Vul ana

The child protection system – belize, c.a.

A
VULNERABILITY
ANALYS IS

THE CHILD PROTECTION SYSTEM - BELIZE, C.A….

A Vulnerability Analysis

Published by the Government of Belize through the Ministry of Human Development,
Local Government and Labour.

Written by Diana Marian Shaw

The author extends sincere thanks to the many persons who were interviewed and who
shared their stories. A special thanks to the nurses, doctors, teachers, school managers,
social services practitioners, magistrates, policemen and policewomen and all those who
gave their time and contributed toward the publication of this book.

This report has been published with the technical and financial support of the United
Nations Children Fund (UNICEF).

First Published:

Any part of this report may be freely reproduced. Prior permission is not necessary but
accreditation would be appreciated.

ii

Table of Contents
Introduction i Chapter 4

Executive Summary ii LITERATURE REVIEW

Literature Review 17

International Conventions 22

Local Legislation 22

C H A P T E R 1

RESEARCH TOPIC C H A P T E R 5

Research Question 4 STAKEHOLDERS AND AGENCIES–FINDINGS

Study Objectives 4 DHS 33

Purpose of the Study 5 Police 41

Major Tasks to be Accomplished 5 Education 46

Health 49

Judicial/Legal 53

Child Care Providers 62

C H A P T E R 2 Community 64

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Background 6 CHAPTER 6

Demography 6 RECOMMENDATIONS

Economy 7 Legislative Amendments 66

Family Life 9 Policy Changes 73

Definition of Concepts 11 Public Education 80

Training 81

Resources 82

Structural Adjustments 84

CHAPTER 3 Appendix A 85

QUALITATIVE METHODOLOGY Appendix B 97

The Methodology 12 Appendix C 99

Objectives 14 Acronyms 100

Information Sources 15 References 101

V U L N E R A B I L I T Y A N A L Y S I S

INTRODUCTION

The 2000 Population Census indicated that in Belize, more than sixty percent (60 %) of the
population is under 18. As such children and young people are the country’s most important
resources and their protection a national concern. The framework within which the child
protection system in Belize operates is set out in the CRC, which provides:

“Every child shall have the right to be free from all forms of physical or mental
violence, injury, abuse, maltreatment, and exploitation.”

1. State parties shall take appropriate legislative, administrative, social and
educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental
violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or
exploitation, including sexual abuse, while in the care of parent(s), legal
guardian(s) or any other person who has the care of the child.
2. Such protective measures should, as appropriate, include effective procedures
for the establishment of social programmes to provide necessary support for the
child and for those who have the care of the child, as well as, for other forms of
prevention and for identification, reporting, referral, investigation, treatment
and follow up of instances of child maltreatment described, as appropriate, for
judicial involvement1.

In Belize this is achieved through a multi-sectoral approach, encompassing the following
agencies or sectors2:

1. Ministry of Human Development, Local Government & Labour
2. Ministry of Health, Health Facilities and Professionals
3. Ministry of National Security

1 . U.N. Convention On the Rights of the Child, 1989, Article 19

2
Appendix C sets out the critical path showing the involvement of the various sectors.


4. Ministry of Education
5. The Judiciary
6. Childcare Professionals, and
7. The citizens of Belize

In theory this multi-sectoral approach facilitates greater specialization and better uses of
resources, yet this multi-sectoral approach can cause overlap in services provided. Where
those overlaps occur, the possibility of breakdown in responsibility and, therefore, breakdown
in the quality of care can cause a depreciation in the quality of services offered.

Nonetheless, the Ministry of Human Development’s Department of Human Services is
recognized as the area of government with the primary responsibility to co-ordinate programs
and services for the protection of children particularly programs and services necessary to
protect children exposed to abuse and neglect.

(UNICEF 2001) report3
“recognised the paucity of quantitative and qualitative data as an area of weakness in
child protection and other areas covered by the CRC. Recognition was made that laws
are generally in harmony with the CRC but in practice, it appears to be “an illusion”
and that the general principles were poorly integrated into law and policy. While the
law has strengthened the protection system, many gaps still exist leading to many
perpetrators going unpunished for crimes committed against children. Additionally, the
lack of clear policies and procedures with regard to the continuum of care has also
resulted in the re-victimization of children4.”

The present analysis seeks to investigate whether the principles and the thrust of the CRC have
been entrenched in the child protection system and is demonstrated practically to children, the
family and the public by providing a composite picture of all levels of the system in order to
identify gaps and ways of reducing the child’s vulnerability.

For the purpose of this analysis child protection means: protection of children from abuse
and defence of children who are victims of abuse and neglect (child protection); child
placements (foster care and adoptions and children’s homes); and family support (financial
and other material assistance to help families in need).

3
The Right to a Future 2000, A Situational Analysis of Children in Belize, 2001.

4
Taken from the terms of reference for this analysis.


VULNERABILITY ANALYSIS

Executive Summary

The methodology employed was qualitative analysis, utilizing one on one and group interviews
of the various persons in the various departments and of persons who had or were experiencing
the child protection system; focus group meetings; workshops and group interviews.

Findings:

Department of Human Services:
 Granting and preserving the identity of children in care
 Lack of database of persons convicted of child abuse offenses to check on background of
prospective foster parents and prospective adoptive parents.
 Disparity between services and unavailability of services.
 Lack of standardization of foster care
 Gaps in the legislative framework
 Lack of inter-department protocols
 Lack of proper vehicular support
 In the districts, offices are shared which results in a lack of privacy for officers and clients
 Inadequate access to computers, fax machines and printers in rural districts and
underutilization of technology where it is present.

Police
 Lack of sensitization training for police in DVU in the districts
 Rotation of officers
 Lack of training in tailoring investigations for court proceedings and ignorance of law
 Lack of written protocols
 Lack of co-ordination between investigative division and prosecution branch/DPP
Inadequacy of medico-legal forms

Education
 Lack of training in identifying symptoms of abuse
 Dealing with offenders who are educators
 Lack of rehabilitative services attached to schools or community
 Carnal Knowledge and pregnancy in teenagers


 Schools intervening to compromise child abuse cases

Health
 Private areas needed in hospitals for medical examinations
 Lack of written protocols detailing standard examination procedures
 Improved database in hospital to check if persons brought in before for abuse related
complications
 Public education (sex education in schools and education to destroy the cultural acceptance of
incest and carnal knowledge)
 Language barrier between doctors and patients
 Lack of training in giving evidence in court
 Lack of specialist doctors in rural districts
 Inadequacy of medico-legal forms
 Informal adoptions of children abandoned in hospitals

Legal
 Restrictions on children giving evidence; laws and procedures
 Lack of legal training of magistrates and prosecutors
 Withdrawal of cases
 Lack of sensitization training for prosecutors
 Lack of training of doctors and police in collecting and presenting forensic evidence and the
absence of protocols on these
 Lack of early collaboration between prosecution and police
 Lack of uniformity in the procedures in Family Court
 Lack of legal aid for foster parents seeking formalisation of de facto adoptions
 Witness protection needed for some cases

Child Care Providers
 Inadequate monitoring by social services practitioners
 Inadequate discussion with foster parents as to the permanency plans for children placed in
care so that foster parents can prepare children
 Foster parents not given the history of children and children lose connection with their history
in foster care
 No specific training given to foster parents with whom children who have been abused are
placed, foster parents, therefore, not equipped to help with rehabilitation.
 There are no resources to do adequate investigation into the history of child care providers to
ensure that there is no risk that they will subject child to further victimization or abuse. This is
becoming more important as more first time child care providers are being recruited into the
system.
 Inadequate attention is given to the need for medical care for children in care.


 The financial assistance given is not adequate to meet the needs of children in care especially
older children.
 Children in care often have no contact with other siblings who may also be in care.
 Counseling available to children in care is inadequate and often only reserved for worse case
scenarios.
 The psychological effect of being in care, issues of abandonment by parents and self esteem
issues of children in care are not addressed.

Community
 Confusion between the role of the police and the role of the DHS in the child protection
system. Members of the community display an insufficient knowledge of who are the agencies
involved in the child protection system and what are their roles.
 There is unwillingness to participate in the child protection system by making reports to the
police or giving evidence to corroborate allegations of abuse to children because persons do not
want to go to court and be identified as the informant.
 Services available for child abuse do not provide for instances where there is a need to provide
victim and guardian of victim an alternative means of support if the abuser is the main
breadwinner.
 There is cultural acceptance of abuse, especially physical abuse, persons do not know when
discipline ends and abuse begins.
 There is a lack of integration between NGO’s and the DHS.
 Cultural and economic factors hinder expunging sexual abuse of teenagers, especially cultural
encouragement of early sexual activity and poverty.


Recommendations:
Legislative Amendments:

1. FACA

 Provisions for children to give evidence in absence of perpetrator
 Better enforcement for non-payment of maintenance
 Provisions for care of disabled children
 Registration of Guardian Ad Litem

2. Families and Children (Protection of Children) Regulations
 decide whether this act will be repealed or enforced. If the act is to be kept and enforced then
the following things must be provided for in the act:
o proper places to house children,
o persons to be legislated who will supervise children at places they are housed and the
procedure for care and or placement of children picked up on curfew must be legislated.

3. Families and Children (Child Abuse) Reporting Regulations
 the amicus curiae must be mandated to be a social worker.

4. Social Services Agencies Act and Regulations
 legislate for social services institutions to have persons trained in social work or
counseling available to the children served by the institutions or alternatively there should be
provision for the children in the homes to receive counseling.

5. Inferior Courts Act (Alcalde Laws and procedures)
 Provisions for greater supervision of Alcaldes.
 Provisions should be made in the legislation for them to be sensitised to issues surrounding
child abuse
 the mandatory reporting requirements must specifically provide for alcades to report cases of
abuse brought before them and to supervise or participate in community efforts put together by the
Court or the Department of Human Services to deal with child abuse cases.

6. Certified Institutions (Children’s Reformation) Act
 Provision for definition of child and setting a yardstick for measuring “uncontrollable
behaviour”
 the act must provide for mandatory counseling of the children as a way to promote
behavioural change and as a way to deal with the issues causing the uncontrollable behaviour,
alternatives to manual labour for rehabilitation.


7. Criminal Code

 Raising the age of criminal responsibility to 12
 Equating the age of legal consent with the age for receiving counseling
without parental consent.
 Making the offences of indecent assault, carnal knowledge, rape and
incest gender neutral
 Making the offences of procurement and abduction gender neutral
 Criminalising the application of harm to a child for the purpose of
disciplining the child.
 Providing sanctions for failure to provide necessaries of life.
 Instituting witness protection for special cases
 Penalising guardians for withdrawing cases

8. The Juvenile Offenders Act
 Making definition of child consistent with other legislation
 Provision for legal representation of all juveniles
 Provision for children charged with adults to have hearings in the Juvenile Court
 Provision to remove Boot camp from prison facility.
 Provision for children deprived of their liberty to maintain contact with their families

9. Penal System Reform (Alternative Sentences) Act

 Children brought before the legal system to for crimes to have legal representation
 Development of true alternative dispute resolution
 Provision for counseling of children

10. Domestic Violence Act
 legislative amendments needed to equalize the standard of assistance women who are victims
of abuse receive from the state to start a new life with that which is provided to women who are
victims of trafficking, especially where they have dependent children.

11. Marriage Act
 the age of marriage should be increased to 16 to match the age of consent.

12. The Married Persons (Protection) Act
 Removing the threshold on maintenance so that the position is equated with that provided
under the FACA
13. Registration and Births and Deaths Act
 Provision for giving an identity to children abandoned in care who are not registered

14. Education Act and Rules


 Criminalising the use of corporal punishment .

15. International Child Abduction Act
 protocols to be developed as to how the system set up by the act will work
 the responsibilities and roles of each sector to be delineated
 regulations under the act to be made

16. Misuse of Drugs Act
 Regulations are needed to prevent the use of illicit drugs by children
 Provision for alcohol to be recognised as a drug

17. Summary Jurisdiction Procedure Act
 Criminalising corporal punishment in schools.

18. Indictable Procedures Act
 stiffer penalties needed in cases of child abuse
 making child pornography an indictable offence

19. Evidence Act
 making provisions under the act gender neutral
 provisions for children to give evidence in the absence of perpetrators via videotape etc., and
include a provision for the judge to make a decision as to whether the evidence of the child will be
taken in this special manner based on evidence or material that the prosecution provides. The
provision for persons charged with offences against children to be legally represented would
prevent a challenge of the legislation on the basis that it denies the accused the constitutional right
to be heard.
 equating position of witnesses in child abuse cases to position of witnesses in rape.
 The right to take evidence via videotape should be restricted to cases where the prosecution
established that the child is in need of special protection .
 For the protection of child witnesses, judges must be given the ability to waive disclosure in
some cases e.g. withholding the address of witnesses needing special protection by having the
addresses expunged from witness statements sent to the defendants as well as the name. Also
judges should be able to delay the delivery of such statements until a month before the beginning of
the trial to ensure proper arrangements in place to protect child and to give child every
opportunity to open up about the incident.

20. Labour Act
 Define a child
 Stating minimum age of admission to work as 15 and 18 for hazardous work


 The age for part-time work to be 14
 Sanctions to be imposed for employing a child in job dangerous to his development.
 Regulation of provision of forced labour.
 Restricting employment of children in industrial undertakings.
 Regulations are needed to prescribe the type, hours and conditions of work of children and to
widen the role of the labour inspector and to ensure that the act can be enforced - may need to
strengthen institutional capacity and to investigate instances of child labour esp. in rural areas.

Policy changes
a) Protocol delineation of roles of police and roles of Human Services and of other
agencies with clear mandate for them to work together.
b) Written internal protocols for all agencies involved in child protection specifying
details of the sectoral response.
c) Revision of medico legal forms
d) Streamline internal procedures of the DHS in relation to child placement, child
protection and family support
e) Protocol for police to establish child abuse kits and set out requirements for collection
and preservation of forensic evidence and to ensure DVU staffed with adequately trained staff
f) Protocol for magistrates to ensure uniformity in grant of orders in all districts by
providing for rules under FACA
g) Data collection of child abuse victims to be improved
h) Protocol for health to set out access to medical examination for victims, provision for
bi-lingual doctors, strengthening mandatory reporting requirements and for sensitization training
of doctors and nurses.
i) Must develop a protocol for dealing with children who are disabled, their social,
educational and child care needs are not being met, especially in the districts.
j) Private process servers to be utilized where police are perpetrator of abuse.
k) Protocol to be developed for the procedure on medical examinations so that the
process is standardize, must cover what constitutes evidence of broken hymen etc.
l) Protocol for judicial/legal must provide for adequate contact between child
victim/complainant and prosecutor and to meet with and explain to families when a decision is
made not to proceed with prosecution and also to advise families of any alternative legal remedies.


Public Education
 Teenagers and young persons need comprehensive program on moral development, sex
education dealing with their worth as individuals and the benefits of delaying sexual activity until
marriage
 Education on the need to receive counseling and its benefits in breaking the cycle of abuse.
This should be presented to children within the school system to encourage them to come forward
to report abuse to school counselors etc.
 Continuous education is needed in the school system on what child abuse is and the symptoms
of abuse must be done in schools and institutions housing children
 Education on the role of the Department of Human Services vs role of Police
 Education on the criminal process in the Magistrate Court as opposed to the civil process
undertaken in the Family Court in cases of abuse.

Training

a) legal training of all magistrates and all prosecutors is needed.
b) D.P.P. office also needs sensitization training – basic areas of social work and vice versa.
c) The police must be trained on investigative techniques in cases involving abuse where there
may be young child victims whose evidence will need corroboration.
d) Police also need training in taking statements from children and other special victims and need
sensitization training in dealing with special victims before they are placed in Domestic Violence
Unit.

e) Police need training in giving evidence in court especially forensic evidence of identity etc.,
Social services practitioners need training on investigation for care order case and presenting
evidence in court and how to avoid the hearsay dilemma.
f) Training social services practitioners in the districts on proper office management and case
management techniques.
g) Doctors need to be trained on how to classify injuries as per the Medico-legal form, this
training must be done every 6 months or so to keep knowledge current and ensure that new doctors
coming into the system understand these classifications and training on how to give evidence in
court.
h) Police dealing with child abuse cases must be trained on provisions of FACA, the Criminal
Code, the Evidence Act and the Criminal Justice Act.
i) Police must be required to take photographs of signs of abuse when the medical examination
is being done in cases of physical abuse.


Resources
a) Each district to have at least two social services practitioners
b) Each district to be equipped with its own vehicle.
c) better system of stationery allocation especially for the villages to ensure that orders are in the
new system so that stationery can arrive on time. They may need to be able to fill their own orders
or get stationery from Belmopan.
e) must set up a support group for foster mothers where they can meet regularly and encourage
each other, should try to establish a system of mentorship with new foster mothers so that they are
paired with a more experienced foster mother especially when they are raising children with
special needs at least for a few months at first.
f) develop a resource base for foster mothers and include them in COMPAR training, where
foster mothers are dealing with children with special needs (disability, malnutrition, prolonged or
fatal illness) they must be taught coping mechanisms for dealing with these children and the stress
these situations can produce.
g) need to develop national data base within Human Services to keep track of cases within the
district. The data base already existing should be developed and complemented by efficient filing
systems in each district including provisions for:
1) record of cases transferred to Belize City
2) original of cases transferred to remain in district
3) proper delineation of who bears ultimate responsibility when cases are transferred
4) where there are no care orders, officers must get a written consent from parents before
proceeding with voluntary supervision. That voluntary supervision must have clear
objectives, a definite start and a definite end including provision for assessment to see if
objectives met.
5) intake forms to be reviewed monthly.
6) utilize 6th from students or social workers on day off to enter backlog into data
base, must have an up to date report of cases especially from the districts outside the Belize
district.
7) Case transcripts must be obtained and copied to clients, they must know at all
times, what orders are being made in respect of their children except where parental rights have
been removed.
8) There must be a current order in place for all children in care and these orders
must be on the file and be consistent with the recommendations to reconcile or institutionalize or
foster place child.
i) The on-line system of payments must include funds for providing food for a child in cases
where a child has to be placed in emergency care.
h) Establish a toll free abuse hotline for children and teenagers to call and report abuse and
receive assistance, this should be monitored by the department of Human Services and should be


connected with the community so that callers can be routed to community service providers
whether state or civil society.
i) Need sketch artist as part of police forensic team.
j) Need more counselors/psychiatrist attached to Counseling Centre.
i) Facilities to encourage Interpol checking of prospective adoptive parents

Structural Adjustments

a) Enclosed areas for taking statements of victims at police stations
b) Private offices in Stann Creek district for the officer dealing with child protection and who has
to interview families and children.
c) Places/homes in each district to be built or families identified that will house children in
emergency situations so that when children in the districts have to be removed from their homes
they are not taken to Belize City. Children must undergo minimum displacement, too much to
uproot them from home, family and school. This is also counter-productive in cases where a
reconciliation with parent is recommended and parent has to visit child as coming to Belize City
may mean disrupting parent’s work etc.
d) places should be allocated in each hospital where the actual examinations are to be conducted.
g) provision to be made for these places to be equipped with trauma nurses.
h) The Dorothy Menzies Child care center needs to be re-assessed, the rooms are over-crowded,
they are poorly lit and poorly ventilated, there is inadequate privacy for children, children are not
being taught life-skills, there is poor development of disabled children placed there as there is
inadequate staff to give them the personal care and attention they need. Efforts should be made to
place all disabled children at the Center into foster care to prevent further victimization, including
assistance with their medical needs.

