure (similarly,
‘caucasian/white’ and ‘chinese’, but the population
sizes are very small). It is not
so much a matter of age at which good
life-partner decisions may be made, but rather what an early marriage occurs at
the exclusion
of, such as a more complete education or capacity to establish
economic independence and sufficiency.
[69] “Mennonites
Agreement for Our Records”, British Honduras, 16 December 1957. The
Agreement appears to exempt the Mennonite
community from contributing to the new
NHI Scheme and, similarly, from affording Mennonite women and children its
benefits.
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