By Breaking Belize News Staff (HP): The United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances has called on Belize to accelerate the creation of a national register capable of properly tracking and distinguishing different types of disappearance cases.
The recommendation follows the Committee’s latest review of Belize’s implementation of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.
The Committee expressed concern that statistical information provided by Belize did not clearly distinguish between alleged enforced disappearances, disappearances allegedly involving non State actors without State involvement, and other missing person cases.
It recommended that Belize accelerate the establishment of a national register containing current and detailed information about disappearance cases.
The proposed system should include information on the circumstances surrounding disappearances, whether missing persons were eventually found alive or deceased, and whether there was possible State involvement.
The UN Committee also wants the register to include disappearances connected to migration and human trafficking.
It recommended that the system be capable of working with other relevant databases covering detention, migration, trafficking, forensic information and civil registration.
The Committee also welcomed Belize’s commitment to introduce specific legislation dealing with enforced disappearance.
However, it recommended that Belize establish enforced disappearance as a separate criminal offence under domestic law and recognize it as a crime against humanity in circumstances covered by the Convention.
The Committee also called for penalties reflecting the extreme seriousness of the offence, while excluding the death penalty.
Belize was reviewed alongside Armenia, Gabon and Lesotho during the Committee’s latest session.
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By Breaking Belize News Staff (HP): The United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances has called on Belize to accelerate the creation of a national register capable of properly tracking and distinguishing different types of disappearance cases. The recommendation follows the Committee’s latest review of Belize’s implementation of the International Convention for the Protection of All
The post UN urges Belize to create national register for missing and disappeared persons appeared first on Belize News and Opinion on www.breakingbelizenews.com.