Chapter

1
RESEARCH TOPIC
The general purpose of this review is to conduct a
vulnerability analysis of the child protection system in
Belize.

Research Question

“Where are the vulnerable areas in the child protection system?”

Study Objectives

T he general objective is to produce an analysis document which will include
recommendations for policy, procedures and legislative improvements to
the child protection system.

Objectives that flowed from this are:

 To ascertain the gaps in the law and other policy and procedural
documents affecting the protection of children in Belize

 To ascertain the current status of the structures supporting the child
protection system in Belize


 To ascertain the factors that hinder the convictions of perpetrators of
child abuse

 To ascertain the experience of agencies and participants of the child
protection system in Belize

 To make recommendations for policy procedure and legislative
amendments.

Purpose of the Study

T o formulate recommendations for all local social actors, based on the
findings of the study, with a view to contributing to the development of a
model for preventing and addressing family violence.

Major tasks to
be accomplished
Under the terms of reference for this project the following major tasks were to be
completed:

 Conduct Literature review of existing internal and external reports, laws,
international conventions that will contribute to the overall objective of the
assignment

 Conduct review of the current procedures, draft protocols and objectives of
the main agencies in the child protective system

14


 Dialogue with key stakeholders, including the main agencies to determine
their perceptions of the system

 Observe, investigate the intervention process throughout the system

 Conduct interviews with the child protection agencies at all levels

 Develop interview instruments for families and children

 Conduct random sample interviews with children and families who
are/have experienced the system

 Examine and analyze the existing structures, approaches and materials of
the system

 Produce a report that includes recommendations for policy, procedure and
legislative improvements

 Develop a training manual in working within the legal system

 Plan and conduct a two-day training workshop for social services
practitioners

15

Chapter

2
CONCEPTUAL
FRAMEWORK
What is the background to the review?

Background
DEMOGRAPHY

I n 1999 the population in Belize was estimated at 243, 390 persons5. Of this
number 52.1 % were under the age of 20 years6. There were no differences by
gender7, therefore, policies aimed at protection children must be gender neutral,
providing protection equally for boys as for girls8.

The distribution of the population varies by district, 29.1% of the entire population
lives in the Belize District. It is also the only district where the urban population is
higher than the rural population. The establishment of the Human Services
Department in that district is, therefore, warranted, the demand for the services of
the DHS is highest in the Belize District9.

5
CSO, 1999b.

6
(supra)

7
CSO, 199b showed an equal distribution of women and men - 49.9% : 50.1 %.

8
The observation of the system and interviews with agencies and clients indicate a bias in treatment
towards girls, agencies are not sensitized to the particular needs of boys being abused especially with
regard to sexual abuse.

9
Interviews with social services practitioners, January 2004.

16


In all other districts the rural population is higher than the urban population10.
Indeed, at least two-thirds of the population live in rural areas in every other
district11. Toledo and Corozal are the districts with the largest rural populations,
housing over three-quarters of the population12. In the districts outside of Belize,
social services practitioners indicate that the greatest need for their services comes
from rural villages many of which are separated from each other by long
distances13. Proper vehicular support is, therefore, a prerequisite to the adequate
provision of services in the rural districts.

In terms of ethnic composition, more than 47% of the population is now Spanish-
speaking mestizos, residing in Orange Walk, Cayo and Toledo. About 27% of the
population is Creole, living primarily in the Belize District. Approximately 11% of
the population is Mayan living primarily in Cayo and Toledo Districts and about
5% of the population is comprised of the Garinagu living in the Stann Creek
District and along the Toledo coast14. The effectiveness of services to children in the
child protection system must be sensitive the varying cultural realities while seeking
to redefine cultural perspectives in ways that are not detrimental to the long term
welfare of children.

ECONOMY
The 1996 Poverty Assessment Report15 showed that 33% of the population is poor16
and 13% were indigent17. Poverty is particularly pervasive in the rural areas where
42.5% of the population were poor, the Toledo and Cayo Districts were most
affected18. Poverty is particularly pervasive amongst immigrant rural families,

10
Kairi, 1996

11
(supra)

12
(supra)

13
Interviews with social services practitioners in January, ,2004.

14
CSO, 2000.

15
Kairi, 1996

16
(supra) that is, below the poverty line of BZ$1,287.48 per annum.

17
(supra) that is , unable to meet their dietary needs earning less than BZ$751.32 per annum.

18
(supra)

17


many of whom are migrants from other Latin American countries19 and amongst
single parent led households where the mother is the only breadwinner20. The
condition of women in rural and urban areas is symptomatic of the condition of
children. Mothers who are breadwinners are often unskilled, with low levels of
education and are often employed in jobs requiring long hours but which pay
minimal wages21. These long work hours mean that her children are more likely to
be unsupervised for long hours or left in the care of uncles, stepfather or other
relatives more frequently and therefore at greater risk of being abused22 or
neglected23. Such children are more likely to enter the child protection system24.

There has been initiatives by the National Development Fund, and The Belize
Enterprise for Sustainable Development to fund community based ventures
targeting women to alleviate poverty amongst women. Nonetheless, these
organisations are NGOs and do not possess adequate funding to meet the demand.
Government aid schemes though possessing greater resources have not been
effective at financing small scale enterprises targeting women. In addition, services
offered under the child protection system are not bolstered by the provision of
adequate day-care facilities for working single mothers or programs aimed at
training them to identify potential abusers or teaching them how to put support
systems in place to reduce the likelihood of abuse to their children.

19
CSO (Impact Belize)

20
Girls to Women, 1997, indicated that according to CSO statistics, one in four households nationwide is
headed by women. In Belize City, this figure rises to one in three.

21
The Boys To Men Publication, 2000, indicated that such women were likely to be domestic workers
being paid, below the minimum wage.

22
Interviews with person who have/are experiencing the child protection system done in January, 2004,
indicated that many of them were abused while in the care of a trusted family member such as an uncle or
stepfather when the mother had gone to work or gone visiting friends or family members.

23
UNICEF, 1994 citing Jamaleddine, 1990 indicated that only 15% of street children had parents living
together. The majority of such children were from broken single parent homes.

24
Interviews with persons who have/are experiencing the child protection system, January, 2004. In
addition, the Boys to Men Publication, 2000 indicated that most of the boys spending time at the Youth
Hostel by reason of being deemed uncontrollable or in probation programs had little or no contact with
their fathers.

18


FAMILY LIFE
Increasing numbers of families in Belize are suffering from family breakdown.
This is usually the result of migration, divorce or children born out of wedlock25.
The incidence of children born out wedlock is particularly troubling.
Approximately one in five teenage girls, aged 15-19 in Belize are mothers26. Under
law, these births have all been the result of carnal knowledge, an aspect of sexual
abuse. Most of these teenagers are involved in “consensual” sexual unions with the
father of the child. However, many of these women will not be in a stable union and
will be coping without the support of the child’s father and will live in poverty,
thereby placing those children at risk for abuse and neglect27. The situation is not
different for older women, many of them also have children within visiting unions
or with casual partners28. There is also an increasing phenomenon of single parent
mothers migrating to the USA and leaving her children behind to be raised by an
elderly grandmother29. The increasing number of single parent and no parent
families is a contributing factor to the incidence of abuse in Belize30.

In addition, the impact of abuse itself on the individual who is abused is
detrimental. Children who are abused must not only suffer from bruises, wounds,
broken bones, loss of hearing, sexually transmitted diseases, chronic stress, but they
will frequently suffer from chronic headaches, sexual disorders, depression, phobias
and persistent fear as well as low self-esteem, which directly affects their behaviour
and productivity in school and ability to report the abuse and seek protection31. The
long terms psychological effects of abuse in Belize is still being investigated, but
such practices can have direct effects on the health, wellbeing, educational
achievement and economic independence of the victims as adults32. Many of them
suffer such low self-esteem and mental stress that they frequently drop out of
school, refuse to or find themselves unable to maintain steady employment and

25
The Boys To Men Publication, 2000.

26
CSO et al, 1992.

27
The Boys to Men Publication, 2000.

28
(supra)

29
(supra)

30
UNICEF, 1994.

31
PAHO, 2000.

32
Girls to Women, 1997.

19


become trapped in poverty. Many of these adults have been so damaged that they
become conditioned that it is necessary to hurt a child to discipline them and so they
will often become perpetrators of abuse themselves33.

A typical feature of various forms of child abuse is its hidden nature. There is
substantial underreporting of cases, studies show that generally only 2% of sexual
abuse within the family are reported. Many factors have been contributed to this
underreporting. Firstly, incidents of child abuse are often regarded as isolated acts
occurring in the private realm, not as a social problem. Secondly, acts of violence
against children are sometimes viewed as normal occurrences in family dynamics,
that is it is seen as a legitimate act, either as a form of discipline or an expression of
love. Thirdly, many victims of abuse tend to blame themselves for provoking the
violent incident and justify it, this is a mindset that is strongly reinforced by
society’s attitudes. Finally, many children and those who care for them who
recognize that they have been abused believe that the existing social services or
responses available to support them in solving their problem of violence are
inadequate and even detrimental to them.

There are other serious problems in understanding the dynamics of violent
relationships and the experiences of the affected individuals, indeed there is little
understanding of the specific dynamics of the different types of violence and their
consequences. There is widespread failure to recognize that child abuse is a learned,
conscious and deliberate behaviour, it is practiced by those who believe that they
have a right to intimidate and control others34.

Due to the complexity of the problem of child abuse, its solution requires
strategically and inter-sectorally co-ordinated policies and actions, with the
participation of both the government and civil society. The co-ordinated responses
of the health, human development, education, police , judiciary and the non-
governmental sectors is an important frontal attack on this scourge.

33
(supra)

34
Girls to Women, 1997.

20


Definition of Concepts
Definitions of the concepts that will be utilized in this study also are included.
These definitions are important for all the investigators who will participate in the
study, so they can familiarize themselves with the theoretical and operational
concepts to be used.

The central focus of this project is the vulnerability of children who are the victims
of abuse, therefore, it is necessary to define the terminology that will be in use.

Child: a person, male or female under the age of 18.

Abuse: every act or omission committed on a child which harms the well-being,
physical or psychological integrity or freedom and right to full development
of another family member. Abuse may be physical,
psychological/emotional, sexual, abandonment or neglect.

Perpetrator: the person inflicting the act of abuse or neglect on the child.

Victim: the child being abused.

Service provider: These are the person (s) who provide or are responsible for
ensuring the provision of support services for children affected by abuse in
the communities included in this study. They may be affiliated with
institutions in the legal/judicial, police, health, human services, education,
or community sectors. Also included in this category are persons who fulfill
a social function in the community and who from the perspective of the
victim help to break the secrecy surrounding the abuse.

21

Chapter

3
QUALITATIVE
METHODOLOGY
Qualitative research introduces the necessity of
heeding the “voice”, that is, to whom one is speaking,
for whom, with whom and why.

The Methodology

B y virtue of the terms of reference the central topics of this study are the
experiences of persons involved in the child protection system and those
who are or have accessed the system for services. The objectives stated
above support these topics. Accordingly, qualitative methodologies were
selected to research these topics, this research technique is especially suited to this
study because it permits a better understanding of the subjective and symbolic
dimensions of human behaviour which may determine why persons access the
system and the response they will receive as they seek to access service, that is, it
allows the influence of the human element to be determined.

Qualitative methodology will allow the supply and quality of services and social
responses to be determined. Quantitative research analyses the social sphere in
terms of variables and produces numerical data but qualitative research makes it
possible to preserve the chronological sequence of events, place them in the same
context in which they occurred and derive explanations that are strongly grounded
in the sociocultural reality under study, it makes is possible to understand the social
phenomena from the perspective of the actors themselves.

Under the qualitative paradigm ethical considerations for the subjects involved in
the study are given high priority, therefore, throughout the process the
confidentiality of the subjects must be protected and they must be made aware of
the consequences of the study on the subjects.

22


Based on the above perspective, the data collection technique of choice in
qualitative research are those which make it possible to record the experiences of
the actors themselves in their own words and at their own pace and that best reflect
their worldview. To achieve these objectives, the specific techniques used in this
study included in-depth interviews, semi-structured interviews, participatory
observation and group interviews. The understanding of the specific characteristics
and the significance of the cases within their context rather than arriving at
statistical generalizations is the central objective of qualitative analysis, therefore,
pure random sampling is not appropriate, further in this case a suitable sampling
frame was not available because of severe underreporting.

A variation of the “snowball sampling” technique was utilized. This is a variation
of the sampling technique most often used in qualitative research. Interviews are
done and they continue until there are no more references to new people or when,
after a certain number of interviews, the investigator concludes that she is no longer
learning anything new with regard to the research question.

One on one interviews were conducted with the D.P.P. , the Assistant
Commissioner of Police and magistrates from the Legal/Judicial sector. Focus
groups were conducted of the police within the Belize District and the rural
districts. A workshop into the role and services of DHS and their experience
with the child protection system was conducted with social services
practitioners with from every district. One on one interviews were done of the
doctors responsible for medical examination of children in the public hospitals
and one on one interviews were done with the managers of those hospitals.

Further, one on one interviews were conducted with teachers, principals and
school managers of primary schools in Belize from the Catholic and
Evangelical denominations. One on one interviews were conducted with the
Director of Human Services and the Deputy Director. One on one interviews
were conducted with representatives from the Ministry of Health. One on one
interviews were conducted with persons from the Belize District and the rural
districts, who have or are experiencing the child protection system. One on one
interviews were conducted with operators of child care institutions and foster
parents.

23


Objectives
a) Child Protection Agencies:
These were persons who were direct service providers, specifically, the
Department of Human Services, the Police, the Health sector, the
Legal/Judiciary sector. The emphasis here was on the function of each
sector in addressing and preventing child abuse. There were some
sector-specific topics, namely:

 Department of Human Services: the role of the Dept in
investigation of cases of abuse, protecting children being abused
and preventing further abuse, protecting the rights of children
and its role in regulating civil society groups providing child
protection services and advocating for laws and policies that
address the issue of abuse against children.
 The Police: the role of the police in intervening in situations of
abuse, level of institutional coorperation to address violent
situations, records of reported cases, prosecuting cases in the
Magistrate Court, conducting investigations.
 The Health Sector: the role of personnel in identifying and
reporting child abuse among patients, systems of record keeping,
referral of detected cases, role of medical examiner in issuing an
official report.
 The Legal/Judiciary sector: the role of DPP in deciding which cases
are prosecuted, the role of the prosecutors in bringing cases, the role
of and experience of prosecutors in preparing children to give
evidence in cases of child abuse, legislative impediments in
securing convictions.

b) Key Stakeholders:
The interview guide sought to identify:
 A description of the work carried out by the institution in
general and by the key respondent specifically, with emphasis
on the issue of the child protection system.

24


 The respondent’s professional experience in the delivery of
services to persons in need of child protection services, namely,
family support, child placement and child protection (abuse).
 Each respondent’s social perception of the child protection
system and the need for such services
 Training needs for authorities, officials and personnel who come
into direct contact with people in need of the services of the
child protection system.

Information Sources
The information sources were persons directly connected to the child protection
system whether as agencies providing services or as persons who experienced the
system’s intervention.

The Key Stakeholders

1. Department of Human Services Personnel
2. Family Court Personnel
3. Judges in the Magistrate Court
4. Police
5. Health Personnel at the KHMH
6. Managers/Principals of schools/teachers
7. Child care providers
8. Women’s Department
9. D.P.P. Office
10. Children Homes
11. Foster parents

25


Child Protection Agencies

The child protection agencies are those persons directly providing services within
the child protection system. They include:

1. Department of Human Services

2. The Police

3. Health

4. Education

5. Judiciary

6. Child Care Providers

Interviews of Families Experiencing the System

Finally, information sources included actual persons who had experienced the
system and who would be able to report on the effectiveness of the system to
provide support services as well as the adequacy of services provided.

In the Belize District it was determined that there were some 200 reported cases on
the files of DHS in the areas of CPS, CPSS, and FSS in 2002. Therefore, it was
decided that in order to get an adequate sample size we would start with 44 persons
and interview until we could no longer learn anything new with regard to the
research question. Of this number 22 of the participants were from Child Protection,
11 from Family Support and 11 from Family Assistance.

In the Cayo District, the health, police, judiciary and human services sectors were
interviewed.

In Stann Creek, the police, health, human services sectors were interviewed and 7
families from the Child Protection team.

26

Chapter

4
LITERATURE REVIEW
The various international conventions35 of which Belize is a signatory
provide the yardstick against which the local legislative framework
underpinning the child protection system in Belize has been measured and
evaluated.. The more pertinent and current evaluations and the legislation
constituting the legal framework for the system will be considered here.

T he literature review consisted of those protocols, policy and procedure

documents, reports and agreements which are most germane to the child
protection system. The following

were considered:

1. The National Gender Policy. This policy document highlighted the
need to address some of the inequalities that exist in the FACA
in giving men and women that deny men and women equal
access to the Family Court and made recommendations for
various amendments to be made to that act to promote equality.
The policy document also highlighted some of the provisions of
the act that were not enuring to the welfare of children.

35
The international which are considered to have been the basis of the child protection system in Belize
are:

a) The Hague Convention – which protects children from international abductions and sets out the
procedure for recovery of children abducted ; b) The Convention on the Rights of the Child – which sets
out the rights of children as agreed by states internationally; c) The Convention on the Elimination of
Discrimination Against Women – which sets out the special protection to be given to women to eliminate
discrimination against them on basis of gender and which makes some provisions for the care of children.
These international conventions are set out in other publication and will not be set out here but will be
referenced.

27


2. The Department of Human Services – Policy and Procedures
Manual 2002. The DHS policy and procedures manual sets out
the government’s commitment and policy regarding the care of
children within the child protection system. The manual
governs the operation of the DHS and sets out the format for the
preparation of investigative reports and social inquiry reports.

3. The National Child Protection Protocols (draft). These
protocols are being drafted to provide a framework for the inter-
sectoral response to child protection envisioned and provided for in
FACA. The protocols seeks to provide a:

a) Written internal policy and procedure for each key
ministry/agency involved and reporting .
b) Multidisciplinary cooperation and collaboration; and a
c) National training plan for the key ministries/agencies by the
year 200536. The protocols will supplement the provisions of
the DHS manual and will set out in one document what each
agency is responsible for so that each agency will know its
role and the roles of other agencies.

4. The Family Court Handbook. The handbook is currently used by
the Magistrates in the Family Court to provide guidance on the
operation of the Family Court according to the Family Court Act
and provides information about some of the applications under the
Families and Children Act. The handbook though a useful
administrative resource for Magistrates is not law and so the
procedures set out in it are not binding on persons utilizing the
Family Court. There are no rules to the Families and Children Act
which can be referred to by legal practitioners, social workers and
the general public for guidance.

36
National Child Protection Protocols (draft), p. 2

28


5. From Girls to Women. Sets out the issues affecting females
growing up in Belize. The study identified the uncertainty between
the various agencies as to who is responsible for what:

“there is uncertainty over who is qualified to report abuse
cases and what the precise links are between the health
sector and social services responsible for ensuring child
protection37.

In addition, the study identified that a survey of 600 students
indicated that girls were more likely to be exposed to forced sexual
activity by a family member. Nonetheless, the study indicates that
the actual incidence of abuse is not known as the reported cases
represent only a fraction of the actual figures.38.

