Offshore Banking

2012 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report. Volume II
Money Laundering and Financial Crimes
Belize is not a major regional financial center but, in an attempt to diversify its economic activities, authorities have encouraged the growth of offshore financial activities that are vulnerable to money laundering, including offshore banks, insurance companies, trust service providers, mutual fund companies, and international business companies.
source: US Dept. of State

2009 Country Poverty Assessment. Volume 1. Main Report

This study of poverty in Belize is one of a series of Country Poverty Assessments
(CPAs) undertaken throughout the Caribbean since 1995 following the Caribbean
 Development Bank‟s  (CDB‟s) decision to target more of the benefits from its
development programme in the Borrowing Member Countries.
Source: Government of Belize

MDGs

BELIZE First Millennium Development Goals Report.  2004

The structure of the report is based on the guidelines developed by the UNDGO for country reports and as such is structured to provide information on the status and trends of the goals and targets through an assessment of the related, relevant indicators between 1990 and 2003.  The Report begins with a summary of all eight goals and targets, and a brief assessment of the status of the goal as well as the key challenges Belize has to overcome in order to accelerate progress. In addition to analysis of the main challenges that impact the status and trends it also outlines general strategies, policies and programs that have been enabled and that contribute to the potential for achieving the goals and targets by 2015.

Source: Ministry of National Development. Government of Belize

Tourism

The Belize Coastal Tourism Project: An Assessment of the Environmental, Socio-Cultural and Economic Impacts of Tourism in Coastal Communities in Belize.

The purpose of the Belize Coastal Tourism Project was to assess the environmental, socio-cultural and economic impacts of tourism in six coastal communities in Belize including Belize City, San Pedro, Caye Caulker, Placencia, Hopkins and San Pedro. In particular, the research was intended to improve our understanding of how to promote tourism that provides maximum benefits to local people, coastal communities, the nation and the marine environment while having minimal negative impacts upon them.

Survey interviews were carried out with 403 local people (including fishermen, tour guides and random households) and 300 overnight and cruise ship tourists across the study communities during the period of March œ November 2005 by a researcher from the University of Rhode Island in collaboration with a team of Belizean research assistants.

2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices (Western Hemisphere)

All men and women desire and deserve to live in dignity and liberty. As President Bush said: "The advance of freedom is the great story of our time." Promoting human rights and democracy is a worldwide phenomenon and there is a growing global discussion of democracy and the universal values protected by democratic governance.

By defending and advancing human rights and democratic principles, we keep faith with our country’s most cherished values and lay the foundation for lasting peace. Fulfilling the promise of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and building vibrant democracies worldwide will take generations, but it is work of the utmost urgency that cannot be delayed.
Source:US Dept. of State

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT 2006 - BELIZE

There were reports of police abuse and use of excessive force. Eight people remained on death row. Children were subject to a wide range of human rights abuses.

Background
There were strikes and riots in January and April as a result of public anger over the economy. The government expressed a desire to change the Constitution in order to accept the jurisdiction of the Caribbean Court of Justice as the final court of appeal in Belize, replacing the Privy Council.

Death penalty One person was sentenced to death in 2005. In 2004 two death sentences were passed, but no executions were carried out. At the end of 2005, eight people were held on death row. There had been no executions since 1985.

Abuses by police
There were several reports of abuses by police, including torture, ill-treatment and arbitrary detention. Three men, a father and his two sons, were arrested separately in July, on suspicion of withholding evidence related to a bank robbery. All three were reportedly beaten and subjected to electric shock torture before being released without charge.

Children
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed a number of concerns about abuses of children in Belize in its Concluding Observations issued in 2005, although it acknowledged that the government had made some efforts to remedy the situation. Concerns included: corporal punishment of children; discrimination against vulnerable groups of children; children without birth registration and nationality; the lack of access of non-registered children to services such as education and health; and the generally violent environment in which many Belizean children live.
Source:Amnesty International