Good plans, lack of implementation mark child rights review

Belize and countries all over the world each year sign dozens of treaties, proclamations, protocols and conventions. Most are immediately filed and forgotten, useful only as propaganda at the time of signing. But there is one international agreement whose framers actually believe its implementation ought to be monitored, evaluated, and even critiqued. That document is the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and today it was Belize’s turn to be held accountable for how we have lived up to our promises. News Five’s Jacqueline Woods reports.

Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
Rosa Maria Ortiz, a member of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, says there is not much Belize has done to meet its commitments as a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Ortiz, whose committee was specifically formed to monitor the implementation of the C.R.C., says they have observed a lack of political will to implement changes.

Rosa Maria Ortiz, Committee on the Rights of the Child
?We find the violence in the houses, in the families, in the school, something that urgently needs to be changed. We can?t speak of the juvenile violence if we don?t change the violence in the families and in the schools.?

?The recommendations our committee has made to Belize in 1999 and the new ones now in 2005, they need to be implemented. We have seen that many of the recommendations we did in 1999 have not been covered by the governments, the different governments.?

Ortiz says while she commends Belize for having a very good national plan of action for children, the document is deemed useless when there is no budget to implement it.

Rosa Maria Ortiz
?We ask the state of Belize to give more budget in order for this plan of action to be applied. This is a very good plan and it really needs to be improved, and we feel a lack of political will to make children a priority.?

Ortiz was speaking at a press breakfast in an effort to sensitise both the media and general public about the C.R.C. Ortiz says if the community is not kept informed about the Convention, then the government cannot be pressed about making significant changes it mandates.

Education also received a less than satisfactory report. Ortiz says the committee believes that not all Belizean children can afford to go to school and calls on the government to make it more universal.

Rosa Maria Ortiz
?The books in the schools are very expensive for parents. And normally when one right doesn?t work, there are other rights implicated. If you don?t give access to all children to school in primary and secondary school education, you will have adolescents in conflict with the law; you will have sexual and economic exploitation.?

On Monday, Ortiz met with the Minister of Human Development and expressed the committee?s concerns. Ortiz says she was pleased with the interaction and the continued commitment from Belize.

However, Norris Hall, Editor of the government publication, Belize Today, says not only Ortiz findings were based on superficial observations, but that her comments were unfairly negative.

Norris Hall, Editor, Belize Today
?Well let me say that the Convention on the Rights of Children is a relatively new phenomenon. Belize is ahead of the game in the region in that the government has implemented a number of issues relating to children. I think Mrs. Ortiz?s presentation was totally negative, she accentuated the negative. And while she was asking for the government to address specific issues relating to children?for instance she spoke about the need compulsory education. This was clearly a superficial observation when in view of the fact that our system provides for compulsory education up to the age of fifteen. Her presentation was also superficial in other areas where she obviously has not done her research. And I am saying that where some programmes are not children specific, in the bigger picture, a number of issues she raised are addressed in other programmes by the government.?

Belize has been a signatory to the C.R.C. for sixteen years. Jacqueline Woods for News Five.