On February 19, 2024, Cailin Ruff (JD 2024) and Megan Mars (JD 2023), two of the students of the International Human Rights Center, presented a parallel report for the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. The report was jointly prepared by the IHRC, Belize Family Life Association, and GOJoven Belize Alumni Association. The report focused on the lack of statistical data on gender related issues in Belize and the barriers to safe and legal abortions in the State, specifically the criminalization of abortion, the narrow and limiting legal exceptions for abortions and inadequate sexual and reproductive health education. These issues come under the purview of articles 2, 3, 5, 10, 12, 14, 15 and 16 of CEDAW. Their written intervention highlighted the need to expand exceptions for abortion, with the goal to decriminalize abortion, as well as the need to maintain adequate data based on women's access to reproductive health.
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