Belize

Mine Ban Policy

Last updated: 12 November 2019

Policy

Belize signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 27 February 1998 and ratified it on 23 April 1998, becoming a State Party on 1 March 1999. Legislation to enforce the antipersonnel mine prohibition domestically was enacted on 10 January 2004.[1]

Belize has not attended any recent meetings of the treaty. It did not attend the Third Review Conference in Maputo in June 2014. Belize submitted its third Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report on 24 March 2006 but has not submitted subsequent annual reports.

On 5 December 2018, Belize voted in favor of UN General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 73/61 promoting universalization and implementation of the convention, as it has done in previous years.[2]

Belize is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons. It is party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Production, import, transfer, and stockpiling

Belize has never used, produced, imported, exported, or stockpiled antipersonnel mines, including for training purposes.



[1] “Anti-Personnel Mines Act 2003,” provided to Landmine Monitor (Mines Action Canada) by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Defence and National Emergency Management of Belize, Ref. FA/UN/28/04, 17 June 2004. It includes fines and imprisonment for violations of the Act, such as liability for $50,000 and imprisonment for seven years in case of persons possessing antipersonnel mines.

[2] “Implementation of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction,” UNGA Resolution 73/61, 5 December 2018.