6. From Boys to Men. The study investigated the main issues facing
men as they go through their life cycles as a companion study to
that done on females. The study indicated that one out of six to eight
male children are sexually assaulted before they reach the age of
fourteen39. The study identified some of the general long term
effects of abuse to be:

a) low self esteem accompanied by feelings of guilt, shame and
loneliness, isolation and depression,

b) difficulty in trusting and forming meaningful relationships,
including disturbed and confused family relationships,

c) destructive ways of coping, such as substance abuse, suicide and
early sexual relationships that are often risky,

d) greater likelihood to be in abusive relationships or to become
abusers40.

37
Girls to Women, Cameron (1997), p. 47 indicating the responses of participants in a workshop in
February 1996.

38
(supra) p. 44

39
Boys To Men, p. 35 quoting Davis, 1987.

40
Boys To Men, p. 35

29


The limited rehabilitative services offered to victims of abuse in
Belize focus primarily on the removal of the child victim to a
residence where the perpetrator does not have access to the child,
counseling services focus primarily on helping the child cope with
the trauma and are only offered for a short time, usually for the
duration of the trial. After that families are left by themselves and
there is no follow up system to assist in preventing these long term
effects of abuse41. The actual contribution of male childhood abuse
to the issues identified as affected males through their life cycles
was not investigated.

7. CRC Second Periodic Report (draft). Prepared by the
government to fulfill its commitment to implement the provisions of
the CRC, to review its progress in that regard and to identify
opportunities for further action. The report identified a number of
improvements made legislatively, especially the introduction of the
CRC but recognised the need for further legislative endeavours to
ensure that the treatment of children envisioned by the CRC and the
FACA is theirs in practice. The inadequate legislative protection of
boys from sexual abuse, rape and carnal knowledge were identified
as well as the disturbing reports of the incidence of girls
“consenting” to sexual abuse to facilitate continuation of schooling.
Currently, the intervention and rehabilitative services offered by
DHS do not provide alternatives to these children and many of
them withdraw cases from the courts when faced with family
pressure because the perpetrator has offered the family money. The
realities of poverty and its effects on the abuse of teenagers is under-
investigated and rehabilitative services do little to offer female
teenagers subjecting to abuse for monetary reasons a real
alternative42.

8. The Right to a Future 2000: A Situational Analysis of
Children in Belize. The publication offered a comprehensive
review of children in Belize and the major issues facing them. With

41
Interviews with persons who have experienced the child protection system, January 2004.

42
Due to the recent Trafficking law, victims of trafficking ( many of whom are employed as commercial
sex workers, a label that can fairly be attached to many of the teenage victims of abuse) are in a better
position than child abuse victim and victims of Domestic Abuse, such Trafficking victims are given
opportunities to complete their education or to be retrained and/or assisted to find legitimate income
earning opportunities. Thus disparity must be addressed.

30


regards to the challenges facing the child protection system, the
study found that legal reform is incomplete, there is inadequate
protection for disabled children, boys and immigrant children, that
there is a lack of resources to protect the women and children of
Belize and that there are rising concerns regarding the abuse of
children in institutions. With regards to abuse and neglect of
children, the report identified the need for qualitative research to
identify whether the provisions of the CRC and the work of the
various agencies meant greater protection for children brought into
the child protection system because of abuse.

9. NOPCA Report – 2002. The 2001 report showed that in that year
8 girls were sexually abused for every 1 boy sexually abused, girls
received twice as many incidents of emotional abuse as boys and
were 8 times more likely to be neglected, girls were just as likely as
boys to be physically abused. In addition, the primary type of abuse
was emotional abuse and the primary abusers were mothers.
Intervention continues to be focused on removing children from
homes where male abusers have access to them and it should be but
there is little or no programs to address the emotional abuse meted
out to girls which make them susceptible to other forms of abuse
and make them less likely to report other abuse.

10. Mennonite Agreement. This agreement cannot be changed but
there is a definite need to work with the Mennonite Community to
ensure access to social workers where children are at risk. The
welfare of the child being the paramount consideration, Human
Services continues to work with the community to encourage
greater reporting. More needs to be done to ensure that persons who
adjudicate over cases involving relating to family violence are
adequately trained and are sensitized to the needs of children who
may have suffered the effects of abuse to ensure that services are
made available to these children.

11. Child Protection 2002 – Report of cases between the police
and social services. This report showed the prevalence of abuse in
the Belize City area. This report indicated that the reports of sexual
abuse was primarily in the teenage and 10-12 age group. In the
teenage age group, most cases of carnal knowledge were
“consensual”. Most of the cases of carnal knowledge took place at
a home other than that of the victim. The statistics, however, do not
show the prevalence of sexual abuse in the other 10 age group or the

31


prevalence of physical abuse at all, further the statistics did not
show the rate of prosecution of these cases or the rate of conviction.

The present reports available in relation to the child abuse system indicate:

1. A lack of accurate data as to the actual incidence of
abuse and the trends accompanying abuse and its
long term effects.

2. There is a lack of data on profiles of abusers and
identifying factors that precede and perpetuate
abuse. This is becoming more important as this
study confirmed that abuse in institutions by persons
whose job it is to protect children from abuse is an
all too familiar reality43. To adequately protect
children we must be able to prevent child abusers
from entering the child protection system and be
able to provide intervention programs for parents
who are likely to become abusers before abuse
begins.

International Conventions

I

43
Interviews with persons who are/have experienced the child protection system, January 2004.

32


n Belize, the main conventions establishing the obligation to protect children are:

1. The Hague Convention

2. The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)

3. The Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination
Against Women (CEDAW)

These conventions will not be set out here since there are already extensive
reports on the provisions of these. Suffice it to say that these conventions
sets out standards of care that are the minimum standards that states must
fulfill to be able to say they are protecting the rights of children.

Local Legislation

T he analysis below provides a summary of the relevant legislation and any

shortcomings in them that give rise to vulnerability within the child protection

system.

19. Families and Children Act44 (FACA)
This act sets out the legal framework in which children are
protected and cared for in Belize. The act defines the rights of
children and the responsibilities of parents and guardians and the
state towards children. The act was enacted in 1998 and provided
improved protection to children in Belize, nonetheless, there are still
some shortcomings of the act among which are:
a) Section 8 does not provide an adequate framework for the care
of disabled children.

44
An amendment was drafted to this act making provisions for: the giving of evidence by children in the
absence of the defendant; care of the disabled children; more stringent enforcement procedures for the
non-payment of maintenance;

33


b) Section 63-66 allow greater access to enforcement procedures
for collecting outstanding maintenance to children born out of
wedlock than that allowed to children born in wedlock.
c) Section 54 of the act gives children born out of wedlock a
greater claim to maintenance than that provided to children born
in wedlock by the Married Persons (Protection) Act.
d) There are no provisions allowing children to give evidence in
the absence of perpetrators45.
e) Provisions requiring imprisonment for non-payment of
maintenance has proven to impose hardship on children since
fathers simply apply for the maintenance to be suspended during
the course of the prison sentence, effectively denying the
children of the payment 46.
f) The provisions protecting privacy of children have been
ineffective in preventing the news media from revealing the
identity of children involved in high profile child abuse cases.
g) The provisions against the prostitution of children lack
enforcement power and have been ineffective in stemming child
prostitution47.
h) There are no rules of procedure setting out how the FACA will
operate in the Magistrate and Family Courts, as a result there is
an undue reliance by Magistrates on their policies handbook,
which handbook is not a legal document and whose contents are
not available to the general public.

These regulations set out provisions to prevent children being left
unsupervised on the road for long periods especially at night. The
act sets out a curfew for children and a system of housing children
when they are taken off the streets at night. Though on the statute
books, this act is no longer being enforced. The facilities necessary
to give effect to the act such as a place to house the children was

45
The interviews with clients from the DHS as highlighted in chapter 5, indicate that children are fearful
of standing in court and giving evidence before the perpetrator.

46
The Penal Reform Act has changed this by providing for Community Service Orders to be made in
cases of default in paying maintenance instead of imprisonment.

47
The Trafficking (in Persons) Act was passed last year and is expected to create in-roads into the level of
child prostitution in Belize by dismantling child smuggling rings coming into Belize from neighbouring
Latin American countries, which are major contributors to the problem of child prostitution in Belize -
Heusner, G K (2001).

34


never provided, consequently, there were children taken off the road
and being housed in the police station, this move is not supported by
the public. The act having fallen into disuse has not fulfilled its
objective, this is an area of vulnerability for children.

These regulations made provisions for the appointment of friends of
the court – the amicus curiae, the friend of the court. It is intended
that in all proceedings involving children, the court will be informed
of the social work issues connected to the child involved before any
orders are made concerning that child. This is an important step in
ensuring that the rights of children coming in contact with the legal
system are protected. Nonetheless, more still remains to be done in
the following areas:
i. the amicus curiae is not mandated to be a social
worker. If the person appointed amicus curiae has no
knowledge of social work, they cannot effectively
address or assist the court in making an order that
secures the welfare of the child.
ii. The role and purpose of the amicus curiae is not
defined. This has caused social workers appointed as
amicus curiae to confuse their responsibilities with
those of a guardian ad litem. An amicus curiae is a
friend of the court, that person appears to assist the
court by providing information in social work that the
court will not normally have access to, they are
defending the case for the child. They are advising the
court of the social work issues involved.
iii. Further, while the act imposes a duty on the
community to report abuse, there are no sanctions for
failure to report, as a result these provisions are not
readily complied with.

22. Social Services Agencies Act and Regulations
The Social Services Agencies Act and regulations requires all
facilities housing children and providing day care for children to
become registered and prescribes minimum standards that must be
maintained in the physical upkeep etc, of the institution to ensure
the proper care of children housed there. The major deficiency of
the act is that it does not require social services institutions to have
on staff, persons trained in social work. This creates problems where
institutions undertake the care of children who are victims of abuse

35


or where the lack of social work training prevents the institution’s
operators from being alert to and addressing issues arising within
the institution that can put children at risk 48.

5. Foster Care (Placement) Rules
This act sets out minimum requirements for foster care and sets out
requirements for background checks to be done of the foster parents
and indicates that placements should try to ensure compatibility
with child’s ethnic, linguistic and cultural backgrounds of children.
A very important measure in the protection of children since most of
the children in care are placed in foster care. This act will ensure a
minimum standard of care to all these children.

6. The Inferior Courts Act
This act establishes the Alcalde jurisdiction. Under the act, the
Alcaldes (quasi-magistrates) are appointed in each district to handle
petty criminal offences and debt cases. However, social workers in
the Cayo, Toledo and the Punta Gorda districts report that persons in
the remote villages in these districts are going to the Alcaldes with
cases of child abuse, although these powers are not conferred on
them by statute. The problem is that persons in the villages are
comfortable with the Alcalde who normally is from the same ethnic
group and language background and who may know the family
personally.

This act sets up a system of dealing with children who are
deemed uncontrollable by placing them at the Youth Hostel
under the care and control of the Department of Human Services
in the person of the manager of the institution. Nonetheless, the
act has some shortcomings:
1) It does not define child
2) the act does not provide for mandatory counseling of
children as a
way to promote behavioural change and as a way to
deal with the issues causing the uncontrollable
behaviour.
3) the only rehabilitation offered to children is manual
labour

48
One children’s home in Punta Gorda was shut down after the institution’s modus operandi began to
cause institutional abuse to the children under their care.

36


4) there is no yardstick against which to measure
uncontrollable
behaviour.
5) the act has increased the number of children being
institutionalized, most parents are using it as an easy
alternative to rid themselves of troublesome children
instead of committing to training and counseling to
work out issues with children especially teenagers49.
6) the wide powers given to managers of the institutions
over the
children, in some cases overriding the rights of parents
has also caused concern in some circles50.

8. Criminal Code
The Criminal Code sets out the offences for which child abusers
can be convicted. The deficiencies of this act that are germane to
the child protection system are:

1) Under the act, the age of criminal responsibility is 9,
elsewhere in the Commonwealth, the age of responsibility is
between 10-14 years old. This low age is of particular
concern since there are no provisions in our law that children
must be legally aided when brought before the criminal
court. The provision of an amicus curiae in such a situation
would not be sufficient, particularly if the child is charged
jointly with an adult or another child who is legally
represented.
2) In the act, the age of obtaining counseling without parental
consent is set at 18 years while the age of legal consent is 16,
this exposes children who are 16 and who might be engaged
in sexual activity from receiving counseling needed to
address the issues surrounding their early sexual activity
and/or medical treatment, including HIV testing. In addition,
there is no age of consent for boys.
3) The offences of carnal knowledge, indecent assault, rape are
capable only of being committed on females, thus leaving

49
Interview with social services practitioners, January 2004 and interview with CRO, January 2004.

50
The issue of uncontrollable children is not necessarily a child protection issue unless those children are
victimized in care and is not dealt with in this study. It should be noted nonetheless, that the act as well as
the treatment of children deemed uncontrollable is currently under review and it is understood that the act
will be repealed. Nonetheless, it is hoped that there will be some measure put in place to address the issue
of truly uncontrollable children.

37


boys who are victims of similar abuse with inadequate
redress under the law.
4) Section 62 imposes a more lenient sentence of 7 years on a
perpetrator of incest where the victim is between 12 and 18,
where as if the victim is under 12 the sentence is 12 years to
life imprisonment. There is no justification for the more
lenient sentence.
5) While section 60 imposes a penalty for the abandonment of a
child under 5 years old, there is no corresponding penalty for
abandoning children over 5 years old.
6) Section 55 only prevents stealing of children up to the age of
12, making no provision for stealing children over the age of
12.
7) Sections 49, 50, 52 dealing with procurement of children
relates procurement only to females, thus leaving boys with
protection under the law against procurement.
8) The criminal code does not criminalize child molestation
that does not escalate to carnal knowledge or rape. As a
result, police and doctors have followed the artificial
procedure of classifying such the injuries resulting from such
molestation as harm, wound, maim etc, with the attendant
result that if no injuries are present, no charges are made.
9) The criminal code does not criminalize child prostitution.

The Act defines child as a person under 16 and a young person
as a person between 16 and 18. This has been amended by the
Penal Reform Act establishing child as a person under 18. The
act sets out how child offenders should be dealt with under the
law. The act works in tandem with the Certified Institutions
(Children’s Reformation) Act and the Penal Reform Act. The
act establishes the Juvenile Court to hear and adjudicate issues
concerning children between the age of 16 and 18. The
deficiencies of this act are:
1) while the act gives the child the right to be heard in the
presence of an
adult, there is no entrenchment of legal representation of
children brought before criminal courts where they may face
sentences of up to life imprisonment. This is contrary to
natural justice and to internationally recognised standards.
2) children who are co-accused of crimes and charged with
adults are not brought before juvenile courts but are tried

38


together with adults, this is not the trend internationally and
exposes children to the possibility of being pinned with such
crimes since there is no provision that such children be
legally represented.
3) no right given in the act for children deprived of their liberty
to have contact with their families.

This act sets out alternative sentences for first time offenders,
juvenile offenders and persons convicted of the offence of
failure to maintain their children. The act establishes the
community Rehabilitation Department staffed with Community
Rehabilitation Officers who are responsible for rehabilitation of
persons given alternative sentences under the act. The
Community Service Orders are a welcome additional to the
powers of the court in dealing with first time offenders and
maintenance defaulters. The application of the act has kept
many juveniles out of penal institutions and has facilitated their
rehabilitation. The implementation of the act is uneven in the
districts. There are reports of cases where juveniles are arrested
ad statements taken from them in the districts51 without a CRO
being notified and reports of cases of first time offenders falling
under the act coming before the court and no CRO being
notified to prepare a report recommending alternative
sentencing52.

The act provides for protection orders, occupation orders,
supervision orders and assistance to victims of domestic
violence. There are provisions under the act that seeks to address
situations where children are caught in situations of family
violence. The act is primarily concerned with violence on adults
particularly women within the context of family relationships.

The major deficiencies of the act are:

51
Interviews with CROs, January 2004.

52
(supra)

39


1) where a child as well as a parent is abused within the context
of domestic violence, there are two separate legal procedures for
dealing with the same incident of abuse, as a result a child
abused in a domestic violence incident may be separated from
the victim parent and be placed in foster care or in an institution.
This impedes the recovery of both53, especially where the victim
parent (usually the mother) has to be moved from place to place.
2) the primary focus of intervention in domestic violence
situations is secure the safety of the victim, counseling and other
specialised services may be delayed until safety is ensured,
counseling of victim parent and victim child may be done at
separate times by separate persons as they may be separated.
This may subject child to further victimization and intensifies
trauma.

12. Marriage Act
The act sets out the minimum age of marriage as being 14 to
facilitate cultural realities, however, this is at odds with the legal
age of consent to sexual activity which is 16.

13. Married Persons (Protection) Act
This sets out the requirements for maintaining children born
within marriage. The act sets a maximum of $50.00 for
maintenance whereas the Families and Children’s Act sets no
maximum, thus giving children coming under the Families and
Children Act (the majority of whom are children born out of
wedlock) greater provision to be maintained.

The act sets out the requirement to register the births and deaths
of all persons born in and dying in Belizeans. The act imposes
the duty on the mother to register children, thereby exonerating
fathers and making it difficult for single parent fathers to register
children. Indeed, if mothers, do not register children, there is
no secondary means of registration, unless the child come into
care when the DHS may register them. In addition, there is no
provision for giving an identity to children who have been
abandoned and whose parents are unknown, many of these
children are children of alien mothers and end up in care with no
identity.

53
Interview with Women’s Department, September 2003.

40


Sets out provisions for the reporting of suspected cases of child
abuse but there are no protocols to set out how this reporting
works in practice. The act and rules also proscribes the treatment
of children in schools by prohibiting corporal punishment but
retains it in certain cases. However, no criminal sanction is
given for the misuse of corporal punishment though this is
clearly physical abuse. Children in the school system, especially
in primary schools continue to suffer from its misuse.

This act brings the provisions of the Hague Convention into our
local legislative sources of law. It gives the court jurisdiction to
hear cases of international child abduction and criminalizes
international abduction. The act gives jurisdiction to the Family
Court, however, observations indicate that magistrates are not
prepared to deal with the finer interpretation issues required by
the act. In addition, there are no protocols setting out the
responsibility of each agency identified under the act.

The act makes the illicit use of drugs a crime but there is a lack
of strong enforcement to prevent shops selling alcohol to
children.

The act sets out a number of summary offences that can be
committed against children. Section 6 which saves the right of
teachers to punish children places no restriction on the type and
manner in which such punishment can be administered and
exposes children to physical abuse masquerading as corporal
punishment.

Sets out the indictable offences that can be committed against
children. There are no offences under the act that specifically
says that child abuse is a crime instead the offences of
wounding and harming are used to charge persons who abuse
children. As a result, the sentences in cases of abuse where the
perpetrator is charged with wounding or harm do not reflect the
heinous nature of the offence and does not act as a serious
deterrent to such crimes.

41


20. Evidence Act
This act sets out the procedures that must be observed in court
proceedings in both civil and criminal proceedings and some
provisions concerning children giving evidence in court. The act
stipulates the circumstances in which evidence of children is
required to be corroborated. Section 74 and section 91 by
assuming that the perpetrator is male does not give redress
where the perpetrator is female. In addition, there are no
provisions under the act for children to give evidence in the
absence of perpetrators54. Section 103 in requiring corroboration
of the evidence of children in carnal knowledge cases does not
give such children equal treatment with other victims of sex
crimes as section 92 imposes no similar requirement on those
victims. The practice of forbidding children below the age of 7
years form giving evidence prevents children who can clearly
communicate what happened to them from receiving redress
since prosecution is usually abandoned in those cases.

