The Congress of the Dominican Republic is about to approve a new penal code that has been described by different sectors of civil society as a serious setback in terms of human rights.. Bill omits protections against discrimination and violence based on gender identity and sexual orientation, and justifies discriminatory acts committed motivated by “good customs” or “the defense of freedom of religion.”.
In addition to unprotecting sexual and gender diversities, This legislative initiative exonerates churches from criminal liability, even in serious cases of human rights violations; maintains the legal prohibition of abortion in all cases; condones corporal punishment of children, exonerating their parents from responsibility, mothers or guardians; establishes lesser penalties for sexual violations that occur within marriage and denaturalizes the criminal type of feminicide by allowing its application in violent deaths of men.
Dominican civil society has denounced that this dangerous project has advanced hastily in the legislative chambers without having a broad social consensus., prioritizing particular interests over the general well-being, without considering the international obligations subscribed and ratified by the State in matters of human rights. Its approval would mean a violation of the rights of the most vulnerable people in Dominican society., contravening the principles of human dignity, equality and non-discrimination contained in the American Convention on Human Rights and in the country's political Constitution itself.
He 15 July 2024, The Special Commission studying the draft Penal Code held public hearings in which the independent member of the Network, Anderson Javiel Dirocie D. had the opportunity to participate. His intervention had as its central point the inconvenience of the criminal type of discrimination. You can see his presentation before this Commission of the Chamber of Deputies in the video linked here
The Network of LGBTI+ Litigants of the Americas urges the Congress of the Dominican Republic not to approve this regressive legislative initiative and instead adopt a new Penal Code whose approval and content observe constitutional principles, as a Social and Democratic State of Law where human dignity and the guarantees of fundamental rights prevail.
