On July 16, 2026, Belizean officials gathered in Belize City to launch a groundbreaking national initiative designed to overhaul the country’s fragmented child protection and juvenile justice frameworks: the Child Protection and Child Justice Steering Committee (CPJSC).
This unified coordinating body brings dozens of key public and non-profit stakeholders under a single collaborative umbrella, a structural change rooted in hard data from a 2024 national needs assessment. That evaluation uncovered critical systemic failures, including widespread gaps in inter-agency coordination and weak cross-sector accountability that left vulnerable children underserved.
Previously, child protection and child justice issues were managed by two separate, siloed committees, a bifurcated structure that slowed response times and created conflicting priorities across agencies. The new consolidated committee is co-led by three core institutions: Belize’s National Commission for Families and Children, the Ministry of Human Development, and UNICEF Belize, ensuring alignment between government priorities and global child welfare best practices.
Belize Attorney General Anthony Sylvestre emphasized the urgent need for this restructuring during the launch event, noting that decades of on-the-ground experience had demonstrated that fragmented governance could not effectively tackle the full scope of child welfare challenges. “It’s very important to address issues with respect to child protection and child justice from a coordinated approach,” Sylvestre explained. “You have stakeholders from various agencies, whether it be law enforcement, whether it be the court, whether it be in social service, all coming together to address the issue of child protection and child justice.”
Already, the new committee has finalized a comprehensive five-year work plan spanning 2026 to 2031, outlining clear outcomes and targeted interventions to reframe Belize’s approach to child welfare. Sylvestre praised committee members for their meticulous work in developing the strategy, which includes a core mandate to deliver evidence-based policy recommendations to the national government. The plan calls for revising and updating outdated existing policies related to children and families, and with the Attorney General’s Ministry holding a formal seat on the committee, legislative reforms can now move through the approval process far more quickly than in previous years.
Immediately following the launch, the CPJSC will begin rolling out its five-year strategy across the country. The initiative’s central goal is to build a faster, more cohesive, and child-centered response system for reports of child abuse, neglect, and exploitation, closing the gaps that previously left many young Belizeans without adequate protection.
This report is adapted from a transcript of a televised evening newscast, with all spoken content preserved accurately per standard transcription protocols.