21. Labour Act
The act sets out the conditions in which children may work
prescribing children working in hazardous situations. It also sets
out the minimum age for part-time labour involving children.
The deficiencies creating vulnerability are as follows:
i. The minimum age of admission into employment
and the age for part time work are below
international standards and recommendation and
have the effect of encouraging school drop –outs
and preventing persons continuing with their
education beyond primary school.
ii. There is no sanction under section 54(2) against
an employer who employs a child in a job
dangerous to his development.
iii. Section 158(3) imposes no restrictions on the use
of forced labour from children held under a
Reform Act, the increase in children coming into
the system for uncontrollable behaviour raises the
need to regulate this area.

54
The interviews with persons who have/are experiencing the system conducted in January 2004 revealed
a number of instances where persons indicated that children were fearful of giving evidence before
perpetrators and one incidence where the child refused to talk in court in front of the perpetrator.

42


iv. Section 163 allows for the employment of
children in industrial undertakings when they are
unlikely to have adequate training to protect
themselves effectively in such undertakings and
where they could be exposed to chemicals that
impede their long term development.
v. The limited role of the labour officer described in
the act cannot prevent abuse of the provisions of
the act especially since the sanctions are so
lenient.
vi. There are no regulations for the Labour Act
prescribing the hours, type and conditions of
work of children.

43

Chapter

5
STAKEHOLDERS AND
AGENCIES - FINDINGS
The results of the interviews with the stakeholders and agencies
have indicated the deficiencies in the system and are set out to
show the results of the qualitative research

Department of Human Services
INFRASTRUCTURE

The Department of Human Services is a part of the Ministry of Human
Development, Local Government and Labour. The DHS is the central
agency within the child protection system. The work of the DHS in the
child protection system in Belize is a part of its services offered to
families and children. The DHS is equipped with social services
practitioners who have received specialized training in social work and
in the areas of the law that govern the protection of children in Belize.
Currently there are 42 social service practitioners countrywide. Of this
number 30 are attached to the Belize District office, the remaining 12
are located in the other districts. The out district social service
practitioners are supervised from the Belize District office which is
located in Belize City. There is established a system of on-line
reporting to allow the Belize City coordinator to track cases in the
districts, this is reinforced by monthly inspection visits by the Belize
City Supervisors to receive updates on cases and a system of regular
telephone/fax consultation by out-district staff with their supervisors
regarding cases being dealt with.

For the better provision of its services, DHS is divided into specialized
divisions, of which the CPS, CPSS and FSS are directly connected to
the child protection system.

44


In the Belize District, officers are placed in different teams and each
team is assigned responsibilities under these various service areas. In
the rural districts, the Community Development Officer (CDO) is
responsible for CPS, CPSS and FSS. CDO’s report that this causes them
to carry a heavier case load than their counterparts in the city, however,
this perception is not validated by the facts. The records of the DHS
indicate that the Belize City officers carry a larger case load than the
CDO. Nonetheless, the division into teams in the city has created
specialist social service practitioners who have developed specialized
knowledge regarding the aspect of child protection that each team is
responsible for, this allows for greater efficiency. There is further
division within the teams in each service area in the Belize District with
specific officers being responsible for a specific stage of the
proceedings in each case, this team work is not available in the districts.

As a result the CDO tend to concentrate on priority cases55 and non-
priority cases often experience long delays. In addition, checks in the
records kept by the CDOs indicate that their files are more likely to not
be updated making it difficult for visiting supervisors to know from the
files what is the current situation of the case and for officers holding
over for them during their vacation periods to offer proper follow up to
the rural district clients. In addition, it was noted that not all rural
districts have ready access to computers, fax machines and printers and
where they were present in the rural districts they were underutilized in
maintaining proper files.

Physically, the DHS in Belize City occupies one floor of the
Commercial Center giving it easy access to the Family Court upstairs.
In the districts, the DHS offices are shared with the Women’s

55
The division of cases based on the seriousness of the report of abuse is as follows:

(immediate or within 24 hour response required) Priority I cases will be referrals of current abuse/neglect
which place the child at immediate risk at the time of the referral. (as soon as possible or within 36 hours
response required) Priority II referrals include the same list as Priority I. However, cases in which the
child(ren) is in the hospital, in the protective custody of the BPD or DHS or other safe place where there
is no risk of immediate danger. Priority III (response within 10 days required) Includes school problems,
sexual acting out of adolescents, marital conflict, parent/child conflict, neighbourhood squabbles, reports
which are clearly malicious, or complaints that are repeatedly unsubstantiated, family drug and alcohol
problems where there is no abuse and/or neglect, mental health issues, home study requests or home
checks from outside ministries/agencies.

45


Department, COMPAR56 or other department of the Ministry. It was
observed that this creates a lack of privacy for officers and clients, the
sensitive nature of the work conducted by the department in offering
services through CPS, CPSS and FSS makes this undesirable.

DHS PERCEPTIONS OF THE SYSTEM:

The DHS sees child protection as the most significant issue currently
affecting Belizean children57. The need for consistent review of the
services and the methodologies involved in caring for children within
the system is viewed as an important measure for ensuring that the
quality of services offered meets the needs of the growing population
of children subject to abuse and contributed to greater reporting.

ISSUES FACING DHS58:

a. Lack of proper vehicular support. In the Belize District, the
DHS currently rents a vehicle to carry its officers to and from
investigations and follow-up visits. This has not been a cost
effective measure with some having been spent on rental of
vehicle between January 1, 2004 and June 30, 2004. Further,
the investigative work required to be done by each service team
renders the current system of using one vehicle on rotation
between the teams each day means that each team only gets only
one or two days each week to conduct investigations and do
follow ups. Between January 2003 and December 2003, the
DHS in its three main service areas responded to the needs of
over 1000 clients in the Belize District with CPS alone
constituting more than 600 clients requiring investigations and

56
COMPAR :- Community Parenting - trains parents and community in effective parenting, facilitates
counseling of couples, parents and children and conducts parenting workshops in schools.

57
Personal Communication – Director of Human Services and interviews conducted with individual
social services practitioners.

58
Contributions from social services practitioners participating in a workshop on the role of DHS within
the child protection system, DHS, April 2004; interviews of social services practitioners between January
2004 and May 2004;focus groups meeting comprising members of other agencies and interviews of key
officers in the agencies within the child protection system.

46


follow ups to be done. In the client interviews conducted, the
number one complaint of clients was that the department did not
do adequate follow up visits especially with regards to CPSS
which are normally priority three cases. This creates
vulnerability within the system since without adequate follow up
visits, the DHS is unable to objectively ascertain if the
placement is proceeding well, currently, problems have been
obviated by choosing persons to be foster parents who have a
proven record of providing good child care and who are
experienced foster mothers and so require less supervisory
assistance. However, with efforts under way to recruit new
foster mothers, the problem of inadequate follow up visits must
be addressed or the potential exists for children to be at risk
while in care without the DHS having knowledge of that.

In the rural districts, the CDO must rely on a vehicle coming
one day each week from another area if the Ministry or on the
police for transportation. As a result community visits are done
one day each week, with investigations and follow up having to
fit on the same day. Consequently, priority one cases are dealt
with first and other cases experience long intervals between
visits. The exacerbate by the fact that each CDO has the entire
district comprising thousands of miles to cover. Interviews with
client families in the districts indicate that most follow up
happens as a result of the families contacting the DHS district
office themselves and updating the CDO of what has taken
place.

a. Lack of inter-department protocols. The child protection system
has as been outlined is multi-sectoral. At present each sector
involved pursue their own objectives based on their sectoral
protocols, in some cases, there are no written protocols setting
out the procedure to be followed in dealing with children who
enter the child protection system. DHS staff indicate that this
affects their effectiveness in a number of ways. In the first place,
the law establishes that either the police department or the DHS
is the first point of contact once there is an allegation of child
abuse. Currently, police are expected to contact DHS as soon as
possible after receiving allegations so that DHS can be a part of
any efforts to remove and place children as well as observe an
initial medical examination and statement taking of the child
victim and or perpetrator. There is no written protocol
establishing the interaction between these two departments and
there have been cases where the DHS are not notified

47


immediately or are not provided with information concerning
the progress of prosecution of offences. This creates a loop
hole in the system as DHS are expected to prepare clients and
family for interaction with the criminal justice system but in
many instances lack the information to do this effectively.

Further, because of the substantial interaction that is necessary
between the police and the DHS at the initial stages of the
investigations there is considerable overlap in the investigation
required. The practice has developed for the police to rely on
results of investigations by the DHS who may have more initial
contact with the victim and the family. This creates
vulnerability in the system by undermining the strength of cases
that the police prepare since the underlying objective for the
investigations are different. While the police will need any
information that the DHS has that establishes guilt, they will
always need to conduct their own investigations since the
purpose of the police investigation is to establish beyond a
reasonable doubt that the crime charged took place while the
purpose of DHS investigation is to establish on a balance of
probabilities whether the child needs to be removed or what
other orders need to be made to secure the protection of the child
from further victimization. The focus group meetings held with
the various agencies and interviews conducted with clients
found that there is not a clear appreciation by the public, police,
DHS and medical agencies of the unique roles of the police and
the DHS in the initial investigative stages. This has
compromised criminal cases in the magistrate and supreme
courts as there are cases which are thrown out in the courts
because an incomplete or improperly done investigation did not
provide substantial evidence of guilt 59.

Other areas affected by the lack of inter-department protocols
are the procedures for medical examination. Interviews with
clients and with officers of the medical agency within the Belize
District and in other districts indicate that there are variations
between members of the medical agency who perform
examinations as to the protocol to be followed during such
examinations60. Some members of the medical agency give
priority for examination to DHS and child victims, others

59
Interview with the DPP in January 2004, Belize City.

60
Interview with persons who have/are experiencing the child protection system, February 2004.

48


require appointments to be made, in terms of the actual
examination itself, some doctors will take swabs and order blood
tests as of course once there is evidence of skin breakage or
penetration, others will not unless that is requested by the DHS
officer present, in addition some doctors require parents to be
present at the examination, others are satisfied with the presence
of the police and the DHS.

The DHS interaction with the courts has also shows the effects
of the lack of inter-sectoral protocols. Most of the interaction
between DHS and the court takes place at the magistrate level in
the Family Court in Belize or in the family jurisdiction of rural
magistrate courts. The family court procedures are set out in its
handbook. However, this handbook does not specifically cover
how cases coming under the child protection system should be
dealt with, much is left to the discretion of individual
magistrates. As a result there is considerable variation between
the requirements required by the Family Court and the district
courts to establish cases for care orders. In addition, some areas
directly affecting the child protection system such as the
relinquishment procedure are not dealt with in the handbook at
all. This creates vulnerability as the department may be denied
an order to protect a child in one district when another district
will grant an order in another case where the very same
information is presented and the same procedure followed.

Further, though the Child Abuse Reporting Regulations require
mandatory reporting and the Education Rules require teachers to
report cases of abuse to the police or the DHS, interviews with
teachers indicate that many are reluctant to report evidence of
abuse. In addition, many of the church run schools have
established their own internal methods of dealing with families
and children subject to abuse though protocols establishing in
what cases schools can intervene and the extent of the
intervention that can be made by schools are non-existent.
There have been cases where families and schools have agreed
to deal with suspected cases of child abuse within their own
school management instead of initiating criminal proceedings61.
This is an area of vulnerability since DHS is not made a part of
that decision making process to not prosecute and it is likely that
there is inadequate consideration of the need to protect the
welfare of the child.

61
Interviews with primary school managers, January 2004, Belize City.

49


b. Gaps in the legislative framework. Though the FACA is the
primary legislation utilized by DHS in pursuing legal
proceedings within the child protection system, it is part of a
larger legislative framework including the Criminal Code and
other legislation concerning with criminal proceedings. There
are gaps in the framework which creates vulnerability to
children, these are dealt with in toto elsewhere. However, the
work of the DHS is impeded by the gaps in the FACA. These
areas of vulnerability for children include the lack of any rules
governing the implementation of the act in the court thereby
causing the court to use its procedural handbook as quasi-rules.
This is undesirable since that handbook does not have the force
of law. In addition, court records indicate that families are going
to the magistrate courts in the absence of social services
practitioners to relinquish children to strangers and that the rural
district courts often grant these orders. Many of these children
are then taken out of the country permanently, this is an abuse of
the FACA since it requires any permanent change of custody
regarding children to be based on a custody order or an adoption
order and places children at risk since the procedure can
facilitate trafficking of children.

c. Disparity between services and unavailability of services. One
of the primary services needed by children within the child
protection system and their families is counseling to overcome
the effects of the victimization. In the Belize District, this is
facilitated by trained counselors attached to the Belie
Counseling Center. In the rural districts, there are no such
services. DHS has no counseling facility in the districts and
must therefore rely on the public health nurses 62. This often
results in a loss of privacy since such nurses are not trained
counselors and do not necessarily abide by confidentiality
requirements by which trained counselors consider themselves
bound. In addition, the lack of specialist training in the nurses
means that the rural district child victims receive a lower
standard of care and their effective recovery may be impeded.
There is also a lack of availability of other services in the rural
districts such as specialist doctors, absence of legal aid and the
ready access to NGOs to supplement services offered by the
DHS.

62
In more serious cases arrangements are made to have counseling done at the Belize Counseling Center,
in Belize City.

50


In addition, there is no psychiatrist attached to the DHS or the
counseling center, as a result long term psychological care of
persons who have suffered the trauma of abuse especially sexual
abuse is non-existent. The lack of psychiatrist also means that
the court is not appraised of long term effects of the abuse on the
child which information would aid with sentencing, nor is the
court apprised of the mental state of the perpetrator in bail
hearings.

Further, clients of DHS also indicated that they have
encountered residual issues in children who have suffered abuse
once contact with DHS is complete but do not have adequate
counseling or support systems to assist with those problems and
the DHS is unable to provide long term follow up once the abuse
has been addressed63. This lack of services necessary for
effective rehabilitation creates vulnerability in the system
because it prevents the child protection system from restoring
children and families.

d. Lack of standardization of foster care. There is no written
minimum standard of care that must be provided by foster
parents. Much is left to the discretion of the foster parents,
because most of the parents within the foster care program are
long time foster care providers and have very good relationships
with the DHS most problems have been averted. Nonetheless,
foster parents indicated that they needed guidance at the outset
to know the minimum standard of care that should be given to
children in their care, this was particularly expressed by foster
families dealing with children with special needs such as victims
of abuse and children with life threatening illnesses or
disabilities64. The number of children coming into the child
protection system as a result of a primary care giver dying of
HIV or because they are HIV positive has increased in recent
years. There are no written protocols on the care to be given to
such children nor is training provided to foster parents as to how
to care for such children or other children with special needs.
Foster care regulations are being worked on, their institution will
provide much needed guidance and structure to the foster care
system since of the over 400 children in care nationwide some

63
Interviews with persons who have/are experiencing the child protection system, January 2004.

64
Interviews with foster parents in Belize District in January 2004.

51


300 are in foster care. The need to ensure that all children in
foster care receive the same standard of rehabilitative care is
imperative to the continued success of the program in preventing
institutional abuse and further victimization of children brought
into the child protection system.

6. Granting and preserving the identity of children in care. Foster
parents and operators of children homes report that there are a
number of children brought into care who have no proper
identification documents, especially alien children abandoned by
their families. These children cannot be placed for adoption by
the DHS as they lack identification papers and remain in
permanent foster care or in institutions. When they become
adults the lack of identity prohibits them from seeking
professional training and employment, they cannot even register
for social security. There are currently, no provisions under the
Immigration Act or the Registration of Births and Deaths Act to
accord such children an identity. These children are been
victimized by the child protection system in being denied one of
the basic rights provided by the CRC.

7. The victimisation of children in institutions and by child care
providers. There are growing concerns about abuse that children
in the care of child care providers become subject to. Children
reported being placed in institutions after being abandoned by
their parents and being hit or pinched by child care providers in
institutions, there was one report by a female child that she had
been sexually abused by an older male child at the institution65.
That institution has since been closed but there are no proper
systems in place to prevent such abuses from happening. There
were also reports of persons going to the police station to make
reports concerning an alleged incident of abuse and the child
being ridiculed by the officers at the station66.

65
Interviews with persons who have/are experienced the child protection system, January 2004.

66
Interviews with persons who have/are experiencing the child protection system, January 2004.

52


Police Department
INFRASTRUCTURE

At present there is no specific area within the Police Department that
deals exclusively with child protection, however, the domestic violence
unit is being trained to specialize in this area. The CIB unit within the
Police Department facilitates the investigation of criminal cases
involving children. Once the report has been made to the Police
Department, they will usually call in the DHS who will take over the
aspect of seeing to the needs of the child and for pursuing proceedings
in the Family court from that point onwards. At that point the Police
will be primarily responsible for investigation and for prosecuting the
criminal aspect of the case.

The Police Department’s involvement in the system is derived from
their primary responsibility to protect the community and bring
offenders to justice. In addition, under the Child Abuse Reporting
Regulations, members of the public may make reports for child abuse
either to the DHS or to the Police. As a result they are often the first
point of contact into the system. The Assistant Commissioner of Police
works closely with her investigative team and the domestic violence
unit in high profile child cases and this close networking has proved
beneficial in Belize City, this level of expertise is often not available in
the districts. As a result many reports of abuse emanating from the
districts are not well put together and show lack of adequate
investigation, and are often turned down for prosecution by the DPP or
are dismissed in court causing the perpetrator to return to the
community where the victim lives and in at least one case the alleged
perpetrator who has been freed has threatened the victim and the
family. 67

PERCEPTIONS OF THE SYSTEM686:

The police department consider the protection of children in Belize to
be an area of growing concern. In particular there is an increase in the

67
Name and location withheld.

68
Police focus group - CIB, DVU and Assistant Commissioner of Police, January 2004.

53


number of carnal knowledge cases reported with child perpetrators69,
they consider current laws and procedures inadequate to deal with child
perpetrators of abuse and alien children from the Central American
region are most susceptible to this kind of abuse. Their investigations
have also uncovered a worrying trend of parents in inner city
communities prostituting children or the children prostituting
themselves for food and other amenities.

ISSUES FACING THE POLICE:

1. Inadequacy of medico-legal forms. The police will look to the
medical examination to see if the medical evidence supports the
allegations being made by the victim before charges are laid.
However, the medico legal forms currently being used do not
have any express provision for the indication of sexual abuse. In
some instances, the doctor does not indicate whether the hymen
is intact or whether or what evidence of penetration is seen. 70
Indeed, some doctors are not aware of the evidentiary
requirements under the Criminal Code and the Evidence Act that
the medico-legal form is seeking to establish. This has resulted
in the forms being of little evidentiary value in court which
makes conviction unlikely. 71

2. Lack of co-ordination between investigative division and
prosecution branch/DPP. The Department of Public
Prosecutions is seeking to have trained prosecutors at the
Magistrate level by placing civilian prosecutors in these courts
instead of police prosecutors. These civilian prosecutors are
answerable to the D.P.P.’s office. They are usually handed case
files after police investigations are completed and charges made.
There have been many instances when files are sent up for
prosecution and have to be returned to the investigative officer
because a vital piece of evidence was missing or the
investigation in a child abuse case was incomplete.72 It is

69
Police Statistics - 2002.

70

71
Interview with Director of Public Prosecutions, January 2004.

72
CIB, DVU and Assistant Commissioner of Police, March 2004 CIB, DVU and Assistant Commissioner
of Police, March 2004

54


submitted that the prosecutors are brought in too late in the
proceedings and so are unable to guide police in the matters that
must be established via investigation to secure a conviction. This
causes delays in prosecuting these cases and increases the
possibility that witnesses will not turn up at trial or that the
matter will be withdrawn by the victim.

