| Overview : In Belize, the InfoSegura Project is being co-implemented by the Ministry of Home Affairs & New Growth Industries, through the Belize Crime Observatory (BCO), in partnership with the UNDP. The BCO was established in October 2016 to “foster the development of public policies that address public safety and national security issues through the collection, analysis and dissemination of quality, timely and multidimensional data on crime and violence trends in the country.” The Belize Crime Observatory in the Ministry of Home Affairs & New Growth Industries, in partnership with UNDP Belize, has identified the need to map stakeholders along the continuum of justice in Belize and to create profiles for all relevant entities and/or agencies involved, detailing their roles and responsibilities. During this mapping exercise, the Ministry hopes to receive better clarity on where there are shared responsibilities and/or collaboration in place or opportunities for new collaborative efforts and partnerships. The output of this process will be a National Justice Sector Capacity Development Plan for Belize, which will serve to strengthen partners along the continuum of justice, based on the recommendations and findings of the InfoSegura Justice Survey 2020 for Central America and the Dominican Republic, as well as the 2020 UNDP assessment for the Caribbean – Caribbean Justice: a needs assessment of the judicial system in nine countries. Both these studies included Belize’s justice / law enforcement agencies. During the execution of the 2020 Justice Survey, conducted under the InfoSegura Project, the Belize Crime Observatory noted the need for proper documentation on the identities, roles, functions and responsibilities of the agencies that work to help achieve justice in Belize, including entities in law enforcement, the courts, and other government and non-government entities (civil society organizations) that contribute to Justice and the rule of law in Belize. Although an informal exercise was undertaken to identify these entities, the undertaking was not structured and comprehensive enough. We, therefore, recommended that a more targeted and purposeful effort is made to properly document stakeholders along the continuum of justice. This would ensure more effective coordination of efforts to achieve justice and to promote and support the rule of law in Belize. |
