He 30 August of the 2024 the Constitutional Court of the Dominican Republic, in public hearing, began the processing of the unconstitutionality action presented by the independent member of the Litigants Network, Anderson J. Dirocie De León and her colleague Patricia Santana Nina; against the provisions of the Police Justice Codes and the Armed Forces of the Dominican Republic that sanction consensual sexual relations between people of the same gender.
in this space, The plaintiffs told the Court that the criminalization of homosexual conduct violates the rights to equality and non-discrimination.; to human dignity to the free development of personality; to non-interference in private life, access to public service, as well as the right to work of the members of these military bodies with non-normative sexual orientations. And they emphasized the unconstitutionality and unconventionality of the regulations, requesting their expulsion from the Dominican legal system.. For your part, The Attorney General's Office rendered a favorable opinion to the plaintiffs' request, indicating that the requested provisions openly violate the principle of equality and non-discrimination along with other fundamental rights contained in its Constitution and international human rights treaties signed by the Dominican Republic..
The Senate and the Chamber of Deputies of the Republic did not rule on the merits and left the declaration of unconstitutionality of the norm to the free appreciation of the Court.. It is worth remembering that there are important precedents developed by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the region., binding for the Dominican Republic, such as its decision in the Flor Freire vs. Ecuador case. When resolving this case, The Inter-American Court indicated that the sanctions for having sexual relations for members of military institutions are only applicable to homosexual people., generate a presumption of discrimination based on sexual orientation that has the effect of arbitrarily excluding the participation of these people from the armed forces..
The unconstitutionality action has also had the support of different briefs presented as Amicus Curiae by civil society organizations., between them, the Network of LGBTI+ Litigants of the Americas and Diverse Colombia, who shared with the Court the analysis carried out by Colombian comparative jurisprudence, in a similar case, on the protection of people with non-normative sexual orientations within the military forces, urging to collect the legal reasoning developed by the Constitutional Court of Colombia in relation to the discriminatory regulations that existed in the past in that country against sexual diversities within the armed forces.
We urge the Dominican Constitutional Court to declare the unconstitutionality of these provisions and to eliminate them from its legal system because they are discriminatory and constitute arbitrary state interference in private life., in the free development of personality and establish a differentiation based on sexual orientation, which leads to the exclusion of members of the Police Force and Armed Forces with non-normative sexual orientations.
In the video anchored to this post you can see the audience andhere download the amicus curiae of the LGBTI+ Litigants Network and Colombia Divers