3. Lack of written protocols. The police lack written internal
procedures as to how to take statements from child witnesses to
ensure sensitivity and privacy is respected, how to prepare them
for trial and protocols as to how to and who can order medical
examinations. The latter has become extremely important in
light of reports that some doctors will not want to perform an
emergency medical examination if 72 hours have passed since
the alleged incident occurred since and semen left on the victim
would have already died73. This exposes child victims to further
victimization and is a vulnerable area in the child protection
system since the primary goal of the medical examination must
be to secure the health of the victim, delays in treatment exposes
such children to infections and diseases. The FACA makes
provision for the police to order a medical examination be done
but there is no procedure within the police department as to how
this provision should be given effect to.74

Further, the police are required to make an inter-agency
response with the DHS but there are no protocols as to how this
inter-agency response will operate. In addition, there are no
express protocols as to which unit of the police will handle child
protection cases. The practice in most districts is to have the
DVU handle cases where the child victim and the perpetrator are
related or living in the same home, in other cases the CIB
handles the investigation75. The current operation of this system
has created some problems, firstly, the CIB and DVU staff is
frequently rotated76, especially in the districts, and replacement
officers may not have come from a DVU elsewhere and so will
have no training in the sensitivity required to deal with child

73
Interviews with social services practitioners – December 2003.

74
Interviews with police officers in the rural districts - January 2004.

75

76
Interview with Police officers in rural districts- January 2004.

55


protection issues, the lack of written protocols to refer to
exacerbate this problem. Secondly, the public is not aware of the
practice to separate the cases in this manner and there was a
complaint that a victim was told to go to CIB, the victim went
reported the incident there and was ridiculed by the CIB officer
in the presence of other officers and then sent to the DVU where
the victim had to relate the story again. This resulted in a loss of
privacy, embarrassment for the victim and further victimization
of the victim77.

In addition, there are no protocols providing for the need to
protect the rights of children arrested for crimes or brought in to
the police for uncontrollable behaviour. There have been reports
of such children being taken before magistrates without a CRO
being appointed to represent the interest of the child 78. This
impugns the provisions and intent of the Juvenile Offenders Act
and is an express breach of the CRC79.

4. Lack of training in tailoring investigations for court proceedings
and ignorance of law. In the last year there have been a number
of child abuse cases thrown out of court on the basis of a no case
submission, in some instances this is because of the failure on
the path of the victims and witnesses to follow through on
commitments to attend court and give evidence. 80 In other cases,
cases are thrown out because there were technical flaws within
the investigative process such as an improperly conducted
identification parade or an improper collection of evidence 81.
Evidentiary requirements in the criminal justice system are

77
Interview with family who has experienced the system, name and location withheld.

78
Interview with CRO – January 2003.

79
See Articles 38 and 40 –CRC. The inadequate implementation of the provisions of the Juvenile
Offenders Act, the Penal Reform Act and the Probation of Offenders Act continues to be a sour point. The
second CRC report identified this as an aware of concern. There are still reports of children being arrested
and place in cells with adults, there was an allegation last year of an accused female being raped by a
police officer while in protective custody. The CROs also report that children are brought before
magistrate courts without legal advice , reports of police harassment, humiliation, intimidation and
brutality. Such abuses emanate from the absence of written protocols within the police department for
children accused of crimes. Such cases are beyond the scope of this work but information uncovered
during the conduction of interviews for this study indicate that there is urgent need to address the situation
of juvenile offenders.

80
Interview with the Director of Public Prosecutions- January 2004.

81
Interview with the Director of Public Prosecutions- January 2004.

56


based on local and international courts’ interpretation of the
provisions of the Evidence Act and on Criminal Practice and
Procedure established by the court. The police do not have
continuous training in the changing requirements and in most
districts do not have access to research materials to educate
themselves on these82. It was observed that there is a general
absence of knowledge of Evidence Rules and procedures and in
some cases an absence of knowledge of the provisions of
substantive law. This creates vulnerability in two ways. Firstly,
it impedes accurate, effective and complete investigations and
thus contributes to the low conviction rate. Secondly, police who
are called as witness in court often find their evidence objected
to by defense attorneys or rejected by the court, in which case
the perpetrator will be freed and allowed to return to the
community putting the victim at risk for further abuse. This lack
of training is most noticeable in the districts.

The Department of Education
INFRASTRUCTURE

In Belize most schools are owned and operated by churches, nonetheless, these
schools must be in full compliance with the rules and regulations of the
Education Act 1991, its subsequent 1996 amendments, and the Education Rules
Act of 2002.

This is achieved through a church/state partnership with the Ministry of
Education being responsible for the management of the national education
system, and for ensuring compliance with the Act and its Rules while the
churches are responsible for recruitment and management of staff within their
schools and administering education to children.

82
Interviews with police officers in the rural districts – January 2003.

57


Due to their daily contact with children, teachers are in a unique position to
identify symptoms of child abuse and to receive reports from children that they
may be suffering from child abuse. In addition, many villages do not have a
representative of the DHS nearby and may not have a police station but they
will have a school. Teachers in those districts have a unique position of
influence in their community. The Families and Children Act imposes
mandatory reporting requirements on teachers requiring them to report any
instance of child abuse of which they possess knowledge.

Indeed, many of the schools have their own internal procedures for dealing
with abuses occurring within their staff and even procedures on how to deal
with abuses where parents are suspected of abusing children. There is a need
for the school to have its own intervention system but care must be taken to
ensure that internal procedures do not supercede the DHS procedures or the
requirements of the Education Act or the Education Rules.

PERCEPTIONS OF THE SYSTEM:

While teachers recognize the importance of making reports to the DHS and
teachers recognize that child abuse is detrimental to the proper development of
children, many are not willing to become a part of the legal process as
witnesses as they do not perceive that there are sufficient safeguards in place to
protect them from reprisals in the event that their reports result in convictions. 83

ISSUES FACING THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT84:

1. Lack of training in identifying symptoms of abuse. Basic exposure
to the symptoms of abuse and the need to report abuse is a part of
the teacher training program offered at UB, which is the primary
teacher training program. However, in 2000, the percentage of fully
trained primary school teachers was 57 %, with 49% of teachers in
rural areas being trained compared to 67% in urban areas.
Therefore, up to half of the teachers currently in primary school

83
Interview with primary school manager in Belize City - January 2004.

84
Interviews with teachers, principals and school managers of Primary Schools – January 2004.

58


never had this basic training in identifying the systems of abuse in
children and the need to report. The DHS through its COMPAR unit
and NGO’s such as NOPCAN and NCFC has sought to tackle this
problem by facilitating workshops and seminars in schools to
sensitize teachers as to the symptoms of abuse and the need for
compliance with mandatory reporting requirements. In spite of this,
teachers in at least one denominational primary school reported that
they had limited exposure and training in identifying the symptoms
of abuse in children and did feel comfortable with the exposure that
they had. Schools do not provide continuous training for teachers in
this area and there is a high turnover rate of teachers in primary
schools85. This creates vulnerability in the system since outside of
the family situation where the abuse likely occurred, most of a
child’s time is spent at school. If that teacher is not equipped to
identify abuse and/or does not consider it a requirement to report
that abuse, children under her care may never receive the
intervention needed to abuse and protect them from further abuse.

2. Dealing with offenders who are educators. The Education Act
provides for the infliction of corporal punishment that is neither
excessive nor harmful to the child for serious and repeated offences
and only by the principal or senior member of staff86 . In spite of
this, there are numerous reports that corporal punishment is still
being used for minor and one-time offences. The DHS’ COMPAR
unit and NCFC has undertaken public education drives to train
teachers in the use of alternative forms of discipline but many
teachers are fundamentally opposed to the withdrawal of the right to
inflict corporal punishment citing as the most effective means of
maintaining discipline in over crowded classrooms. The situation is
facilitated by a comprehensive written protocol dealing with
corporal punishment as a form of abuse and the implicit tolerance of
corporal punishment by most school management. Children
continue to be at risk from this scourge in schools and are not yet
effectively protected in this area.

3. Lack of rehabilitative services attached to schools or community. In
the rural districts, schools complained that once the abuse has been
reported and the perpetrator dealt with the child returns to school

85
The Second Periodic Report of the CRC (draft) indicated that 95.0% of 40 schools investigated had 1-5
teachers leave during the year of the study (1997/98). Interview with school managers indicate that this is
a general trend each year.

86
The Education Act s. 27.

59


and there is no follow up service within the school system to offer
counseling to the child. In some instances, these children are unable
to re-integrate in the school environment especially in the villages
where the perpetrator is known at the school and where often there
is no alternative school where the child can be transferred, instead
the child is often pulled out of school and their education interrupted
or stopped87. These children face a double victimization, firstly,
when they are abused and secondly, when the stigma associated
with being abused prevents them from re-establishing normality to
their lives, denies them needed social interaction and educational
advancement.

4. Carnal Knowledge and pregnancy in teenagers. Police statistics
report that between the ages of 15 to 18 the primary abuse to
children is sexual abuse or unlawful carnal knowledge. This
becomes an issue for schools because these statistics also indicate
that in the majority of this abuse to secondary school age children,
the perpetrators are other children of similar age. With the age of
consent being 16, any sexual activity involving a girl under that age
is considered abuse. Schools report that this carnal knowledge
often results in the girl becoming pregnant and that as it is contrary
to school policy for students to become pregnant, these girls are
generally expelled. This policy is being challenged as it penalizes
the female student by denying her an education while allowing her
male counterpart to continue with his education. This is a very
difficult issue to deal with. On the one hand the right of the school
to protect the tenets of faith on which their schools are established
and to which parents have impliedly consented by applying for their
children to attend that school, on the other hand such children have
a right to be educated. Great sensitivity is required in tackling this
issue but it continues to be an area where the rights of children are
not protected equally and exposes female “victims” of this kind of
carnal knowledge to vulnerability.

5. Schools intervening to compromise child abuse cases. There were
reports of primary schools holding meetings with parents in cases
where there were allegations of one child abusing another child and
settling the matter at the school without informing the DHS88.
School managers remark that when there are allegations of abuse the

87
Interviews with primary school managers -January 2004.

88
Interview with persons who had/are experiencing the child protection system, January 2004 and
interviews with school managers.

60


school would investigate the matter and meet with parents and
determine the gravity of the situation before deciding whether DHS
would be notified89. This has created vulnerability since it adds to
the number of unreported cases, making planning difficult and also
it prevents DHS from making an assessment whether the best
interest of the child was protected. It is not known how widespread
this practice is and further investigation into its prevalence will have
to be done.

The Health Department
INFRASTRUCTURE

Health professionals are major contributors to the inter-agency care of
children that extends beyond the initial referral, assessment and
medical-legal process, into multidisciplinary team meeting attendance,
participation in planning and the ongoing treatment and support of the
child and family.

Under our laws the evidence of children must be corroborated in some
material particular before any perpetrator can be convicted of any sex
crime against children. In most cases, this corroboration is provided by
medical evidence of the doctor’s examination of the child for signs of
abuse. The participation of the Health sector is important in ensuring
perpetrators are brought to justice. In addition, the child who has
suffered abuse is very often in need of immediate medical care and
follow up medical treatment.

In addition, doctors are required under the mandatory reporting
requirements to report any case where during general treatment,
evidence of abuse is identified.

PERCEPTIONS OF THE SYSTEM

They recognise the importance of their participation in the child
protection system, nonetheless, the influx of short term contract doctors

89
Interviews with school managers, January 2004.

61


from overseas has had a negative effect on the development of a trained,
committed cadre of doctors within the child protection system.

ISSUES FACING THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT:

Lack of written protocols detailing standard examination
procedures. There are reports by the police and by the DHS that
there are differences in how different doctors conduct the
medical examination to identify the signs or lack of signs of
abuse, particularly sexual abuse. There are reports of one doctor
saying that the hymen of a child suspected of being sexually
abused was broken when another examination by a
gynaecologist indicated that the hymen was intact90. This was
confirmed by interviews with doctors who indicated that
general medical training does not offer extensive forensic
training, this is an area of specialty as a result general
practitioners are aware of the finer details of identifying injuries
associated with sexual activity etc, unless gained by experience
as there are no written protocols standardizing the procedure to
be followed on medical examination. This is an area of
vulnerability in the child protection system since convictions
rely so heavily on the medical evidence.

1. Lack of specialist doctors in rural districts. As a result of the
heavy reliance on medical examination, the court is unwilling to
allow a general practitioner to give medical evidence in a child
molestation case unless his extensive experience demonstrates
that he is an expert in that field or the defence makes no
objection to him testifying. In the rural districts, this becomes a
challenge for the medical profession as there is a lack of
specialist doctors in the districts. Currently, DHS relies heavily
on private doctors to conduct medical examinations, this is an
expensive procedure and may cause delays in getting medical
attention to the victim since private doctors will sometimes
require appointments to be made. The problems associated with
this have largely been absolved by the willingness of magistrate
courts to accept the evidence of general practitioners. The
problem arises in the Supreme Court where the defendant is
likely to be represented and where the qualifications of the

90
Interview with Social Services Practitioners - February 2004.

62


doctor must be laid out before he can be accepted as an expert
and be allowed to give evidence.

2. Inadequacy of medico-legal forms. Current medico-legal form
does not assist doctors in identifying abuse since it does not
have any provision for indications of forensic identifiers and
does not prompt doctors to make forensic examination. In the
case of physical abuse only cases where a general examination
conducted by a doctor indicate visible signs of abuse are
medico-legal forms completed and charges laid. In the case of
sexual abuse, charges are laid only cases where the hymen is not
intact. Further, the explanation on the forms as to what
constitutes harm etc. do not conform to current legal
requirements needed to establish carnal knowledge. In many
instances a second medical examination must be done to meet
legal requirements. The examination procedure is an intrusive
procedure which can be as traumatic as the abuse itself. The
forms create vulnerability by contributing to the low conviction
rate and by causing many victims to suffer an additional trauma
of a second medical examination.

3. Lack of training in giving evidence in court. Doctors
interviewed indicated that they did not like to perform the
medical examination as they will have to attend court to give
evidence and that can be an intimidating experience as their
evidence is often challenged and sometimes not accepted.
Giving medical evidence in court requires a background in
forensic medicine or training in what how to present medical
evidence in court and how to deal with the objections of
defence attorneys. The lack of training on the part of many
doctors places children in the child protection at risk as it
contributes to under-classification of injuries in the hopes that
no charges will be laid so there would be no need to attend court
and also contributes to the low rate of convictions.

4. Lack of proper data-base to track incidence of child abuse in
patients. There has been developed a data base to track the
treatment of women due to allegations of domestic violence,
there is no similar data base to track the treatment of children
due to allegations of child abuse. As a result, data on the
incidence of child abuse in Belize is lacking and proper policy
making is hampered.

63


In addition, doctors making examinations are unable to check
the database to see if patient has been previously treated for
injuries associated with abuse. This kind of information would
strengthen cases brought where the perpetrator is a repeat
offender against that victim but legal proceedings were never
initiated in the first instance as it will establish propensity. The
lack of such facility renders such children vulnerable and
prevents charges being laid in cases where there are no express
signs of abuse.

5. Language barrier between doctors and patients. Many of the
doctors in Belize are expatriates for whom English is not a first
language. In their dealing with patients who speak English as a
first language, they may be unable to develop the rapport that is
needed between doctor and patient for the doctor to ascertain
accurately what happened to the patient. This is not aided by
having interpreters.

The incidence of expatriate doctors also means that these
doctors are on short term contracts. Due to the extensive time
delays experience in prosecuting matters in the courts, these
doctors may no longer be present in Belize when the matter
comes up for hearing and no other can give evidence on their
behalf. This creates vulnerability as the case is often withdrawn
in those cases because of the importance of the medical
evidence. The perpetrator is allowed to go free and often returns
to the community where the child lives and the child gets no re-
dress for the wrong done.

6. Lack of public education (sex education in schools and
education to destroy the cultural acceptance of incest and
carnal knowledge). The current sex education program in
schools has been slow in causing children to protect themselves
from abuse or encourage greater reporting and continues to
leave children at risk. There continues to be widespread public
acceptance of incest and of carnal knowledge which impedes
government initiatives to stem abuse.

7. Informal adoptions of children abandoned in hospitals. There
have been reports of children being abandoned in hospitals and
of doctors allowing strangers to sign them out of hospitals who
are unwilling to report such children as they fear them being
placed in an institution where they will not receive adequate

64


ante-natal care91. DHS indicates that such fears are
unsubstantiated as new-borns are not placed in institutions but
with foster families. Nonetheless, the practice continues and
places children at risk by destroying hopes of family
reconciliation or relative placement which are objectives of
current government policy and the CRC.

The Judicial/Legal Sector:

INFRASTRUCTURE

The judicial/legal sector consists of the Court system – (the Supreme Court;
Magistrate and Family Courts; the D.P.P. and the prosecutors at the Magistrate
level. The legal sector is the enforcement end of the child protection system
and is directly responsible for the protection of children from perpetrators.

At the Supreme Court level, it is the responsibility of the Department of Public
Prosecutions (DPP) to review and, where appropriate, file and conduct all
criminal proceedings instigated on behalf of the BPD. In the context of the
child protection system, the cases that come to the Supreme Court under its
criminal jurisdiction are the indictable matters or summary matters triable
either on indictment or summarily. The criminal cases which are heard in the
Magistrate Court are summary jurisdiction offences or offences triable at the
summary level with the consent of the accused92. Under its civil jurisdiction the
Supreme Court, child protection cases include orders for custody or
maintenance or appeals from orders made by the Family Court as well as
adoptions.

The Family Court is a Magistrate Court established by the Family Court Act to
hear matters affecting the family. As such cases concerning custody,
maintenance, removal of children by the DHS, status of children, appointment
and removal of guardians and proceedings under the Hague Convention are all
brought in the Family Court. The Family Court is located in Belize City but sits
in the Magistrate Court in the other districts. In Belize City, the Family Court
has its own cadre of Magistrates, in the other districts, the District Magistrate

91
Interviews with social services practitioners- January 2004.

92
A list of those offences is provided in the appendix.

65


hears family proceedings and on occasion there is a rotation system from the
Family Court to clear off any backlog of Family Cases.

There is a two-tier approach to child protection in cases where there are
allegations of physical or sexual abuse. Firstly, the abuse constitutes a crime on
the individual and the perpetrator is liable to be prosecuted under the relevant
section of the criminal code. In addition, there is a civil element to these cases,
where the DHS must secure the welfare of the child by seeking various orders
under the FACA in the Family Court for the safe removal, maintenance,
custody or care of the child to prevent further abuse.

The social services practitioner appointed to the case will initiate proceedings
in the Family Court on behalf of the child. These proceedings may proceed at
the same time that the D.P.P.’s office is initiating and prosecuting the criminal
case in the Supreme Court or Magistrate Court. The social services practitioner
often serves double duty, representing the interest of the child in the Family
Court proceedings and acting as amicus curiae in the criminal proceedings.

