Special Envoy: ‘Make Sex Offenders Registry Public’

Whether it is a teacher, police officer, or someone in a position of power, Special Envoy Rossana Briceño says convicted sex offenders in Belize should no longer be able to hide behind a closed registry.

Briceño’s demand for “greater accountability, transparency, and stronger protections against these heinous crimes” comes amid the recent growing public outrage over allegations involving individuals in positions of authority, including educators and police officers, she said.

She added that keeping convicted offenders anonymous puts children at risk, and giving the public access to that information is the strongest tool communities have to keep them safe.

Currently, Belize already operates an internal sex-offender registry managed by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Police Department. It is not a public database. Access is restricted to law enforcement and select childcare facilities.

The statement opened a strong and supportive conversation among online users towards Briceño’s demand. One said, “Yes, we need this, and we need the punishment so strong that others will think twice to hurt any of our children.”

Other users, while supporting the push, also pressed for details on what a public registry would look like in practice, including restrictions on how close offenders could live to schools and daycare centres and how accessible the information would be to the public.