“The Public Should Know Who You Are,” Says Mira to Sex Offenders

Minister of Home Affairs, Oscar Mira, has thrown his full support behind calls for a national sex offenders’ registry in Belize, saying convicted sexual offenders should be publicly known and that he intends to use his ministry to make it happen. 

Speaking on Open Your Eyes, Mira drew on reports he has reviewed since taking office, describing the content as deeply disturbing.

“Some of those reports are unbelievable. The sexual abuse with children, primary schoolers, I cannot understand how someone would look at a child, children as young as four years old. We have to make sure that we treat these people in a different kind of way,” he said.

Mira’s comments come in response to a press release issued on Saturday by the Special Envoy for the Development of Families and Children, which called urgently for the establishment of a national sex offenders’ registry. The Special Envoy’s release pointed to a growing number of allegations involving individuals in positions of authority, including educators and police officers, and argued that keeping the identities of convicted offenders hidden leaves women and children unnecessarily vulnerable.

The minister echoed that concern, noting that in many of the cases he has reviewed, abuse is not a one-time occurrence. Offenders, he said, often move from one victim to the next within the same family.

Belize would not be breaking new ground in establishing such a system. According to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking, 41 countries around the world already maintain sex offender registries as of 2023.

“I fully support the special envoy on her call, and I’m going to do my part from my ministry to ensure that we get this registry done,” Mira said. “I think that if you are convicted of something like that, then the public should know who you are so that you [the public] can prevent, and make sure that you keep your children away,” he added.