| Overview : Belize is a state party to the core UN human rights treaties and has made encouraging progress with its reporting since adopting the Vienna Convention and Plan of Action in 1993. Having also participated in the Universal Periodic Review in 2009 and 2013 respectively. The Government of Belize (GOB) cognizant of the need to engage with the UN mechanisms including treaty reporting, has committed towards meeting the State’s reporting obligations thereunder. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the designated ministry for coordination, consultations and submission of State reports to the human rights mechanisms.
To date, progress has been made on the recent drafting of the State party report on the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). On 8 August 2017, submission was made of its initial State party report to the Human Rights Committee on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The GOB is committed to meeting its reporting obligations and believes that its partnership with the UN System can provide the necessary resource to further this process. The main challenge currently pertains to human resource constraint in the designated ministry.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) received training on treaty reporting in 2015, and a specific training on the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) in 2012. In the spirit of strengthening efforts and move towards actual submissions, the MFA, in consultation with the Ministry of Human Development, Social Transformation and Poverty Alleviation and the Ministry with responsibility for Immigration, has decided to prioritize the preparation of State party reports under the following three Conventions for the respective Committees: - International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (Committee on Migrant Workers and their Families, CMW) – Ministry with responsibility for Immigration led.
- International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, CERD) – Ministry of Foreign Affairs led.
- International Convention on the Rights of a Child (CRC) – Ministry of Human Development led.
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