It is the Prosecution Branch on the advise of the D.P.P. that decides which
cases will be proceeded with in the criminal jurisdiction of the Magistrate
Court, the D.P.P. decides which cases will proceed in the criminal jurisdiction
of the Supreme Court.

To secure convictions in the Magistrate or Supreme Courts, the prosecutor must
prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the perpetrator committed the crime. To
secure an order in the Family Court, the social services practitioner must prove
on a balance of probabilities that it is in the best interest of the child for the
relevant order sought be granted. Interviews with social services practitioners
and member of the police indicate that the importance of this distinction is not
clearly appreciated. One of the more important consequences of this distinction
is the need for the police to control the investigation process for criminal
proceedings. There were reports from the police that social services
practitioners did not furnish police with statements and reports quickly
enough93. While it is appreciated that there is a need to reduce the trauma
caused to the child by reducing the number of times the child must repeat the
details of the abuse, it is clear that social services practitioners not trained in
criminal investigative procedures cannot produce reports that will lead to
criminal convictions, as their reports are geared at meeting the much lower
standard in the Family Court, thus it is not unusual for the DPP to decide that a
criminal case cannot be proceeded with and the Family Court to rule on the
same evidence that the child needs to be protected from the same individual.

93
Interviews with police in rural districts - January 2004.

66


At best reports can only provide additional leads for the further investigation of
the police. This practice has created vulnerability within the system with the
DPP department that on a number of occasions, files are sent to them from the
police investigative unit and the information on the files do not provide
evidence needed to substantiate the charge made to gain conviction in the
Supreme Court and so files have to be returned for further investigation94.


Magistrates, judges and prosecutors all recognise that they are the most
important and often last hope for the protection of children within the child
protection system. The current low conviction rate of child abuse perpetrators is
a concern to all and there is a recognized need to strengthen the various arms of
the judicial/legal sector. In addition, they perceive a growing and worrying
trend for prosecution to be initiated and then withdrawn by parents or guardians
of victims or a absence of major witnesses on the day of trial all resulting in
such prosecutions having to be abandoned 95. This wastes the court’s time as
well as resources applied to that case and effectively denies other victims
access to the court. Further, it sends a wrong message by contributing to the
low conviction rate96.

ISSUES FACING THE JUDICIAL/LEGAL SECTOR:

1. Restrictions on children giving evidence; laws and procedures. Under
current legislation, the child victim must first be found competent to
give evidence under oath, if the child is found incompetent to give such
evidence, the perpetrator cannot be convicted unless the child’s
evidence is corroborated97. In many instances, this has the effect of
disqualifying the child from giving evidence since the perpetrator and

94
Interview with the DPP – January 2004, Belize City.

95
Interviews with police prosecutors, the DPP and magistrates in rural districts.

96
In a recent case brought before the Supreme Court, the D.P.P.’s office was forced to withdraw the case
due to the non-attendance of a key witness, the Judge remarked that it is a worrying trend that he is seeing
in the court where witnesses do not turn up for trials and expressed the view that the D.P.P.’s office
cannot be blamed when those cases are abandoned or thrown out, the public must understand their role in
providing evidence needed to secure convictions.

97
Section 103 of the Evidence Act.

67


the child victim are often the only witnesses to the crime98. This
legislation is not in keeping with current legislation internationally99.
Further, children are often fearful of standing up in court to face the
perpetrator to give evidence 100. In other jurisdictions, children are
allowed to give evidence via video-camera to prevent contact with the
accused101.

In addition, there are reports that children are fearful of reprisals from
the perpetrator if the child gives evidence of the abuse 102. In many
instances, the perpetrator is a family member or close friend of the
family and lives with the child or in the same community. There is no
child protection system to protect children and family members from
reprisals. Clients of the DHS indicate that such reprisals are a real
danger as the child and the family are often threatened or pressured by
the perpetrator to abandon cases103. The extent to which this contributes
to the abandonment of cases by guardians and parents is unclear 104 but it
does contribute to the abandonment of cases and is an area of
vulnerability in the system since the fear of reprisals, real or perceived
can prevent persons coming forward to prosecute cases.

2. Lack of legal training of magistrates and prosecutors. Currently, most
of the Magistrates in the Family Court and the Magistrate Courts are not
qualified attorneys-at-law. There are reports that this causes problems
where the accused is legally represented. Specifically, the magistrate is
often not aware of all the evidentiary procedures required to be adhered
to and is unwilling to rule against defense attorneys who raise
procedural objections105. This concerned is mirrored by clients of the

98
Interview with the DPP - January 2004, Belize City.

99
(supra)

100
Interviews with clients -February 2004, Belize City and rural districts.

101
The draft amendments to the FACA makes provisions for the child witness in court proceedings in the
Family Court to give evidence via video-camera., however, these amendments have yet been assented to.

102
Interviews with persons who have/are experiencing the child protection system - February 2004,
Belize City and rural districts.

103
(supra)

104
Both the police and the DPP office indicate that their investigations indicate that informal
investigations indicate a wider incidence of cases being abandoned because the perpetrator offers the
family money to compensate the victim and to abandon cases than the incidence of cases being abandoned
because of fear of reprisals. There is a need for further investigation in this area.

105
Interviews with social services practitioners - January 2004.

68


DHS who report that in cases where the accused is legally represented
the prosecutor is often prevented from adducing important pieces of
evidence because they did not follow the proper procedure and then
those cases are lost106. In addition, there are often numerous requests for
adjournments in cases where the accused has legal representation and
the magistrate is more likely to grant a request for bail by an attorney-
at-law even if the prosecutor objects107. In response, these shortcomings
are current efforts by the Attorney General’s Ministry to strengthen the
magistracy by providing opportunities for legal training of magistrates
and there are currently at least one member of the Family Court and at
least 4 members of the Magistrate Courts that are legally trained, the
number will continue to grow as the program is strengthened. In
addition, a system of introducing civilian prosecutors, under the
supervision of the DPP office, in the magistrate courts nationwide has
been implemented to develop a cadre of trained prosecutors in the
civilian courts to erase the current disparity108.

3. Withdrawal of cases. Currently, police are faced with a growing trend
of child abuse cases where the parents or guardians of the child victim
or the teen aged victim informs the court on the day of trial that they no
longer wish to proceed with charges109. Police indicate that the number
of cases where this seems to be happening is on the increase. Police
suspect that the cases are being withdrawn because the parents and
guardians are accepting monetary gifts from perpetrators to discontinue
proceedings110. In at least one case, the matter was withdrawn by the
teenage victim because her parents consent to her marrying the alleged
abuser, thereby rendering herself a non-compellable witness against
him111. Police indicate that in most cases involving teenage victims of
abuse, the teenager has a regular “consensual” sexual relationship with
the perpetrator and the parents are aware of the abuse, their
investigations have uncovered cases where parents receive regular
monetary contributions to supplement household income from the

106

107
(supra)

108
Interview with the DPP - January 2004, Belize City.

109
Interviews with police in Belize City and Cayo District – January 2004.

110
(supra)

111
DHS files.

69


perpetrator and makes a report to the police that there is abuse when
moneys are not paid only to come and withdraw the case when the
perpetrator resumes monetary contributions to the home 112. Parents and
guardians interviewed, some of whom had discontinued cases initiated
against perpetrators did not confirm these allegations, rather they
indicated that cases where withdrawn because the police investigation
took too long or the magistrate gave the perpetrator bail and allowed
him to return to the community and they feared reprisal attacks113. They
also indicated that they did not receive notices of the hearing well in
advance of the date of the hearing and so could not make proper
preparations for their witnesses to attend court to give evidence on their
behalf114. Nonetheless, the continued withdrawal of cases just prior to
hearings or at the first hearing contributes to the low conviction rate and
the public perception that child abuse cases are not being prosecuted
and child abusers go free, this perception is dangerous for the long term
effectiveness of the child protection system since it discouraged
participation by victims and therefore must be addressed as an issue of
vulnerability in the system.

4. Lack of sensitization training for prosecutors. Clients of the DHS report
that police prosecutors and prosecutors from the DPP in interviewing
children and preparing them for trial did not show sufficient sensitivity
to the horror the child had experienced. One parent reported how after
the initial interview with the prosecutor, the child refused to speak about
the incident again and when asked questions in court refused to answer
and the case was dismissed115. The difficult appears to be that parents
do not appreciate that the prosecutor must prepare the child for
questions the accused or his attorney-at-law is likely to ask and must
prepare the child for the adversarial nature of criminal proceedings. The
parents and guardians also indicate that there is no perceived by
prosecutors to inform them of the progress of investigations, the
progress of cases and of the reasons why prosecutions are abandoned 116.
This has created mistrust between the public and police prosecution
with most parents and guardians interviewed taking the view that the

112
Interviews with police in Belize City and Cayo District – January 2004.

113

114
(supra)

115
(supra)

116
(supra)

70


prosecution branch was not serious about prosecuting cases of child
abuse117. On their part, the D.P.P.’s office admits that no sensitivity
training is provided to prosecutors and would welcome the assistance of
the DHS in providing this 118. Some effort has been made to alleviate
this by requesting amicus curiaes from the DHS and requesting that
they prepare the children for the trial process, this is a welcome advance
but is not sufficient in as much as social services practitioners lack
knowledge of criminal procedure. This training would prevent the
current complaints by parents and guardians that the criminal trial
process subjects the child to further trauma and delays recovery119.
Children should not experience further victimization or trauma in
seeking redress for the wrong done to them and the lack of continuous
sensitivity training for the personnel involved in the legal/judicial sector
exposes them to that risk and must be addressed.

5. Lack of training of doctors and police in collecting and presenting
forensic evidence and the absence of protocols on these. The D.P.P.’s
office reports that police files sent to them for prosecution often reveal a
failure to collect and/or failure to present evidence collected in a legally
accepted manner120. Currently, there is no forensic unit attached to the
police and the only access to police with any forensic skills comes when
the CIB is called into a case. However, the CIB is only called in when
the perpetrator is a stranger to the victim. Police statistics indicate that
in most cases the perpetrator is known to the victim. In these cases the
DVU is called in to handle the investigation, there are no persons with
forensic training in the DVU. Indeed, there is no forensic laboratory in
Belize. The effect of this is that police investigations primarily consists
of statements from victims and perpetrators supplemented by the
medico-legal form. Thus in cases where the abuse is not admitted and
there is insufficient proof of penetration, no charges are brought or in
cases where the medical evidence is not strong the prosecution will
withdraw the case especially where the victim is under 7 years old and
unlikely to be allowed to give evidence under oath. As a result there are
a number of children who have been abused who have not been given
redress because there are currently no means of supplementing

117
(supra)

118
Interview with the DPP in January 2004 in Belize City.

119
Interviews with persons who have/are experiencing the child protection system -January 2004.

120
Interview with the DPP in January 2004 in Belize City.

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statements with forensic evidence such as traces of semen visible under
UV light at the scene of the crime, DNA evidence where the perpetrator
denies the abuse but penetration is proved, or DNA evidence from
samples of skin or hair caught under fingernails where the victim
struggled with the perpetrator , photographs of injuries to supplement
medical examination, etc. International, this kind of evidence is being
depended on more than circumstantial police evidence to gain
convictions as this prevents innocent persons being pinned with the
crime and prevents cases that are weak circumstantially from falling
through the cracks. This may also solve the problem of low convictions
and encourage greater witness participation. The D.P.P.’s office
indicates that there are plans underway to equip Belize with a forensic
lab and to train police investigators to collect, analyze and present this
kind of evidence121.

6. Lack of early collaboration between prosecution and police. The
practice within the police department is to prepare the case for court and
then send the file to the DPP or prosecution branch. Often this
preparation is completed months after the incident has occurred. In
many instances, the DPP report122 that they have had to return cases to
the police because the investigation is incomplete. This creates further
delays before the matter can be prosecuted or if the matter is already in
court will likely result in the prosecution being withdrawn. This is the
result of lack of early collaboration between the police and the
prosecution branch/DPP and creates vulnerability in the system by
contributing to the low conviction rate and the unwillingness of victims
to proceed with cases which they feel are taking too long to be
prosecuted especially if they have re-instituted some sense of normalcy
after the abusive event. For many victims, long prosecutions delay
recovery by prolonging the torment of having to rehash and mentally
replay an incident the victim would wish to forget123.

7. Lack of uniformity in the procedures in Family Court. Social services
practitioners indicate that there is a lack of uniformity of procedures in
the Family Court especially with respect to the requirements for care
orders124. They report that in some cases one magistrate will not grant a

121
(supra)

122
(supra)

123
Interviews with persons who have/are experiencing the child protection system -January 2004

124
Interviews with social services practitioners - January 2004, Belize City and rural districts.

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care order on a set of facts another magistrate will grant it in another
case on the same set of facts125. In addition, there are discrepancies in
the magistracy as to which sections of FACA should be used to ground
applications for custody, and will often dismiss applications by social
services practitioners telling them that they have brought it under the
wrong section, while in other districts, magistrate will allow a similar
application under the same section126. The problem persists because
magistrates are guided in the interpretation of the FACA by their own
discretion or by the Family Court Handbook. There are no rules to the
FACA127 regulating procedures in the Family Court and in the Family
jurisdiction of the Magistrate Courts , this is a major lacuna in the child
protection system that must be addressed. The Magistrate Court and the
Family Court are creatures of statute, their procedures must be regulated
by statute, indeed, there is no innate discretion in those courts to
formulate their own practice and procedure as is the case with the
Supreme Court. The Family Court Handbook may be sufficient to guide
the administration of the Family Court but it cannot be sufficient to
guide the legal practice and procedure to be employed in that court
since it does not have the force of law and its contents are unknown to
social services practitioners and attorneys-at-law. Magistrates asked to
decide cases under the FACA must be aided in that endeavour by
adequate rules of procedure to guide the exercise of their discretion, to
not do so imposes an unfair and unnecessary strain on the magistracy
and prevents the due exercise of law and denies litigants the opportunity
to be heard by requiring proceedings to be re-instituted when the parties
are already before the court.

The situation is exacerbate by the fact that the social services
practitioners lack legal training to defend procedural objections brought
by attorneys-at-law.

8. Lack of legal aid for foster parents seeking de facto adoptions. The
FACA128 provides for persons raising children under de facto adoption
for over two years to be allowed to formally adopt those children.
Currently, DHS indicates that there are a number of foster parents
within the system raising children that have been abandoned for a

125
(supra)

126
(supra)

127
Some rules were drafted in 2002 but these have yet to be assented to and given the force of law.

128
Section 144 of the FACA.

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number of years who would want to formally adopt those children but
find the cost of adoptions prohibitive. This becomes a problem of
vulnerability because those children remain in foster care instead of
being allowed to join families that have had long term care of them and
who desire to give them a permanent home. For some of these children,
the foster family is the only family they have known. In addition, the
situation means that resources continue to be diverted to care for and
supervise these children when those resources could be diverted to care
for other children coming into the system. It is a clear goal of the CRC
for children to have permanency in their family relationships, the lack
of legal aid to facilitate adoptions of children in long term de facto
situations and being cared for by the government prevents this goal
from being realized for many children under the care of the government.

Child Care Providers : 129

INFRASTRUCTURE

Child care providers comprise residential institutions utilize by the child
protection system and private foster individuals acting as foster parents. There
are 4 child care residential institutions in Belize at present. There are some 400
children in care. Of this number approximately 100 are housed in institutions.
The majority of children in care are living with foster parents. Foster care
providers in Belize utilize their own resources with some assistance given by
the DHS130. There is a social services practitioner assigned to each child in
foster care and the DHS maintains files on children in care. Most children in
care are under Care Orders from the Family Court. Children come into care
because of abandonment, neglect or abuse. In most cases children will be in
care for an average of one year during which time the department works with
families to develop parenting skills in parents and utilizing whatever resources

129
Interviews with various foster parents in the Belize District and the rural districts and interviews of
children’s homes operators in Belize City and the Cayo District.

130
There is a monetary assistance of $60.00 each month and for babies pampers and baby formula is
given, for older children assistance is given with clothes and school fees and school supplies.

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are available to the DHS to strengthen the family so that the child can return to
the family unit.

However, there are also children who are permanently in care. For such
children the DHS has been given custody and parental rights have been severed
by the Family Court. Permanency plans must be made for such children.


Child care providers understand that in many respects they are the backbone of
the child protection system and the rehabilitation of a person that has come into
care is dependent on a successful family placement. Child care providers
perceive that there is an increase in the number of children requiring care and
also an increase in the services required by children coming into care since
more children are coming into for abuse than in previous times. Child care
providers perceive that they need to be better equipped to deal with such
children.

ISSUES FACING CHILD CARE PROVIDERS:

a) Visits by social services practitioners are not evenly
spaced and are not regular enough to maintain a viable
relationship with the child.
b) There is often little discussion at the onset of care,
what plans are being put in place for the complete
rehabilitation of children and the time component on
those plans so that goals can be evaluated.
c) Continuity is not maintained in the lives of children.
Child care providers are not equipped with the
knowledge of child’s background, history, identity and
providing photographs of family etc.
d) Child care providers are sometimes not equipped to
deal with the particular child, as such might not have
been provided they must have basic information on the
reason the child is placed in care, orders in place to
ensure safety and maintenance of child, special skills
nor given specific training that may be needed to help
that particular child.

75


e) There are no resources to do adequate investigation
into the history of child care providers to ensure that
there is no risk that they will subject child to further
victimization or abuse. This is becoming more
important as more first time child care providers are
being recruited into the system.
f) Inadequate attention is given to the need for medical
care for children in care.
g) The financial assistance given is not adequate to meet
the needs of children in care especially older children.
h) Children in care often have no contact with other
siblings who may also be in care.
i) Regular counseling is not available to children in care.
j) The psychological effect of being in care, issues of
abandonment by parents and self esteem issues of
children in care are not addressed.

Community 131

Members of the community are depended on to provide assistance to the police
in bringing child offenders to justice and to assist the DHS by providing
additional services to children in care. They include citizens, NGO’s,
community groups such as churches and volunteer associations.


Members of the community for the most part perceive the child protection system
as the responsibility of the DHS. The DHS is the most identified and sometimes
only identified agency within the child protection system. Members of the
community generally perceive that the child protection system is not doing enough
to protect children from abuse.

131
Informal interviews with members of the community in January and February, 2004.

76


ISSUES FACING THE COMMUNITY:

a) Confusion between the role of the police and the role of the
DHS in the child protection system. Members of the
community display an insufficient knowledge of who are
the agencies involved in the child protection system and
what are their roles.
b) There is unwillingness to participate in the child protection
system by giving evidence to corroborate allegations of
abuse to children because persons do not want to go to
court and be identified as the informant.
c) Though persons readily agree that there is a need to report
cases of abuses, most persons do not want to make reports
as they do not want abusers who are often their
acquaintances to know that they made the report.
d) Services available for child abuse do not take in the need to
provide victim and guardian of victim an alternative means
of support if the abuser is the main breadwinner.
e) There is cultural acceptance of abuse, especially physical
abuse, persons do not know when discipline ends and abuse
begins.
f) There is a lack of integration between NGO’s and the
DHS.
g) Cultural and economic factors hinder expunging sexual
abuse of teenagers, especially cultural encouragement of
early sexual activity and poverty.

77

Chapter

6
RECOMMENDATIONS
From the interviews done with the stakeholders, agencies and
clients of the child protection system areas for improvement
have been identified. Recommendations are now made to
improve these areas.

