Belizean LGBT Rights Violations

18th December, 2013 We rarely think of art as a powerful expression of the time, but with the coordination effort of the Mexican Cultural Institute, I have come see art an emotional expression of the times that may reflect corruption, violence, gender inequality, social disparity and division.  The work of this Mexican illustrator Jose Guadaloupe Posada makes the point very clear that art can mirror social reality. While the art is intended to be satirical about difficult social issue, it makes the point that in Belize, like else where, we have social inequity and that ignoring it like this man did on the left, is not going making social problems go away. Last night I was invited to an exhibition called the "Alignment" done by Nelson Young, a Belizean. He spoke of his exhibition representing the pass and present, he spoke of people moving away from the bible and forgetting the basics of right and wrong. When one looks at the exhi...

Dated: 11th December, 2013 Yesterday, UNDP celebrated International Human Rights Day. The guest speaker was current Bar  President Eamon Courtney (seen on the right) who spoke about the broader issues of functional impunity. As the current dialogue about rights protection and enforcement continues for LGBT citizens, his speech broaden the audience understanding that human rights discussions has broader implications for existing human rights systems. In his speech he shared: "The Judiciary in Belize is challenged. It remains underfunded and understaffed. Three years ago, the Supreme Court was staffed by a chief justice and eight puisne judges. And yet, this complement was unable to cope and a backlog... Today, through promotion and attrition, we have only the Chief Justice and six puisne judges.This is a critical situation that demands urgent attention. Three years ago there were five judges hearing civil cases including constitutional claims. Today there are o...