GENEVA, Sept 22, CMC – The United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances says more than 10 years after Belize acceded to the International Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance , it has not placed it within domestic legislation.
The Committee last weekend ended its consideration of additional information on the report of Belize with Committee experts while welcoming that there was no waiting period before a missing-person report could be filed, questions were being raised on when Belize planned to domesticate the Convention.
The experts said that there was also indication as to when training for law enforcement officials on enforced disappearance would take place.
Committee Chairperson and Country Rapporteur, Juan Pablo Albán Alencastro, welcomed the fact that there was no waiting period before a missing-person report could be filed, saying this was very good and was not the case in all parts of the world.
But Committee member, Albán Alencastro noted that Belize had acceded to the Convention in 2015 but, more than 10 years later, the Convention had still not been domesticated and enforced disappearance had not been incorporated as an autonomous offence into domestic legislation.
He asked what concrete national plan was currently in place for the full domestication and implementation of the Convention?
Alencastro also said Belize had acknowledged that the human rights training provided so far included neither enforced disappearance specifically nor the Convention.
He asked the Belize delegation to indicate whether a concrete programme had now been developed to remedy this gap, with a timetable for implementation and would such training be mandatory and recurrent, and cover all persons who may be involved in the custody or treatment of persons deprived of liberty?
Introducing the report, Harold Young, Belize’s Permanent Representative of Belize to the United Nations Office here, said Belize was a small, multicultural and multilingual country of approximately 440,000 people and the only English-speaking country in Central America.
He said although Belize had no recorded cases of enforced disappearance, there were clear procedures for responding to cases of missing persons.
Responding to questions, the delegation said the Cabinet had approved the domestication of the Convention in June 2025 and tasked the Attorney General’s Ministry with drafting the relevant legislative provisions and conducting a review of all other legislation which would have an impact on the Convention’s implementation. This process would commence in June next year.
On training, the delegation said human rights formed part of the training given to police officers, including new cadets. However, there was scope to provide additional training on enforced disappearance and the Convention.
The domestication procedure was an opportunity to provide this training to all persons exercising authority over persons deprived of their liberty. This training would be an important preventative tool.
Young concluded by expressing sincere gratitude for the dialogue and that as the country celebrates its 45th year of political independence from Britain it remains committed to strengthening existing safeguards and measures required to give full effect to the Convention and looked forward to receiving the Committee’s concluding observations.
CMC/aj/ir/2026