Legislative Amendments

T he literature review indicated that while great strides have been made by the
introduction of the FACA, there is a need to amend that and other
legislation which establishes the framework for the child protection system
to remove areas of vulnerability within the legal framework of the child
protection. The following legislative amendments are recommended:

23. FACA132
a) Strengthen the sanctions for child pornography .
b) Set out the procedure for the enforcement of the crime of
publicizing the particulars of children involved in child abuse
cases.
c) Provide that the Guardian Ad Litem should only be persons that
have been trained in social work and who are registered social
workers.

It must be decided whether this act will be repealed or enforced. If
the act is to be kept and enforced then the following things must be
provided for in the act:
b) Proper places to house children.

132
There is an urgent need for the draft amendments to the FACA and the Regulations setting out
procedure for its use in the Courts to be enacted. The amendments suggested here have been addressed in
those drafts along with others which are needed to make the intention of the FACA manifest in the court
system.

78


c) Legislation should provide for persons who will supervise
children at places they are housed and the procedure for care and
or placement of children picked up on curfew must be legislated.

a) The amicus curiae must be mandated to be a social worker.
b) Provision should be made for amicus curaie called in civil cases
in which social workers from the Department of Human Services
are involved to be persons not employed to the Department.
c) Define the role and purpose of the amicus curiae more clearly.
d) Sanctions must be imposed for the failure to report child abuse.

26. The Inferior Courts Act (procedures establishing the Alcalde
jurisdiction)
a) Provisions should be made for Alcalde judges to be more closely
supervised, they should be required to send copies of minute
books to the Chief Justice at set intervals.
b) Provisions should be made in the legislation for them to be
sensitised to issues surrounding child abuse
c) The mandatory reporting requirements must specifically provide
for alcades to report cases of abuse brought before them and to
supervise or participate in community efforts put together by the
Court or the Department of Human Services to deal with child
abuse cases.

a) A definition of “child” must be included in the act.
b)The act must provide for mandatory counseling of the
children as a way to promote behavioural change and as a way
to deal with the issues causing the uncontrollable behaviour,
d)Other avenues for rehabilitation besides manual labour must
be identified,
e) The act must define what constitutes uncontrollable behaviour
or provide a yardstick against which behaviour can be deemed
uncontrollable,
f)The act must require parents to seek parental training,
g) Provisions requiring parents to contribute to the
maintenance of their children while in the institutions must be
enforced,
h) Provisions should be made to restrict parents from collecting
maintenance payments for children in the institution, instead
these payments should be sent to the institution.

79


i) Provisions should be made in the act that where parents do
not commit to parental training and rehabilitation, that the DHS
develop permanent placement plans for those children who can
be rehabilitated and removed from institutional care,
k) Provisions should be made for parents to be consulted on
medical decisions and legal decisions concerning their children.
Perhaps it is time to repeal this act and replace it with a model
mirroring the draft regulations on residential care.

28. Criminal Code
a) the age of criminal responsibility is 9 years, this threshold is
too low in light of the fact that there is no Guardian Ad Litem to
represent their interest and no guaranteed access to legal aid,
elsewhere in the Caribbean, the age of criminal responsibility
is being agreed at 12.
b) the age for obtaining counseling without parental consent
should be lowered to 16 to match the age of legal consent.
c) indecent assault should be capable of being committed both
on females and males and not just females only as at present.
d) carnal knowledge is capable of being committed only on
girls, the offence should be gender neutral.
e) section 47 (3) which exonerates a man from the crime of
carnal knowledge if he thought that the child was his wife
should be repealed.
f) section 62 should also be repealed to remove the confusion of
having two different penalties for incest and should be gender
neutral.
g)sections 49,50,51, 56 and 77 should also be gender neutral so
that boys can receive equal protection under the law for
procurement and abduction.
h) Provisions should be made for sanctions for the failure to
provide the necessaries of life under section 100.
i) section 12 (b) indicates that the consent of a female in the case
of indecent is void if the female is under fourteen, thereby
suggesting that her consent is acceptable if she is fourteen. This
creates a conflict in the act since the legal age of consent
established by the act is 16 years old. Hence fourteen in the
section must be amended to 16, the legal age of consent.
j) section 55 only prohibits child stealing up to the age of 12, this
must be increased to 18 to protect all children.
k) section 60 should be amended to protect children above the
age of 5 and section 92 amended to protect children above 9
years old in cases of abandonment.

80


l)section 31 should be amended to prevent anyone inflicting harm
on a child for the purpose of correcting the child to prohibit the
abuse of children masquerading as discipline in schools.
m) provisions should be made in the criminal code to criminalize
the publication of the names and addresses of the children who
are the victims in child abuse cases or any other child involved in
such cases .
n) In every case involving allegation of abuse of a child, the
court should make an automatic court order that the Defendant
does not come into contact with the complainant or make contact
with the complainant or his guardian .
o)There should be provision for witness protection in some cases.
Currently there are no such programs in place, though it may be
costly or traumatic for the child as it may separate him from
siblings, it will not be needed in all cases. Such a program should
only apply to a child at risk of being hurt because orders for the
perpetrator to stay away will not provide adequate protection for
the child.
p)Provisions must also be put in place to ensure that guardians
do not withdraw cases unless that is established to be in the best
interest of the child.. One suggestion is to prescribe a sum that a
guardian must pay for initiating criminal action and then
withdrawing it, that money will go to the fund to be used to pay
legal aid to ensure legal representation of the accused. That sum
should not exceed $500.00 and should be payable immediately
when the court is informed of the decision to withdraw.
q) Where guardians of children accept money to discontinue
cases that needs to be treated as the criminal act that it is. Under
law, the person receiving the money is abetting the crime. They
could be prosecuted under that section but this does not serve the
purpose, a more comprehensive revision is needed to include a
specific offence prohibiting paying or receiving for crimes.

a) the act defines child as a person under 16 and a young person
as a person between 16 and 18 but does not treat them
differently, to be consistent with the rest of the legislation and
with other legislation the definition should be a person under
18.
b) Section 9 (1) of the act gives a child the right to be heard in the
presence of an adult, this should be amended to ensure legal

81


representation of the child being heard so that legal issues
concerned with him speaking are dealt with.
c) Children who are co-accused of crimes and charged with adults
should be dealt with separately by the juvenile court and held in
camera (s.3 (1) of the act
d) The provision in the act to keep juveniles away from adults at
the pre-detention stage under s. 11(3) must be enforced in
practice. Currently, persons sentenced to a period of detention
are housed in the Boot Camp building within the prison
complex, there should be a separate facility for such children
altogether
e) Children deprived of their liberty should have the right to
maintain contact with their families

a) A provision is needed for legal representation of children. Each
child liable to become part of the penal system should have legal
representation at those hearings.
b) A Provision is needed for the rehabilitation of persons under the
Penal System Reform Act to include the provision of counseling
as needed.

a) legislative amendments are needed to equalize the standard of
assistance women who are victims abuse receive from the state
to start a new life with that which is provided to women who are
victims of trafficking so that they can make proper provision for
the children under their care in circumstances where the abuser
was the only breadwinner.

32. Marriage Act
a) the age of marriage should be increased to 16 to match the age
of consent.

33. Married Persons (Protection) Act
a) the provision for a ceiling of $50.00 in maintenance applications
made under the act should be repealed and the provisions in the
FACA substituted.

a) A provision must be included to give an identity to children in
care who were not registered and whose parents cannot be
found or whose parents refuse to register them

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a) The provisions prohibiting corporal punishment must be made
absolute or penalties imposed for the breach of the existing
provision by non-senior members of staff. Excesses in
application of corporal punishment must be criminalize by the
act.

a) protocols to be developed as to how the system set up by the act
will work
b) the responsibilities and roles of each sector to be delineated
c) regulations setting out the procedure under the act must be
made.

a) Alcohol must be classified as a drug and penalties imposed for
its sale to children

a) Section 6 of the act should be amended in line with the
amendment suggested for the Education Act to restrict the use of
corporal punishment on children

a) stiffer penalties needed in cases of child abuse
40. Evidence Act
a) section 74 and 91 assume that the perpetrator is male, this
should be made gender neutral
b) provisions are needed for children to give evidence in the
absence of perpetrators
c) remove requirement for automatic corroboration of child’s
evidence by equating cases of child abuse with provisions
dealing with sex crimes by bringing section 103 in line with
section 92.
d) revise age requirement in common law for giving evidence by
mandating that the ability to give evidence under oath shall
depend only the child’s understanding and appreciation of the
obligation to tell the truth.
e) children should be allowed to give evidence via videotape etc.,
and include a provision for the judge to make a decision as to
whether the evidence of the child will be taken in this special
manner based on evidence or material that the prosecution
provides.

83


f) In addition, a provision for persons charged with offences
against children to be legally represented would prevent a
challenge of the legislation on the basis that it denies the
accused the constitutional right to be heard. Appointing a
person to be a legal representative to represent child abusers
specifically may be cheaper than putting attorneys-at-law on a
roster system of legal aid.
g) The right to take evidence via videotape should be restricted to
cases where the prosecution established that the child is in need
of special protection .
h) For the protection of child witnesses, judges must be given the
ability to waive disclosure in some cases e.g. withholding the
address of witnesses needing special protection by having the
addresses expunged from witness statements sent to the
defendants as well as the name. Also judges should be able to
delay the delivery of such statements until a month before the
beginning of the trial to ensure proper arrangements in place to
protect child and to give child every opportunity to open up
about the incident.

41. Labour Act
a) The act must defines a child
b) The minimum age for admission to employment or work should
be increased to a level consistent with the fullest physical and
mental developmental of a child
(the ILO Convention recommends a minimum age of non less
than 15 years and 18 years in work considered hazardous
c) Section 54 (2) to be amended to provide a sanction where an
employer employs a child in a job dangerous to his development
d) Section 158 (3) – forced labour, law allows in case of child in
an institution under Reform Act or if detained as a result of
criminal conviction, this must be regulated to prevent
exploitation
e) Section 163 to be amended to prevent employment of children in
industrial undertakings
f) Sanctions for breaching the act to be strengthened and made
consistent, s. 161 (2), s. 172
g) Regulations are needed to prescribe the type, hours and
conditions of work of children and to widen the role of the
labour inspector and to ensure that the act can be enforced -
may need to strengthen institutional capacity and to investigate
instances of child labour esp. in rural areas.

84


42. Other legislation will need to be draft viz:
a) Legislation is needed specifically prohibiting pornography.
Pornography should be made an indictable offence as it is done
for profit.
b) There is also a need to develop proper alternatives to the court
system. Alternative Dispute Resolution Tribunals and mediation
officers equipped with attorneys-at-law and social workers who
are able to guide persons from opposing sides to a common
resolution and who are able to advise of the technical areas of
law affecting their claim is needed in cases involving family
especially where children will be affected by the ruling made.
This is a long term recommendation.

Policy changes
DHS:

Short Term:

m) Protocol delineating the roles of police and roles of Human
Services with clear mandate for them to work together133.
n) Protocol to be developed for use of vehicles and gas allowance
to deal with the phasing out of manual orders and to prevent
delays in getting to children in emergency situations.
o) Where there is an overlap of jurisdiction such as in the
Benque/Cayo area, there must be cleat delineation of which
medical facility is responsible for examinations from which
village and which police will do investigations.
p) Policy handbook within the department must insist on social
workers properly “diarying” care orders so that the date when
the care order will expire is noted in worker’s diary so that
social workers are mindful of expiration of orders.
q) Policies should be set up for night/day call workers, they must
be mandated to deal only with emergency care, protecting safety
of child and making notation of condition of child brought into
care as well as condition and attitude of parents/guardians so

133
There is currently a draft in progress. Efforts must be concentrated on bringing this into effect as soon
as possible.

85


that day workers or investigative team can do follow up.
Night/day call workers must explain to child and
parent/guardian that someone else will be dealing with the case.
At the same time workers on call must ensure that they obtain as
much information as possible from persons making report as to
who that person is, there connection with child and information
available on child. Sometimes, persons want to remain
anonymous, workers on call must explain to those persons that if
they really want to ensure that the child is protected and the
perpetrator convicted, they must assist the investigation b y
participating in the process. This information is vital as the
investigative team will need to determine if this person will be a
biased witness or if the information is valid.
r) A determination must be made on validity of calls and an
immediate preliminary investigation conducted at time child is
removed. The mindset that the fact of a report means that there
has been abuse must be discarded.
s) Once a case has been opened. The social worker assigned has
the responsibility to explain to the child and the family the
process that the case will take, they must understand the
difference between the criminal process in the
magistrate/Supreme Court and the civil process in the Family
Court. They must also understand the time line for cases and
must understand that the social worker will not be the one
eventually working on the case.
t) Recommendations of supervisors to social workers in the district
must be placed on the file and must be internal disciplinary
process for social worker who fails to comply or system
established requiring reasons to be given for failure to comply
with directives. Too many instances of same directives being
given over and over and no follow-up shown on file.
u) For Family Support appoint at least two designated suppliers or
supermarkets and make advance purchases from suppliers and
have them store the goods at the store with an inventory list and
an order list. The order list will be completed and counter
signed by officers and supermarket officers as needs arise,
alternatively vouchers or food coupons could be given to
persons in need which could only be redeemed for designated
food items and which could not be cashed. If coupons are
contained in a booklet, provision had to be made for coupons to
be redeemable only on one date per week, coupons had to be
post dated with a week between dates to ensure that items are
not collected more than needed and sold.

86


Medium
v) Protocols must provide for the establishment of a support group
for foster mothers where they can meet regularly and encourage
each other, should try to establish a system of mentorship with
new foster mothers so that they are paired with a more
experienced foster mother especially when they are raising
children with special needs at least for a few months at first.
w) Protocols must also provide for the development of a resource
base for foster mothers and include them in COMPAR training,
where foster mothers are dealing with children with special
needs (disability, malnutrition, prolonged or fatal illness) they
must be taught coping mechanisms for dealing with these
children and the stress these situations can produce.
x) There is a growing incidence of disabled children being placed
in care. Such children are not suited for institutional care, they
do better in small family units where they will have individual
attention especially from persons with experience or expertise in
dealing with persons with disabilities. Currently, there are
persons with expertise with disabled persons teaching at Stella
Maris, some of them are fostering or caring for family members
with disabilities. Such persons provide a ready pool of persons
that should be accessed as foster care providers for disabled
children.
y) When children are placed in foster care, the department must
ensure that the child’s identity has been secured and that foster
parents undertake to enroll child in school.
z) Department should approach legal aid or other person to
provide legal service to facilitate de facto adoptions
aa) Utilise the skills of foster parents to train other foster parents
and parents in need of parenting classes
bb) In addition, the foster parent must be presented with the child’s
family history, foster care history and the level of the child’s
development must be documented.
cc) A care package setting out the goals to be achieve for that
child’s development in foster care and setting time limits for
attainment of objects and review of case must be developed for
every child in foster care to ensure proper life skill training,
socialization and academic markers for the child’s age are met.
dd) A disciplinary protocol must be developed for all children in
institutions and all children in foster care, this must establish
acceptable standards of discipline.

87


ee) Where there is a recommendation for reconciliation with the
parents, long term foster care should not be done as there is a
risk that the child will bond with the foster family and not want
to be reconciled, best to have a short term foster placement and
a long term supervision order once reconciliation has been
effected.
ff) Case workers must do spot checks without advising
guardians/parents so that they can assess the true situation.
gg) There must be a system of investigating persons who desire to
become foster mothers to include criminal history, child abuse
history whether as victim or perpetrator and references should
be required in addition to investigating home situation and
income.
hh) Foster parents must be protected from harassment by parents or
other guardians, get a protection order if parent/guardian is
hostile at custody/care order hearing.
ii) In child protection cases, the DHS protocol must state
procedure fro transfer of cases to ease the frustration of having
to deal with several different people. The protocols must requite
that the person to take over from the investigative team etc,
must be brought in before the time of transfer so that the family
and child can meet with them and bonding can take place. That
officer to take over must apprise himself or herself of the case
history so that persons will not need to recount details already
given.
jj) Protocols must also require the social worker must prepare
family and child for the time when the social worker will no
longer be there to hold their hand by connecting them to local
support systems in the community and should make provision
for a follow up visit within 6 months of closing the case to see
how family is doing. May also be possible to use persons who
have already been through the system to provide support groups
for persons going through the process and social worker should
seek out whether such persons would be available as part of a
support group when they are closing cases so that they can have
a database of support persons, include churches, NGO’s and
other community based groups in this support system.
kk) Standardization of the needs assessment for family support with
the different agencies so that the referral agencies are aware of
what the dept. can do and what it cannot do as well as the
qualifications for assistance

88


Long Term:
ll) Policies must be established for evacuation or protection of
children in government institutional care and in foster care in
the event of natural disaster. Persons operating private
institutions should be require to develop and present to Human
Services, emergency protection plan for children. These
institutions must be checked routinely for fire safety and disaster
preparedness.
mm) The social assistance program must be reviewed with a
view to assisting persons to become self earning where that is
possible. Skills of persons on assistance must be identified and
opportunities for training and entrepreneurial activity identified
and encouraged. Only the indigent, elderly and persons unable
to work because of disability should be on long term social
assistance.
nn) Closer links must be established with referral agencies to access
other kinds of aid and services that the dept. does no offer or
where the services that DHS offers is insufficient.
oo) Must develop a protocol for dealing with children who are
disabled, their social, educational and child care needs are not
being met, especially in the districts.
pp) In cases where the breadwinner is the perpetrator, provision
must be made similar to that for domestic violence to
rehabilitate family by providing alternative place of refuge,
skills training and immediate temporary income support to
encourage them to pursue prosecutions and as a back up to
provisions requiring guardians/parents to pay for withdrawing
cases.
qq) The Dept should institute a certification system for social
workers to be licensed GAL
rr) The Ministry should do a registration and maintain the Register
of Guardian Ad Litems
ss) The GAL report to be standardize to state the items that should
be included in it and a form placed in the FACA Regulations
tt) GAL report to include a little of the background as to the
circumstances in which the child was given up
uu) All intake forms and materials for adoptions should include a
request for the social security numbers of all parties and this
should become a part of the Home study so that persons can be
traced with the social security numbers in cases when they may
have moved.

89


Police:
Short Term:
vv) A written protocol is needed for the police department on
dealing with crime scenes and the protection of evidence
especially for the purpose of forensic analysis, this should
include provisions setting out the requirement to preserve the
clothes of the victim to preserve evidence of semen etc, thereon
and make provisions for injuries to be photographed.
ww) Police working in the Domestic Violence Unit who
accompany children to hospital should not wear uniforms to
protect confidentially of children especially in the villages, they
may need a badge or Id instead.

Medium:
xx) Domestic violence unit to be staffed by police with previous
experience in the unit so that if there is a need for transfer only
should be placed at other station to work in DVU and be
replaced by another officer from another DVU.
yy) Police need a written procedure manual on how to care for
children that are abused within the department or children who
commit crimes, where they are to be housed etc. to be set out.

Medical:

Short Term:
zz) A written medical protocol is needed dealing with cases of
suspected child abuse.
aaa) Protocol to be developed for the procedure on medical
examinations so that the process is standardize, must cover what
constitutes evidence of broken hymen etc. and must establish
and use child abuse kits in sexual abuse cases (use the rape kit
as a precedent)
bbb) A protocol is needed for the access of child victims to
medical care when there is a report of abuse. It must provide for
the children to be examined in a private room or children’s
wing of the clinic or hospital doing the exam especially in the
districts where keeping such issues confidential is a greater
challenge.
ccc) The protocol must also provide the medical practitioner
doing the examination to order blood tests, swabs etc, when
there is proof of penetration and it must provide for doctors to
explain to child what the medical examination will entail before
the examination is done.

