The Ministries of Border Security and National Defense, and Home Affairs and New Growth Industries, are making major moves to combat sexual assault and rape that's prevalent in Belize's security forces.
These two topics are often thought of as being taboo in the military and police forces for several reasons – the assailant being a superior officer, the idea that the victim will be considered weak, the fear of not being believed, and just the overall culture of secrecy and covering up.
For years, this culture has manifested in numerous sexual assault accusations that go unpunished.
And the government is hoping to stop that with the launch of the Joint Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Program. This progressive move will now provide response services when sexual assault occurs within the Belize security forces as well as focus on prevention strategies, support victim recovery, and assist members of the security forces to be fully mission capable.
In his speech today, the Minister of Home Affairs spoke about the importance of this program and what it means for the BDF, the Coast Guard, and the BPD:
Hon. Kareem Musa - Minister of Home Affairs and New Growth Industry
"It's been too long now that we've had within our security forces the issue of sexual violence that often times goes unreported because of fear and other reasons that often times does not make it to the media because of our own internal protocols that we have within our security forces. It reminds me of an occasion about 2 years ago in the National Assembly when there was a change to a particular legislation and I think if I'm not mistaken Minister Florencio it was in relation to the BDF, the then prime minister was proposing a change to the legislation that was setting out the procedure in instances of rape and I remember getting up in the house and I said but prime minister Barrow, the security personnel are human beings and Belizean citizens just like all of us, why are they subjected to a different standard and a different penalty of rape than a normal Belizean citizen, it should not be that a Belizean citizen is sentences to 15-20 years for rape but then in the security forces the penalty is less, we have to put the same penalty in place for the security forces, it's not different and so I think that point was appreciated by the then government and I think subsequently changes were made because it has to be that the police department can be able to go in, whether it's the coast guard or into the police department or into the military to investigate report of rape. So, I think there is a huge culture shift that we are actually seeing today and by us being here and part of this, we are sending a very loud signal that we are now putting our feet to the pedal, like we said in the house of representative, this is not lip service, we look at that report, that's a comprehensive study and analysis that is going to pave the way forward in terms of a road map for us within our respective security forces."
And while the new program champions reporting and transparency, in a bizarre but not uncommon twist we note that today's event was closed to the media - symptomatic of a government that continues to earn an "F" for transparency.
