Belize

34% of women in Belize marry or enter a union before age 18 and 6% before age 15.

22% of men in Belize marry before the age of 18 and 5% before the age of 15.

Belize is among those nations with the highest rates of boy child marriage worldwide, who often live in the poorest households.

In Belize, 1 in 5 young men was married or in a union before

age18

Child, Early and Forced Marriage and Unions (CEFMU) are most prevalent in the region of Stann Creek District (where 36% of women were married before the age of 18), Toledo (23%) and Belize (29%).

Child marriage is higher in urban areas (6%) than in rural areas (4%) amongst boys between the ages of 15-19 who married before the age of 15. The highest prevalence for boys were found in Belize City Southside (14%), Belize District (12%), Stann Creek District (9%) and Toledo (7%).

Amongst girls between the ages of 15 to 19, CEFMU was most common among girls of Mayan descent (27%), Creole (21%), Mestiza/Spanish/Latino (21%) and Garifuna (21%).

Amongst boys between the ages of 15 to 19, CEFMU was most common among boys of Garifuna descent (20%), Creole (15%), Mestiza/Spanish/Latino (9%) and Maya (5%).

Among girls between the ages of 15 to 19, 56% had husbands who were between 0-4 years older, 27% had husbands who were 5-6 years older, and 9% had husbands who were 10 or more years older than them.

MICS data from 2015/16 shows that while the number of girls and adolescents married or in union by age 15 has gradually declined, among men, there is a trend of increasing prevalence of marriage or unions both by age 15 and 18.

Child, Early and Forced Marriage and Unions are driven by gender inequality and the belief that women and girls are somehow inferior to men and boys.

There is limited information on CEFMU in Belize, but available studies show that it is exacerbated by:

● Level of education: 16% of women with no education were married before the age of 18, compared to 2% of women who held higher education. For girls between the ages of 15 to 19 who are currently married, 26% completed primary education as their highest level of study, 20% secondary education and 18% higher education. For boys between the ages of 15 to 19 years who are currently married, 8% completed primary education as their highest level of study, 11% secondary education and 21% higher education.

● Poverty: CEFMU is more common among the poorest households – 11% of women in the poorest households was married before the age of 18, compared to only 3% of women from the richest households.

● Adolescent pregnancy: Some girls and adolescents in Belize live with future spouses, which is often a transition into marriage or union. This is particularly common in Stann Creek and Toledo, where cohabitation is generally accepted and considered a responsible arrangement given the economic challenges faced by young couples. The adolescent birth rate in Belize for girls between the ages of 15-19 between 2015 to 2020 was 55 births per 1,000 adolescent girls, with 17% of girls between the ages of 20 to 24 giving birth before the age of 18. The high adolescent pregnancy rates are attributed to the lack of sexual and reproductive education and inability to access contraception and health care services. In the 2015-2016 MICS survey, it was shown that 41% of married girls between the ages of 15–19 did not have access to contraception. The highest rates of not being able to access contraception are in Toledo (60%), Belize City Southside (53%) and Cayo (47%).

● Gender-based violence: According to data from the Ministry of Heath, between 2013-2017, 15% of all reported gender-based violence cases related to adolescents. Of these, 90% were women and 76% were between the ages of 15–19 years.

● Gender norms: Ingrained patriarchal notions of viewing girls as sexual objects lead to an imbalance of power and a widespread tolerance for early marriage, informal unions and early sexual initiation.

Belize has committed to ending child, early and forced marriage by 2030 in line with target 5.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The government is due to submit a Voluntary National Review at the 2024 High Level Political Forum.

The government submitted a Voluntary National Review at the 2017 High Level Political Forum. In this review, the government highlighted that child marriage generally occurs among the Mestizo and Maya in the Cayo and Toledo districts, indicating that the practice is tied to cultural norms.

Belize co-sponsored the 2018, 2020 and 2022 UN General Assembly resolutions on child, early and forced marriage.

Belize ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990, which the Committee on the Rights of the Child has interpreted to recommend the establishment of a minimum age of marriage of 18, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1990, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.

During its 2024 Universal Periodic Review, the government expressed that there are legal hurdles to raising the minimum legal age of marriage from 16 to 18, due to the varying age limit definitions in the Families and Children Act of 1999 (a child is anyone below the age of 16 years), the Summary Jurisdiction (Procedure) Act (an adult is considered anyone 16 years or older), the Criminal Code (the age of sexual consent if 16 years and the age of criminal responsibility is 12 years) and the Marriage Amendment Act of 2005 (permits marriage at the age of 16 with parental consent).

During its 2018 Universal Periodic Review, Belize supported recommendations to raise the minimum age for marriage for women to 18 years and review the law that allows marriage at the age of 16.

