Think It’s Just Social Media Drama? It Could Be Abuse

Sending threatening messages, sharing intimate images without consent, or using social media to humiliate a partner could soon be treated the same as physical domestic violence.

The Domestic Violence (Prohibition) Bill 2026, tabled in March, would formally recognise technology-facilitated abuse as a form of domestic violence for the first time in Belizean law. That means cyberstalking, online harassment, and digital intimidation carried out against a partner or family member would fall under the same legal framework as physical and emotional abuse.

UN Women warns that “less than half of countries have laws against online abuse. Enforcement? Even weaker. Abusers hide behind screens and borders while survivors can’t access justice.”

Under the bill’s definition, cyberstalking covers a broad range of behaviour, including sending obscene or threatening messages repeatedly through any electronic means, threatening to harm a person or their family, tampering with someone’s data or images to cause distress, and threatening to share intimate or suggestive images to humiliate or intimidate a partner.

The bill also widens the net of who is protected. Current law largely covers people who live together. The new legislation would extend protections to people in dating, visiting, and former relationships, meaning a victim no longer has to share a home with their abuser to qualify.

Other changes include faster access to protection orders through expedited hearings and even interim protection orders issued by select senior justices of the peace.

The bill was introduced by Minister of Human Development Thea Garcia-Ramires during Women’s Month, which she said was a deliberate choice reflecting the government’s commitment to stronger protections for women and families.

The bill has not yet been passed into law.