A/HRC/13/56
ratification of the Migrant Workers Convention, as recommended by several States. It
regretted the fact that the Dominican Republic did not support the recommendation to take
measures to ensure that Dominicans of Haitian descent were not denied citizenship or
access to civil and birth registration procedures and not arbitrarily subjected to retroactive
cancellation of identity document, and urged the Government to reconsider this important
recommendation. It also urged the Dominican Republic to support explicitly the
recommendations to investigate all reports of human rights violations and to suspend
persons suspected of such violations from active duty, to establish an independent body to
deal with complaints of abuse by police and to ratify the Convention against Torture and
the Convention on Enforced Disappearances.
343. Conectas Direitos Humanos thanked the authorities for giving impetus to the settingup of the Ombudsman office as follow up to the Working Group recommendation 2 from
Peru, which partially complied with the Paris Principles on national human rights
institutions. However, it expressed concern at the fact that the Government had not
accepted a number of important recommendations, in particular the recommendation made
by the United Kingdom on impunity and the investigation of killings by the security forces.
Reference was made to the lack of confidence in the justice system, caused mainly by cases
of administrative corruption, sentences that could be called into question by national courts,
extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances. Conectas invited the Government to
accept and implement all the recommendations related to the rights of people in vulnerable
situations and/or minorities.
344. Action Canada for Population and Development, while acknowledging the progress
made in the area in the last decade, welcomed the Government’s acceptance of a large
number of recommendations, many of which related to women’s rights and the elimination
of violence against women. In implementing a number of recommendations, it called on the
Government to allocate a larger budget to public policies aimed at the promotion of
women’s rights through the effective implementation of the national plan for gender equity
(PLANEG II), which had not yet been implemented. It underscored the importance of
recommendation 26 in paragraph 88 of the Working Group report, and urged the
Government to use a wide and dynamic interpretation of article 37 of the new Constitution,
dealing with the right to life from conception to death. It also requested that, in conformity
with its obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women and other human rights treaties, the Dominican Republic
ensured that the new Penal Code included exceptions to the criminalization of abortion, at
least in cases where the life or health of a woman was in danger, or in cases of pregnancy
resulting from rape or incest. Such exceptions would contribute to decreasing maternal
mortality and to protecting women’s right to health. It called upon the Government to
ensure that judicial measures of due process were applied to cases of discrimination against,
physical attacks on, and murders of gay, lesbian, transgender and transsexual persons.
4.
Concluding remarks of the State under review
345. The Dominican Republic thanked all delegations that had recognized all its efforts.
It also recognized and congratulated the human rights organizations for their work.
346. With reference to recommendation 13 in paragraph 88 of the Working Group report,
the Dominican Republic was up to date with all its reporting obligations.
347. With regard to the recommendation to extend a standing invitation to special
procedures, the Dominican Republic noted that it had never rejected the request of any
rapporteur wishing to visit the country. The Dominican Republic considered favourably the
visit of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, which
would need to be organized carefully.
130
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