Items related to "Human Security Gateway: Belize". Sat, 17 May 2008 0:30:21 +0000 Sat, 17 May 2008 0:30:21 +0000 robert_hartfiel@sfu.ca (Robert Hartfiel) Wed, 14 May 2008 13:16:16 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=24357 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=24357 Ce rapport contient des résumés sur les régions suivants: Amérique du Sud et Amérique centrale. SOURCE: Nations Unies // Programme Commun Des Nations Unies Sur le VIH/SIDA Nations Unies // Programme Commun Des Nations Unies Sur le VIH/SIDA Wed, 14 May 2008 13:09:40 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=24356 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=24356 La prévalence du VIH atteint voire dépasse 1% aux Bahamas, à la Barbade, au Belize, au Guyana, en Haïti, en Jamaïque, au Suriname et à la Trinité-et- Tobago (ONUSIDA, 2006). La plupart des pays de la région montrent une baisse ou une stabilisation de la prévalence du VIH, particulièrement dans les zones urbaines, tandis que les changements intervenus dans les zones semi-urbaines et rurales ont été modérés. L’inadéquation des systèmes de surveillance du VIH dans plusieurs pays rend néanmoins difficile l’analyse des tendances récentes de ces épidémies. SOURCE: Nations Unies // Programme Commun Des Nations Unies Sur le VIH/SIDA Nations Unies // Programme Commun Des Nations Unies Sur le VIH/SIDA Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:47:12 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=19175 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=19175 In 2003, realizing that the end of the International Decade for Human Rights Education was approaching, a small voluntary group of human rights advocates and sympathizers in Belize conceptualized the Belize Centre for Human Rights Studies to be an independent educational entity focused on human rights education at the tertiary and professional levels, targeting the leaders of today and tomorrow to better apply and respect human rights principles and practices in their decision-taking and actions. Through the development and delivery of formal education, research and documentation services on human rights issues and principles, the Belize Centre for Human Rights Studies is committed to the promotion and protection of human rights in Belize as a means of enhancing human rights practices and principles in Belize and the wider region. SOURCE: Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:47:12 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=19176 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=19176 In 1999, the Minister of National Security announced a "zero-tolerance" policy towards police abuse and misconduct. The Belize Police Department (BPD) and top government officials have publicly restated that policy on many occasions in the years since. Despite their official stance, however, there is evidence that instances of police abuse are on the rise in Belize. This report is an attempt to identify, illustrate, and contend with police abuses in a spirit of cooperation. The Human Rights Commission of Belize (HRCB) recognizes and respects the difficulties that police in Belize face ev#eryday. Their job is exceptionally difficult, under funded, and often unrewarding. HRCB's role in respect to the police is not to attack them, but to give voice to citizen concerns and work with the police and the Government of Belize (GOB) to ensure the protection of the rights of all Belizeans. It should be noted that during the period spent researching this report BPD officials were forthcoming and open with information and interview requests, supporting Commissioner Jose Carmen Zetina's stated commitment to transparency. SOURCE: Human Rights Commission of Belize // Belize Centre for Human Rights Studies Human Rights Commission of Belize // Belize Centre for Human Rights Studies Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:47:12 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=19177 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=19177 The aim of this research report was to verify the practice of human trafficking in Belize, asses its magnitude and formulate measures to face the situation. The methodology employed in this study included interviews with key sources, a survey of social interventions, and field observation (ethnographic observation) in trafficking zones throughout the country. SOURCE: International Organization for Migration // Belize Centre for Human Rights Studies International Organization for Migration // Belize Centre for Human Rights Studies Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:46:38 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=18267 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=18267 Against the international trend away from the use of the death penalty, executions have increased in the English speaking Caribbean (ESC) in recent years. Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, the Bahamas and St. Kitts and St. Nevis and St. Vincent and the Grenadines have all carried out executions in the last seven years. Jamaica, Antigua, Grenada, St Lucia, Dominica, Belize and Barbados all currently have condemned prisoners and continue to impose sentences of death. SOURCE: Amnesty International Amnesty International Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:46:31 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=18122 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=18122 SOURCE: Protection Project // School of Advanced International Studies // Johns Hopkins University Protection Project // School of Advanced International Studies // Johns Hopkins University Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:45:06 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=15180 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=15180 SOURCE: HIV InSite Database of Country and Regional Indicators // Center for HIV Information // University of California San Francisco HIV InSite Database of Country and Regional Indicators // Center for HIV Information // University of California San Francisco Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:43:21 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=11237 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=11237 Strengthening Resistance focuses on the points of intersection in the social, political and public health crises of violence against women and HIV/AIDS. The report uses a human rights lens to focus on critical political challenges and on innovative strategies used by activists worldwide as they respond to the links between violence and HIV/AIDS. From street theater to telenovelas/soap operas to traditional lobbying, activists in both VAW and HIV/AIDS communities are beginning to work together to focus attention to ways both crises are causes and consequences of each other. Neither can be addressed adequately without taking into account the links between them and the human rights implications of each crisis on its own, and in conjunction with the other. Strengthening Resistance is designed as an overview of the most salient issues, and is meant for activists and policy makers alike who may be familiar with HIV/AIDS, violence against women or human rights but not necessarily the nexus across all of these areas. The report highlights nine creative advocacy initiatives from different countries and regions, offers recommendations to a range of actors and contains