Mainly covers the period June 1998 to April 2001 as well as including some earlier information.

  • Population:
    – total: 235,000
    – under-18s: 111,000
  • Government armed forces:
    – active: 1,050
    – reserves: 700
  • Compulsory recruitment age: no conscription
  • Voluntary recruitment age: 18
  • Voting age (government elections): 18
  • Child soldiers: none indicated
  • CRC-OP-CAC: signed on 6 September 2000
  • Other treaties ratified: CRC; GC/API+II; ILO 138; ILO 182
  • There are no indications of under-18s in government armed forces.

GOVERNMENT

National Recruitment Legislation and Practice

The law allows for the establishment of obligatory national service whenever voluntary applicants for the Belize Defence Force are not sufficient.214 However, applicants have regularly been in excess of available spaces by at least three-to-one, and enlistment has been entirely voluntary throughout the force's existence. The army provides the prospect of a steady job in a country with relatively high unemployment rates.215 The 1977 Defence Ordinance sets the minimum age of eighteen for enlistment.216 Service can be for various terms and includes both a period of active service and a subsequent reserve obligation.217 Under the law, service should not exceed twenty-two years of active duty. In a state of emergency, volunteers and reserve forces can be called up for permanent service.

All recruits undergo a fourteen week training programme and major training centres are located at Price Barracks in Ladyville, near Belize City, Camp Oakley, Mountain Pine Ridge and Hill Bank.218 There is no evidence of under age recruitment into the armed forces in Belize.

214 See http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+bz0109).

215 Library of the US Congress op. cit.

216 Radda Barnen (Swedish Save the Children) Website;. Library of the US Congress Website http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+bz0109).

217 Library of the US Congress op. cit.

218 Ibid.

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