90


ddd) There must be insistence on the mandatory reporting
requirements in private hospitals and clinics in the towns and
villages.
eee) Where hospital requires child to meet with counselor or
psychiatric nurse when medical examinations are done, this
person must do the follow up counseling as well. Human
Services should arrange for this and should request reports from
counselors and discuss goals of counseling so that these can be
documented on case files.

Medium:
fff) HECOPAB should be utilized to provide sensitization training
for doctors and nurses who will deal with children who are
abused.
ggg) Data collection of child abuse cases by the medical
department similar to one for domestic violence
hhh) Provision of English speaking doctor on call at all times
or an English speaking support doctor when the main doctor’s
main language is an expatriate. Alternatively, the establishment
or appointment of particular doctors in each district to do
medical examinations in child abuse cases and require such
doctors to be bi-lingual or provide for two doctors one speaking
English and the other Spanish.

Legal:

Short Term:
iii) A protocol for the magistrates as there is currently discordance
between the orders made by various magistrates as different
magistrates seem to require different things to be proved, this
creates uncertainty. In addition, the provisions of the handbook
with regards to administration of the Family Court must be
followed in other districts when they operate as Family Courts.
jjj) Rules of procedure for the FACA are needed.
kkk) Private process servers to be utilized where police are
perpetrator of abuse.
lll) The requirement to report convictions of sex offenders to Human
Services must be insisted on and a registry kept of these
perpetrators for monitoring to prevent repeat offences.

Medium:

91


mmm) The medico legal form needs to be revised to include
classification for sexual abuse and to allow doctors to give
details on findings of evidence of abuse.
nnn) Where persons have been charged with offences against
children are foreigners, any decision to grant bail must include
assessment of flight risk and measures taken to warn borders to
prevent flight risk.
ooo) Child to meet with prosecutor well in advance of hearing
and family to be advised of date of hearing well in advance,
social worker must prepare child for giving evidence in court
and must ensure that child is prepared by prosecutor for the
court process.
ppp) In cases where the DPP decides not to prosecute cases,
the prosecutor should be required to meet with the family and
explain why the case will not be proceeded with and what legal
alternatives are available for pursuing civil cases for assault
and battery to recover some income for child’s care.
qqq) Where alternative legal processes ex. Civil cases for
assault and battery should be discussed by prosecutor as part of
legal options available to family, provision should be made for
any proceeds to be held on trust for child.

Long Term:
rrr) The Supreme Court Registry’s an adoption register
should contain information as to the biological parents of the
adopted child. This register should only be accessible to the
child or biological parents or siblings of the child. The process
of access should involve the registry sending a letter to the
person to be contacted informing them of the desire of the other
person to contact them and finding out if the want to be
contacted, if they want to be contacted then the registry gives the
contact information to the person requesting it, if not then the
registry cannot release the information.

92


Public Education
Short Term:

a) Continuous education is needed in the school
system on what child abuse is and the
symptoms of abuse must be done in schools
and institutions housing children.
b) Education on the role of the Department of
Human Services vs role of Police
c) Education on the criminal process in the
Magistrate Court as opposed to the civil
process undertaken in the Family Court in
cases of abuse.

Medium:
d) Teenagers and young persons need
comprehensive program on moral
development, sex education dealing with their
worth as individuals and the benefits of
delaying sexual activity until marriage
e) Education on the need to receive counseling
and its benefits in breaking the cycle of
abuse. This should be presented to children
within the school system to encourage them to
come forward to report abuse to school
counselors etc.
f) Education on need for adults who were
abused as children to seek counseling.
g) Education is needed to encourage reporting
and to encourage teachers’ participation as
witnesses and to sensitize them on the
outcome of cases, keep them updated on cases

Training
Short Term:

a)Legal training of magistrates is needed. That program is already

93


under way with some of the magistrates already receiving legal
training. Government should continue to send them for training
and bond them to come back and work as magistrates.
c) D.P.P. office also needs sensitization training – basic areas of
social work and vice versa.
d) The police must be trained on investigative techniques in cases
involving abuse where there may be young child victims whose
evidence will need corroboration.
e) Police also need training in taking statements from children and
other special victims and need sensitization training in dealing
with special victims before they are placed in Domestic Violence
Unit.
e) Police need training in giving evidence in court especially
forensic evidence of identity etc.,

Medium:
f) Training social services practitioners in the districts on proper
office management and case management techniques.
g) Police dealing with child abuse cases must be trained on
provisions of FACA, the Criminal Code, the Evidence Act and
the Criminal Justice Act.
h) Police must receive training on how to deal with persons who
are mentally disabled.

Long Term:
i) There is also a need to ensure civilian prosecutors are properly
trained in evidentiary rules and procedures. Ultimately all
prosecutors whether in Magistrate Court or in the Supreme
Court should be attorneys-at-law.
j) Doctors need to be trained on how to classify injuries as per the
Medico-legal form, this training must be done every 6 months or
so to keep knowledge current and ensure that new doctors
coming into the system understand these classifications.

94


Resources
Short Term:

a) The DHS requires at least two social workers in each districts to
ensure that all investigations and proper follow up is done.
b)There is a need for vehicles attached to the rural offices of the
DHS that can sit at least three people (driver, social worker and
child to be removed) and that can traverse rugged terrain
c) better system of stationery allocation especially for the villages
to ensure that orders are in the new system so that stationery
can arrive on time. They may need to be able to fill their own
orders or get stationery from Belmopan. There were reports of
officers in two offices not being able to submit reports on time
because of delays in getting stationery.

Medium:
e) The data base already existing should be developed and
complemented by efficient filing systems in each district
including provisions for:
1) record of cases transferred to Belize City
2) original of cases transferred to remain in district
3) proper delineation of who bears ultimate responsibility
when cases are transferred
4) where there are no care orders, officers must get a
written consent from parents before proceeding with
voluntary supervision. That voluntary supervision must
have clear objectives, a definite start and a definite end
including provision for assessment to see if objectives
met.
5) intake forms to be reviewed monthly.
6) utilize 6th from students or social workers on day off to
enter backlog into data base, must have an up to date
report of cases especially from the districts outside the
Belize district.
7) Case transcripts must be obtained and copied to clients,
they must know at all times, what orders are being made
in respect of their children except where parental rights
have been removed.
8) There must be a current order in place for all children in
care and these orders must be on the file and be

95


consistent with the recommendations to reconcile or
institutionalize or foster place child.
i) The on-line system of payments must include funds for providing
food for a child in cases where a child has to be placed in
emergency foster care.
j) Resources must be identified in the community/churches for
sustaining families while they are in training
k) Need sketch artist as part of police forensic team.
l) Need more counselors/psychiatrist attached to Counseling
Centre.
m) Facilities to encourage Interpol checking of prospective
adoptive parents

Structural Adjustments
Short Term:
a) enclosed areas for taking statements of victims at police
stations.
b) private offices in Stann Creek district for the officer dealing with
child protection and who has to interview families and children.

Medium:
c) places/homes in each district to be built or families identified
that will house children in emergency situations so that when
children in the districts have to be removed from their homes
they are not taken to Belize City. Children must undergo
minimum displacement without suffering additional trauma of
being uprooted from community, friends and school. This is also
counter-productive in cases where a reconciliation with parent
is recommended and parent has to visit child as coming to
Belize City may mean disrupting parent’s work etc.
d) each Human Services office whether in city or in the village
must have a child play area where children can be supervised at
play while the social worker is discussing sensitive aspect of
cases with the guardian or parent which children don’t need to
be a part of.

96


Lon g Term:
e) The Dorothy Menzies Child Care Center needs to be re-
assessed, the rooms are over-crowded, they are poorly lit and
poorly ventilated, there is inadequate privacy for children,
children are not being taught life-skills, there is poor
development of disabled children placed there as there is
inadequate staff to give them the personal care and attention
they need. Efforts should be made to place all disabled children
at the Center into foster care to prevent further victimization,
including assistance with their medical needs.

97


Appendix A

Research Instruments
The following are samples of the interview instruments employed in the
project:

Interview Guide For Service Providers
Health Sector

(Introduction of interviewer, explanation of the objectives of the study and the
obtaining of the interviewee’s consent must be done before the interview
proceeds. The interviewee name should be noted as well as their position and
job title, a short description of their duties, the name and location of the
institution where the interview is done and the date of the interview)

Work performed by the Interviewee

What does your work as___________________________consist of?
(position)
What percentage of the patients you see are children? What are the most
frequent reasons given for bringing children to your office/emergency room?

Are cases of child abuse seen? What are the most common causes?

Do you (or your colleagues) routinely ask questions to determine whether the
patient might be a victim of child abuse?

What tests or examinations do you routinely perform when there is an
allegation that c child that is brought in for treatment is the victim if child
abuse? How do you decide which tests to perform?

What is the procedure for obtaining an official report from the medical
examiner?

How many people with this type of problem does your institution serve per
month? Do you have a way of keeping records on cases? Is there a form and
procedure for recording them? Can you explain it to me?

98


Request a copy of the record form, referral slips, and any other documents
that may exist.

Do you (or your colleagues) provide follow-up care to children who have been
victims of family violence? Are there mechanisms for referring them to other
institutions? Do you think the record-keeping system is adequate to identify
children affected by child abuse, refer them to the appropriate services, and
provide timely follow-up.

Experience with children who have been abused.

Have you ever come into contact with cases of child abuse?

Can you tell me how these experiences originated, what you did, and what the
affected person did?

Inquire about all possible cases, specifying what was done or not done, such
as:

 Contacts identified
 Reactions of persons involved
 Referrals to other institutions
 Follow-up
 Outcome, and
 Response of the person

Do you know of other organizations or persons in this community who work on
child abuse issues? Who are they? What is your relationship with them? Is
there inter-sectoral coordination (with other institutions) to address the needs of
abused children.

What changes in legislation, policy, or staffing would facilitate your work.

Social perception of child abuse violence and of the children affected by it.

Do you believe that child abuse is a common problem in this community?

How is it most frequently manifested in this community? In this country?

What are the reasons and causes for child abuse?

99


Do you believe that something should be done with respect to child abuse?
What would be the best way of preventing or reducing child abuse in this
community? What are the obstacles to achieving this? What could be done in
order to improve the response of the health sector in cases of children who have
been abused?

What should…..do to deal with his situation?

Ask about each of the following situations:
 a child physically abused by a parent or close adult relative
 a child physically abused by another child
 a child sexually abused by a parent or close adult relative
 a child sexually abused by another child
 a child abused by a teacher or other person in authority

There are cases where children want to stay with parents or caregivers who
are abusing them. Why is that?

There are cases of children who have been sexually or physically abused
but who don’t say anything to anyone. Why is that?

There are cases where parents or other caregivers know that their children
are being abused but do not report it. Why is that?

There are cases where children are emotionally and psychologically abused
but no reports are made. Why is that?

100


Legal/Judicial/Law Enforcement Sector



(position)

What type of service do you and your institution offer for children affected by
violence?

What procedure should a person who wants to report a case of child abuse
follow?

How many different persons does someone have to see to report a case? Are
they male or female? Where is the report taken? Who takes it? Does the child
have to different places or buildings? How much time does the person have to
wait at each step? Is priority given to children who have been physically or
sexually abused?

Who decides whether an examination should be administered? What type of
examinations are performed?

In court trials for this type of violence do physicians testify as expert
witnesses?

If yes:

Who is authorized to give evidence in court as medical expert in cases
of child abuse?

Are health workers ever unwilling to testify in court?

Is the testimony of health workers sought.

101


procedure for recording them? Can you explain it to me?

Request a copy of the record form, referral slips, and any other documents
that may exist.

Are specialized medical examiners available? How many? Are they male or
female? What is their training? Do they work weekends? At night?

What is the legal importance of a physician’s report on a child who is beaten or
injured by a family member? What importance does the system attach to these
reports?



Can you tell me how these experiences originated, what you did, and what the
affected person did?

Inquire about all possible cases, specifying what was done or not done, such
as:

 Contacts identified
 Reactions of persons involved
 Referrals to other institutions
 Follow-up
 Outcome, and
 Response of the person

Do you know of other organizations or persons in this community who work on
child abuse issues? Who are they? What is your relationship with them? Is
there inter-sectoral coordination (with other institutions) to address the needs of
abused children.

What changes in legislation, policy, or staffing would facilitate your work.

Social perception of child abuse violence and of the children affected by it.

102





community? What are the obstacles to achieving this? What could be done in
order to improve the response of the
Legal/Judicial/Law Enforcement Sector in cases of children who have been
abused?







103


Education Sector



(position)



Can you tell me how these experiences originated, what actions you took, and
what the affected person did?

For each case that is mentioned, ask about contacts, reactions referrals to
other institutions, follow-up, and outcomes.

Ask about other cases.

procedure for recording them?

If yes: Can you explain it to me? (Request a copy of the record form, referral
slips, and any other documents that may exist)

If no: Ask

Do you know of other organisations or people in this community who work on
child abuse issues? Who are they? What is your relationship with them?

Social perception of family violence and of the women affected by it.


104




community? What are the obstacles to achieving this?

Do you believe that the education sector can play a role in the solution of this
problem?

If yes: How?

If no: Why not?







105


Community/NGO Sector



(position)

What type of service do you and your institution offer for children affected by
violence?


Have you ever been involved in providing services for or supporting a child
who has been abused?

Have you ever had to become involved in cases of child abuse?

Can you tell me how these experiences originated, what actions you took, and
what the affected person did?

For each case that is mentioned, ask about contacts, reactions referrals to
other institutions, follow-up, and outcomes.

Ask about other cases.

procedure for recording them?

If yes: Can you explain it to me? (Request a copy of the record form, referral
slips, and any other documents that may exist)

If no: Ask :

Do you know of other organisations or people in this community who work on
child abuse issues? Who are they? What is your relationship with them?

106


Do you know of the existence of laws that protect children affected by abuse?

Do you believe that they do protect them?

Ask the interviewee to explain his/her answer of “yes” or “no”

Social perception of family violence and of the women affected by it.




community? What are the obstacles to achieving this?

What should….do to deal with her situation?






107


Interview Guide
Random sample interviews of persons in or who have experienced the system


Sociodemographic characteristics of the interviewee

a) age
b) marital status
c) schooling
d) children
e) place of residence
f) occupation of parents/caregivers
g) Sociodemographic status
h) Language (s)

Can you tell me about the violent situation that caused you to access the
system?

Ask when the violence occurred and what type of violence the
interviewee has experienced.

Did you tell someone about the violent situation immediately? Whom did you
tell? What did that person say? If not, why did you wait to tell someone?

What made you decide to seek assistance?

Ask about perceptions, information, decisions, support.

Where did you go first to seek assistance? Who told you to go there? Who did
you see there? What did they say to you? How did they treat you? How did you
fee? Did anyone go with you?

Did you go elsewhere afterwards?

Repeat the questions for any other place the interviewee has gone.

Specific questions if the respondent went to health sector?

108


Whom did you see? What type of care were you given? Did they perform any
kind of medical examination? Who performed the examination? What were you
told? How did they treat you (child)? Did they refer you elsewhere?

Specific questions if the respondent went to legal or law enforcement
sector?

Whom did you see? What was the procedure like? What did they say to you?
How did they treat you? Did they refer you elsewhere?

Specific questions if the respondent went to education services
(particularly persons in school where the school made mandatory report
or intervened in other way)?

With did you see? What was the procedure like? What did they say to you?

Specific questions if the respondent went to the community/NGO sector?

With did you see? What was the procedure like? What did they say to you?

What should be changed in the judicial, law enforcement; education; health
and community/NGO systems to better serve people affected by child abuse.

What was the outcome of your search for assistance? Did you succeed in
stopping the violence? How?

What was the most important support you received?

109

Appendix B

Service Providers within the DHS

The major service areas within the Department of Human Services are the CPS, CPSS
and FSS. Their major responsibilities are:

CPS
1. Investigation of abuse, abandonment, neglect, exploitation of children
2. Trafficking
3. Disaster relief
4. Case management
5. Attendance in court
6. Advocacy
7. Independent custody reports
8. Monitor children in care
9. Develop permanency plan for children in care
10. Networking care for children
11. Counseling
12. Research, planning, policy formation and advocacy for families and children
13. Coordination with NCFC, other government ministries/agencies, NGO’s and
coordination with the Judiciary
14. Public education and awareness as to issues related to families and children

CPSS

1. Foster care
2. Adoption
3. Independent Custody Services
4. International Casework

110

FSS
1. Financial assistance to families in need (one-time or on-going)
2. Networking care and resources to families
3. Disaster relief
4. Job placements
5. Social Assistance ($5 per week with no income - welfare system)

In the Belize Districts, different teams are assigned responsibilities under these various
service areas and the specialization within the department along the lines of the three
main service areas. In the Districts, the Community Development Officer (CDO) is
responsible for all three areas.

The DHS is also responsible for the management of three social welfare institutions :

1. Dorothy Menzies Child-Care Center (children’s home)
2. Golden Haven Rest Home (elderly care)
3. Good Samaritan (Homeless Shelter)

Under its disaster relief services the DHS is responsible for:

1. Food Distribution
2. Procurement, control, warehousing of food, emergency material, water
3. Psycho-social (referral service for counseling)
4. Rapid Assessment of Population (within 24 hours)

In addition, the DHS is responsible for COMPAR offering the following services to the
public:

1. Community and Parenting Training
2. Workshop in schools
3. Facilitate counseling of couples, parents, children
4. Training of COMPAR trainers
5. Educational Publications
6. Hurricane preparedness

111

Acronyms

CSO Central Statistical Office
CDO Community Development Officer
CRD Community Rehabilitation Department
CRO Community Rehabilitation Officer
COMPAR Community and Parent Empowerment Project
DHS Department of Human Services
GOB Government of Belize
HECOPAB Health Education and Community Participation Bureau
MCH Maternal and Child Health
NCFC National Committee for Families and Children
NGO Non-Governmental Organisation
NOPCAN National Organisation for the Prevention of Child Abuse
PAHO Pan-American Health Organisation
UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund

112

Primary References

1. Laws of Belize, Revised Edition 2000
2. CSO 1999
3. Shrader and Sagot, (2000) Domestic Violence: Women’s Way Out, PAHO
4. NHDAC (2000) From Boys to Men
5. GOB/ NWC (1997) From Girls to Women
6. National Human Development Advisory Committee/UNDP 1998, National Human
Development Report.
7. UNICEF 2001, The Right to a Future 2000: A Situational Analysis of Children in
Belize.
8. Surridge/Vernon 1999, Belize Educational Sector Social Strategy.
9. Department of Human Services, Child Care statistics, 2002
10. National Organisation for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect, 2002,
Annual Report.
11. GOB (1998), United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
12. GOB (2002) , United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, (draft),
Second Report.
13. Ministry of Human Development, Local Government and Labour (2002),
Procedures Manual for the Department of Human Services.
14. Ministry of Human Development, Local Government and Labour (2001), National
Gender Policy.
15. Ministry of Human Development, Local Government and Labour 2004, Child
Protection Protocols, (draft).
16. Police 2002, Child Protection 2002: Report of cases between the Police and The
Department of Human Services, (Belize City).

113

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