AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT 2016/17

American States (OAS) was held in Santo
Domingo, the capital, in June.
New members were appointed to the
Central Electoral Board, the institution in
charge of the civil registry that has
continuously limited access to identity
documents for Dominicans of Haitian
descent.
The government failed to finalize and
implement a draft National Human Rights
Plan after consulting in 2015 with human
rights organizations.
A comprehensive anti-discrimination bill
was drafted and shared for consultation with
various sectors of society. If adopted, it
would be the first legislation of its kind in
the Caribbean.
Tens of thousands of people were
displaced due to massive flooding in October
and November affecting large areas of the
north of the country.
POLICE AND SECURITY FORCES
The Office of the Prosecutor General reported
74 killings by security forces between
January and June, representing nearly 10%
of all killings in the country. Many killings
took place in circumstances suggesting that
they may have been unlawful.
After years of discussion, a new law on
police reform (Law 590-16) was passed
in July.
REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS
The authorities continued to deport
significant numbers of people of Haitian
origin, including Haitian migrants and their
families. According to the International
Organization for Migration, the authorities
deported more than 40,000 persons to Haiti
between January and September, while
nearly 50,000 more individuals
“spontaneously” left the Dominican Republic,
in some cases following threats or for fear of
violent deportations. More than 1,200
presumed unaccompanied children were
identified at the Dominican-Haitian border.
Despite some improvements in the way
deportations were carried out by officials, the
authorities failed to fully respect international
safeguards against arbitrary deportations. For
example, the authorities failed to serve
deportation orders or to provide mechanisms
allowing people who had been brought to detention
centres and deported to challenge the
legality, necessity and proportionality of
detention as well as the deportation itself. 1
DISCRIMINATION – STATELESS
PERSONS
In February the Inter-American Commission
on Human Rights published a report on the
situation of human rights in the Dominican
Republic and concluded that “the situation of
statelessness… that has not yet been
completely corrected after the measures
adopted by the Dominican State, is of a
magnitude never before seen in the
Americas.”
From August 2015 to July 2016, UNHCR,
the UN refugee agency, verified 1,881 cases
of Dominican-born individuals who had
arrived in Haiti, voluntarily or following
expulsions, and who were stateless or at risk
of statelessness. Contrary to international law,
a number of Dominican-born individuals
were expelled from the Dominican Republic
to Haiti – something the Dominican
authorities continuously failed to
acknowledge.
Despite measures adopted by the
government in 2014, tens of thousands of
people, mainly of Haitian descent, remained
stateless by the end of 2016. 2 No steps were
taken to find any solution for Dominican-born
people of foreign descent whose birth had
never been registered in the Dominican Civil
Registry (so-called “Group B”) and who
could not apply for the naturalization plan
provided by Law 169-14. 3
HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS
In September, lawyer and human rights
defender Genaro Rincón Mieses was verbally
and physically assaulted in the capital, Santo
Domingo, for his work in protecting the rights
of Dominicans of Haitian descent. 4 The
attack took place in a context of increased
reports of threats, insults and intimidation
against human rights defenders combating
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