In February 1996 the U.S. government added Belize to its list of major drug-transit countries despite the anticrime measures undertaken in 1995, including the adoption of a quick trial plan, and the country remained on the list in 1997. A stolen-car treaty signed in 1996 was ratified by Belize in 1997, but has not entered into effect because of U.S. congressional inaction. The Belize Human Rights Commission is independent and effective. Human rights concerns include the plight of migrant workers and refugees from neighboring Central American countries and charges of labor abuses by Belizean employers. Some have registered under an amnesty program implemented in cooperation with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Reports continue of mistreatment of migrant workers, however.
There are six privately owned newspapers, three of which are subsidized by major political parties. Belize has a literacy rate of more than 90 percent. Radio and television are saturated with political advertising during elections. Fourteen private television stations operate, including four cable systems. There is an independent board to oversee operations of the government-owned outlets.