35 Years Since Ratifying Children’s Rights Convention  

Thirty-five years ago, Belize ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Convention was mandated by the UN General Assembly and Belize was the fifth country in the world to ratify the convention. Since then, we have passed several legislations that protect the rights of children, promote their advancement and create opportunities to uphold these rights. To celebrate the occasion, UNICEF teamed up with government ministries to host a ceremony with the theme: “Keeping the Promise: For Every Child, Every Right, A Belize Fit for Children 2025 and Beyond.” News Five’s Marion Ali was present and filed this report.

 

Marion Ali, Reporting

It’s been thirty-five years since Belize ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Over the three and a half decades, there have been significant measures taken to protect the rights of children and to promote their wellbeing and advancements.

 

Dolores Balderamos-Garcia, Minister of Human Development

“The progress that Belize has made towards fulfilling its obligations under the CRC reflects not only our legal commitments but also our deep moral responsibility to safeguard and promote the rights of every child in our nation. As a country, Belize ratified the C.R.C. in 1990, recognizing the inherent dignity and equal rights of all children. And acknowledging the necessity of ensuring their protection, development and wellbeing. Over the years, we’ve implemented the core principles of the C.R.C, focusing on non-discrimination, the best interest of the child, the rights to survival, to life and development, and the child’s right to be heard.”

 

Minister of Human Development, Dolores Balderamos-Garcia says Belize’s efforts lies in strong legislative reforms, innovative policy frameworks and enhanced mechanisms for child protection and developments.

 

Dolores Balderamos-Garcia

“Key milestones: legislative reforms as Adele told us, the Families and Children Act, the Criminal Code Amendment of 2014 which introduced neutral protections for children and expanded the definitions of abuse and exploitation; the evidence act, allowing children to testify without experiencing trauma, and of course we looked at the road map to ending child marriage and early unions, challenging harmful cultural norms and empower young girls in particular.”

 

UNICEF is an agency of the UN that protects the rights of children globally. It does so by assisting governments to live up to the commitment they have made towards this goal. Communications Officer, Stephanie Daniels shared with News Five some of the plans that have been put into action and others that are to follow in 2025.

 

Stephanie Daniels, Communications Officer, UNICEF

“What UNICEF does is on the invitation of the government, it comes into a country and it supports the efforts of the country, helping the country to meet the national goals that they have set for children, providing technical resource, sometime financial resource, as well as leverage our networks, because UNICEF exists in 196 countries. So our role is as a development partner to the government, ensuring that the things we want for our children can be achieved and that whatever is required to support that effort, we provide.”

 

UNICEF is in its sixth program cycle heading into 2025 and education and curriculum reform are a big part of its program document. CEO at the Ministry of Education, Dian Maheia shared that the ministry has introduced instruments that are on par with the requirements of the Convention.

 

Dian Maheia, C.E.O., Ministry of Education

“The competency-based education, there’s so many of the values and principles are absolutely matching to the values and the principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. They’re the same. We’ve seen that early childhood education, making sure we’re reaching our three-year-olds and four year olds is so important. We started a program called Think Equal that actually supports the teaching of socio-emotional learning through books. These things all matter.  We also have on 501 Academy, something else that is directly linked to the C.R.C: The Inclusion Corner.  The Inclusion Corner is so important to so many of our schools, our students and our families countrywide. Four years ago, one of the things that we heard the most often was that we can’t access anybody for special ed. We don’t know how to get help. We don’t know what to do. In reality, we still have a very small human resource base. We don’t have a lot of officers, but what we did in creating the Inclusion Corner on 501 Academy was we set up a place where resources become accessible.”

 

Adele Catzim, C.E.O at the Ministry of Human Development, noted several other accomplishments that Belize realized since signing onto the Convention, including eliminating corporal punishment at schools. Marion Ali for News Five.

“End Child Marriage in Belize”