Minister Calls for United Front Against Domestic Violence

Minister of Human Development, Thea Garcia Ramirez, rose on a more serious note to address the scourge of domestic violence plaguing Belize. She pointed to some of the latest data on the issue and called for a unified front in tackling this social ill. Minister Garcia-Ramirez says the orange shirt is a unified expression of solidarity with survivors.

 

Thea Garcia-Ramirez, Minister of Human Development

“All members on this side are wearing orange as a unified expression of solidarity with survivors and as an expression of the Government of Belize’s zero tolerance stand against Gender Based violence. And while today is symbolic, the issue before us is real and urgent. The latest national data show that in 2023 police recorded one thousand, two hundred and fifty domestic violence cases and in 2024, one thousand two hundred seventy-seven cases. Nine out of ten complainants are women, most between ages of eighteen and forty-five. And in cases of sexual violence, ninety percent of victims in 2023 were females with half of those being girls ten to nineteen. Femicide remains an emerging threat, with one in ten murdered females in 2023 believed to have been killed due to gender related motives. These numbers represent real people.”