Universal Periodic Review 32: Dominican Republic
The UK recognised the Dominican Republic’s work to eliminate violence against women, but remains concerned that undocumented migrants face a lack of access to basic human rights.
Thank you Madam Vice-President,
The UK recognises human rights progress made by the Dominican Republic, including its engagement on migration, it work to eliminate violence against women and its willingness to improve prisoners’ rights. We welcome their signing up to the UK’s Call to Action on Modern Slavery and tackling child sexual exploitation and abuse online through joining the WeProtect Global Alliance and developing a national action plan.
However, we remain concerned that human rights issues emanating from absences of migration documentation have yet to be resolved, leading to a lack of access to basic human rights for a large number of undocumented migrants in the Dominican Republic.
We also note that there is no defined timeline for the prison reform programme, nor a defined programme to deal with issues related to longstanding pre-trial detentions. We are also concerned by the increase in “femicides” in the country and we would encourage passing and implementing legislation to tackle this.
We recommend:
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Resolve human rights issues resulting from the absence of migrant documentation by finalising, publishing and implementing the protocol for implementation of the National Regularisation Plan for Foreigners, in consultation with civil society, and at the earliest possible date.
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Implement the prison reform programme as soon as possible, and ensure that longstanding pre-trial detention issues are prioritised.
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Ratify and implement the ILO Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labour Convention, 1930, (P029).
Thank you Madam Vice-President