Upper House to Ratify Old UN Convention

The Senate meets on Thursday in a special sitting to ratify a United Nations convention that will advance Belize’s international obligations as a member of the organization. The United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards was recognized in October 1980, before Belize becoming an independent nation. However, it will be only be presented to the upper house for consideration on January twenty-eighth. In a release issued by the government earlier today, Belize is one of the only thirty-three countries that has failed to ratify the agreement. The objective of formalizing the agreement, which was in process before the November 2020 general elections, is to enable a potential debt-to-conservation-related transaction that can improve the state of Belize’s public finances. The Government of Belize says, “It looks forward to the Senate process with its opportunity to fully describe and debate the importance of this convention, confident that the benefit of ratification is manifold.”