a resource section for further study. SOURCE: Center for Women's Global Leadership Center for Women's Global Leadership Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:43:06 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=10127 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=10127 The Conference on Civil-Security Forces Environmental Cooperation in Central America and the Caribbean was held to share successful regional approaches to civil-security forces environmental cooperation, and to identify additional ways security forces and environmental and forestry authorities can work together to protect people from environmental threats to regional stability. Working groups on Training, Marine Resource Cooperation, and Terrestria#l Resource Cooperation met and developed policy recommendations. SOURCE: Center for Strategic Leadership // United States Army War College Center for Strategic Leadership // United States Army War College Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:41:45 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=6117 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=6117 The world is coming to recognise the interdependence of security and development issues. Moral imperatives aside, poverty is no longer acceptable for reasons of simple common safety. Technology and globalisation have made it possible for even the most marginalized groups to pose a threat to the most powerful. Areas allowed to descend into social disarray generate, and provide refuge for, organised criminals and political militants. Global security requires global development. The problem is that the opposite is also true: development requires security. Investors do not put their money in places where the rule of law does not prevail. Skilled labour does not reside in countries where personal safety is at risk. Crime and corruption are derailing attempts to address the global polarisation of wealth, as people choose not to invest their lives or their money where they are insecure. For the poor that remain, the threat of crime retards their efforts to better themselves, as they structure their activities around avoiding victimisation. Trust among countrymen is lost, and with it goes social cohesion. Cynicism about the ability to succeed within the law breeds further insecurity, and whole regions can find themselves locked into a downward spiral of victimisation and social disinvestment. Further, crime and corruption undermine democracy itself. The primary responsibility of the state is to ensure citizen security, and when it fails to establish basic internal order, it loses the confidence of the people. When civil servants and elected officials come to be viewed as part of the crime problem, citizens effectively disown their government. They become subjects rather than citizens. Whatever role the state might play in development is seriously challenged by the loss of popular support. It is therefore imperative that crime be addressed as a key development issue. Until threats to life and property can be brought to acceptable levels, developing countries with serious crime problems will struggle to gain the public confidence needed for forward progress. A foundational level of order must be established before development objectives can be realised. Due to its geographic location between the world's cocaine suppliers and its main consumers, Central America has been exposed to exogenous organised crime pressures that would be challenging for countries many times as large. Unfortunately, the region is particularly vulnerable to incursion by organised crime due to a range of domestic factors, and this report opens by considering several of these, including social and economic pressures, lack of law enforcement capacity, and a history of conflict or authoritarian rule. It then looks at the nature of organised crime and violence in the region in some detail. Finally#, it considers how the crime problem is undermining development efforts. SOURCE: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:41:28 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=4380 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=4380 2003 human development statistics for Belize from the Human Development Report. SOURCE: United Nations // United Nations Development Programme United Nations // United Nations Development Programme Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:41:28 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=4381 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=4381 Belize, a former British colony of around 238,000 people, acquired its independence and enacted its Constitution in 1981. Its system of government is a parliamentary democracy with an executive branch of a Prime Minister and a Cabinet. A 29-member elected House of Representatives and a nine-member appointed Senate form a bi-cameral legislature. In the August 1998 general elections, Said Musa of the People's United Party became Prime Minister; the minority party is the United Democratic Party (UDP). The British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, is the titular head of state and is represented in Belize by a Governor General, who has a largely ceremonial role. SOURCE: Amnesty International Amnesty International Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:41:28 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=4382 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=4382 Belize has a young population, 48.3 per cent of the overall population is under 18 years of age. Belize continues to experience a high level of youth crime and violence. There is also an increase in the number of children in institutions. SOURCE: United Nations // United Nations Children's Fund United Nations // United Nations Children's Fund Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:41:08 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=2486 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=2486 Access to facsheets on HIV/AIDS in Belize. SOURCE: HIV InSite Database of Country and Regional Indicators HIV InSite Database of Country and Regional Indicators Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:41:08 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=2488 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=2488 Belize is a constitutional parliamentary democracy governed by the Prime Minister, a cabinet of ministers, and a legislative assembly. The Governor General represented Queen Elizabeth II in the largely ceremonial role of Head of State. Prime Minister Said Musa's People's United Party (PUP) held 22 of the 29 seats in the House of Representatives following generally free and fair multiparty elections in March of 2003. The judiciary is independent. The Police Department has primary responsibility for law enforcement and maintaining order. The Belize Defense Force (BDF) is responsible for external security but, when deemed appropriate by civilian authorities, may be tasked to assist the police department. Armed BDF soldiers routinely accompanied police patrols in Belize City in an attempt to reduce the violent crime rate. The police report to the Minister of Home Affairs, while the BDF report to the Minister of Defence. The civilian authorities maintained effective control of the security forces. Some members of the security forces committed human rights abuses. SOURCE: U.S. Department of State U.S. Department of State