The Ombudsman of Belize, Lionel Arzu, visited the Control Yuan with the Belizean Ambassador, Diane Haylock, on October 29 and delivered a speech on October 30, 2018, engaging in open and friendly discussions with the CY members and staff.
Belize is one of the important countries in Central America with whom we have diplomatic relations. The CY visited Belize in 2015 and signed cooperation agreement with the Office of the Ombudsman to strengthen the bilateral cooperation and share human rights protection experiences. On October 29, President Chang Po-ya welcomed Mr. Arzu and the Ambassador with sincerity and briefed them on the CY’s functions and powers, such as investigation, receipt of people’s complaints, impeachment, correction and audit, to make the guests have more understanding of our supervision system.
Mr. Arzu acknowledged the integrity and checks and balances of the CY powers as well as was interested in the operation of the Sunshine Acts such as property-declaration by public servants and political donations. He also indicated that the CY is an important mechanism ensuring the administrative efficiency of the government, admiring its contributions to the democracy. Mr. Arzu also recognized the integrity and well-operation of our supervision system and considered it a worthy reference for other countries. He hoped that the CY will share its good governance promotion and human rights protection experiences to the world and allow more countries to learn about Taiwan.
In the speech on October 30, Mr. Arzu pointed out that in order to have good governance, there must be the rule of law through independent judiciary, the executive branch of the government, the legislative and other apparatus that serve to check and balance one another so that the fundamental human rights can be protected. The Office of the Ombudsman of Belize serves as an independent oversight agency that is beyond the judicial and the legislative branches of government, safeguarding good governance by investigating complaints by any person who claims that an authority is guilty of corruption or who claims to have sustained injustice or abuse by the government. The Ombudsman’s Office was founded in 1999 and has received and investigated approximately 1,700 complaints, many of which were made against the government alleging human rights violation such as rights to life and personal liberty or the rights to seek asylum and social security.
In order to learn more about our supervision and audit systems as well as social, economic and cultural status, the Ombudsmen also visited other government agencies such as National Audit Office and had cultural visit, exchanging experiences and enhancing bilateral relations.