During its 2013 Universal Periodic Review, Belize agreed to examine recommendations to reduce child marriage by amending its legislation in line with international obligations.

Belize, as a member of the Organization of American States (OAS), is bound to the Inter American System of Human Rights, which recognises the right of men and women of marriageable age to marry and calls on governments to strengthen the response to address gender-based violence and discrimination, including early, forced and child marriage and unions, from a perspective that respects evolving capacities and progressive autonomy.

Belize ratified the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women (known as the Belém do Pará Convention) in 1996. In 2016, the Follow-up Mechanism to the Belém do Pará Convention (MESECVI) recommended State Parties to review and reform laws and practices to increase the minimum age for marriage to 18 years for women and men.

Belize, as a member of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), adopted the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development in 2013, which recognises the need to address the high levels of adolescent pregnancy in the region as usually associated with the forced marriage of girls. In 2016, the Montevideo Strategy for Implementation of the Regional Gender Agenda was also approved by the ECLAC countries. This Agenda encompasses commitments made by the governments on women’s rights and autonomy, and gender equality during the last 40 years in the Regional Conferences of Women in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Agenda reaffirms the right to a life free of all forms of violence, including forced marriage and cohabitation for girls and adolescents.

Belize is one of the countries where the Spotlight Initiative (a global, multi-year partnership between the European Union and the United Nations) is supporting efforts to end all forms of sexual and gender-based violence and harmful practices against women and girls. The Spotlight Initiative in Belize has focused on increasing protection for women and girls, ending family violence and building state and non-state capacity to addressing violence against women and girls. Between 2020 and 2021, the European Union has invested $2 million USD. The funds have been distributed as follows:

Policy: Addressing gaps in policy and legislation to ensure that that revised legislation addresses and responds to violence against women and girls.

Institutions: Facilitating inter-agency coordination and communication on better ways to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls.

Prevention: Addressing the root causes of family violence.

Data: Strengthening monitoring and evaluation systems to support data collection on family violence.

Women’s movement and civil society: Ensuring that civil society organizations are supported in their advocacy programmes on family violence.

In 2022, the Spotlight Initiative achieved:

Advocacy for the National Gender Policy, the National Gender Based Violence Action Plan and the Social and Behaviour Change Communication Strategy on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls.

Implementation of national response to VAWG as an integral part of national and district committees for gender and gender-based violence.

The National Social and Behaviour Change Communication Strategy resulted in ensuring that the national prevention response to VAWG is grounded in evidence and utilizes a social-ecological approval.

115,000 girls, boys, women and men were reached through prevention intervention programmes.

Institutionalising the Joint Sexual Violence Response Programme for three security forces ( the Police, Defence Force and Coast Guard).

In 2020, key stakeholders, including the National Committee of Families and Children (NCFC), the Technical Working Group for Child Protection (CPTWG), UNICEF and UNFPA, launched a five-year Road Map to End Child Marriage and Early Unions in Belize to address child marriage and early unions, making it the first English-speaking country in Latin America and the Caribbean to do so. This road map builds on strategies and interventions that are already highlighted under the Belize National Agenda for Children (2017-2030). The main areas of intervention for the road map include:

Gathering data to inform policy and legislation;

Increasing boys’ and girls’ access to sexual and reproductive health services and education;

Strengthening and enforcing laws that establish the minimum legal age of marriage as 18; and

Challenging social norms by creating dialogue within communities on the dangers of child marriage.

In 2020, with the support from the Spotlight Initiative, the National Women’s Commission and the Spouses of CARICOM Leaders Action Network, established the project ‘Engaging Men and Boys to Advance Gender Equality and Help Prevent Gender-Based Violence’ project with the #EngagingMenandBoys slogan. This project aims to patriarchal social norms by providing safe spaces for men and boys to challenge their views regarding masculinity and gender within their communities.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Spotlight Initiative has supported the establishment of six mobile women’s centres in Belize. These mobile centres travel across the country to different regions such as Corozal, Toledo, Orange Walk amongst other remote regions of Belize, providing women with psychological support and information on gender-based violence, sexual and reproductive health advice and legal services.

Since 2017, under the Ministry of Human Development, Social Transformation and Poverty Alleviation and the Ministry of Health, a Health and Family Life Education (HFLE) curriculum was developed for primary and secondary schools. This curriculum educated children on the sexual health and the use of contraception. However, one of the biggest barriers in implementing this curriculum was cultural perceptions surrounding sex, sexuality and reproductive health.

Under the Belize Marriage Act 2011, the minimum age of marriage is 18 years.

However individuals can be married at 16 years with parental or judicial consent.