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Well, that's what's being tried now by the Senior Courts. The Judicial Education Institute of the Senior Courts of Belize Launched its victim Offender mediation pilot project in collaboration with the UNDP this morning and 7news was there.

The project is designed to assist in matters already before the court, and to create restorative justice opportunities by giving a voice to those who feel voiceless within the system. High Court Judge Candace Nanton told us it started with technical consultations with a wide cross section of stakeholders.

Madam Justice Candace Nanton, High Court Judge, Senior Courts
"We had technical consultation, stakeholder sessions which were held on Monday and Tuesday. We met with key partners who are integral to the criminal justice system such as the Attorney General, the Solicitor General. We also met with the Community Rehabilitation Department, we met with mediators, the mediation association, which is ADRAB. We also met with the national alternative dispute resolutions committee as well as judges and magistrates so we had very important, an police prosecutors also, so we had very important key stakeholder sessions which is where we familiarise those key partners in terms of the court's initiative which is the criminal mediation, the court connected criminal mediation project. We intend to launch - which we have today - a pilot project on court connected criminal mediation as well as the presentation of a victim offender mediation toolkit. The toolkit is an important resource which is added to the other resources available such as the court connected, criminal mediation rules which were published in January of 2025. These rules aim to provide the legislative framework, criminal mediation opportunities in Belize. So this is a countrywide initiative in which we have matters which are being referred to from magistrates courts across the country of Belize as well as the high courts criminal division. Select matters are being referred for mediation. We have trained criminal mediators in the process so this is the opportunity whereby they get to test the training that they have obtained and they will conduct mediation sessions with alleged offenders and alleged victims and that will create this dialogue and collaborative process with a view to restorative justice. So today's proceedings are really the launch of the pilot project as well as the launch of the victim offender mediation toolkit which is an important resource."

A 40 hour training session was held in October of 2024, where 39 mediators were trained, but only 15 have been sworn in since January. At present only sworn mediators can conduct criminal mediation in Belize. Justice Nanton explained the mediation mechanism:

Madam Justice Candace Nanton, High Court Judge, Senior Courts
"So we have attached to the tool kit and this will be used and it must be used, a pre mediation questionnaire in which the participants will fill out their expectations then they will fill out a post mediation questionnaire at the end of the mediation and that is where they also voice their opinions and when I say participants, I am referring to the mediator himself or herself and I am also referring to the would be victim and the would be offender. They must fill out these forms, and these forms are then entered into a database whereby we intend to collect data and generate reports which can assess trends and which can assess how viable the native is, how successful the initiative is and it would also address information such as whether gender plays a part in the success or the outcome of a mediation agreement. Whether age plays a part and that will allow us the opportunity to tailor the initiative so that we are really reaching the aims that we intend to reach which is really to reduce the backlog and to create restorative justice opportunities and to also give voice to the voiceless in the criminal justice system."

The restorative justice has experienced success worldwide and Belize has modeled its rules upon the module that Singapore allowed. Nanton explained that it does not intend to replace the criminal justice system, but offers an additional layer of protection for the victims to have an opportunity to voice their concerns in a controlled environment.

Madam Justice Candace Nanton, High Court Judge, Senior Courts
"Because we want to ensure that we have a controlled environment we are in the process of identifying locations in each court building so we already have locations for example in the Belize city magistrates court and the Belize city high court. We have an auto jurisdiction in some jurisdictions however we do have some challenges in other districts and we are working on finding viable alternatives. There is also the possibility of virtual mediation sessions, while we prefer face to face dialogue, virtual sessions may become a reality if we are unable to have appropriate locations in some instances. The default position is that we have them in person and we have them at the court, the court building and that is for protection and that is for safety and that is to ensure that people feel comfortable in the process."

The pilot will last for a period of 2 month beginning today and will end on the 1st week of June. Once the results have been collected, they will generate an official report and overview of the pilot which will be made available for the public.

Excluded from the mediation mechanism are Sexual Offences, gang offences, any offence that falls under the firearms act as well as any offence involving death, including capital offences, homicides and manslaughter.