Belize’s Minister of Human Development, Thea Garcia Ramirez, has issued a powerful call for national solidarity in confronting the nation’s escalating domestic violence epidemic. Addressing the grave social crisis with urgent solemnity, Minister Garcia Ramirez presented alarming statistics that paint a disturbing picture of gender-based violence across the country.
The minister emphasized that the symbolic wearing of orange shirts by government members represents both solidarity with survivors and the administration’s absolute zero-tolerance stance toward gender-based violence. While the visual demonstration serves as an important symbol, Garcia Ramirez stressed that the underlying issue demands concrete action rather than mere gestures.
Official national data reveals a troubling persistence of domestic violence cases, with police recording 1,250 incidents in 2023 followed by 1,277 cases in 2024. The statistics reveal particularly distressing patterns: approximately 90% of complainants are women, predominantly between the ages of 18 and 45. Even more alarming, sexual violence data shows that 90% of 2023’s victims were female, with half being girls aged 10 to 19.
Minister Garcia Ramirez highlighted the emerging threat of femicide, noting that one in ten murdered females in 2023 is believed to have been killed due to gender-related motives. The minister concluded with a poignant reminder that these statistics represent real people whose lives have been devastated by violence, underscoring the critical need for immediate and coordinated national response.