THE
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
IWRAW spoke with
members of several non-governmental organisations in the Dominican
Republic, some of whom also gave us printed materials, and one
organisation gave us photographs to pass on to the Committee.
We provided these groups with copies of the second periodic
report of the Dominican Republic to the CESCR, dated 15 March,
1995 (E/1990/6/Add.7), and encouraged them to suggest questions
for the Government delegation. The general reaction of NGOs
to the Government report was dismay at the near total absence
of de facto description of any kind.
Overview
Joaqu�n Balaguer,
prime minister to the dictator Raphael Trujillo in the late
1950s, has dominated Dominican politics over the past three
decades, winning the presidency in 1990 and 1994 through two
rigged elections. This year, Balaguer's Social Christian Reformist
Party, in an alliance of convenience with the Dominican Liberation
Party (PLD), helped PLD presidential candidate Leonel Fernandez
to win a majority over his more popular rival, Jose Francisco
Pe�a Gomez. After assuming office on 16 August, 1996, Fernandez
announced that he hoped to transform political consensus into
an economic rebirth.
Nothing less than
a rebirth will do. In 1994 - 95 an estimated sixty to sixty-five
percent of the Dominican population was living below the poverty
line.1 State policy continues
to be dictated by the narrow interests of a small group of industrialists
and state managers. Small farmers are impoverished and increasing
numbers of the landless rural proletariat either work for low
wages on agricultural estates or migrate to the cities, where
unemployment is over thirty percent. Remittances from migrants
to New York and European cities constitute an important means
of survival for many Dominican families.
Very soon after
the elections, Balaguer put an end to the idea of political
consensus. His Reformist party broke off its temporary alliance
with Fernandez's PLD and made moves to postpone Congressional
elections until the end of Fernandez' term of office. Balaguer's
party holds effective veto power over any new presidential initiatives,
and postponing elections will ensure that the new president's
party does not increase what little power it already has in
either house of Congress.
Perhaps this is
why the not-so-optimistic are still emigrating in such large
numbers. An overwhelming majority of respondents in a national
survey conducted last year in the Dominican Republic said that
they did not believe in the credibility of any public institution.
The survey asked respondents whether they would leave the country
if they had the opportunity, and the majority said that they
would. Considering its small size, the Dominican Republic is
one of the countries in the world most dramatically affected
by migration.2
Migration
It is widely believed
that migration to the United States was politically induced
after the 1963 revolution in the Dominican Republic. An extremely
unrestrictive US immigration policy helped to generate a flow
of migrants which has sustained itself over the years for economic
reasons. Political repression during the authoritarian regime
of Balaguer has been well documented. Measures to silence political
and economic opposition included the murder of union leadership
by paramilitary squads and the deportation and jailing of political
opponents. High GDP growth in the 1960s and 1970s did little
to correct the persistent inequality in income distribution.
Opportunities for rural labour decreased sharply in the 1970s.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimated that in
1980 the informal sector in Santo Domingo made up fifty percent
of the work force.3 Out-migration
was encouraged by the State partly because it helped obscure
increasing economic imbalances and reduced political opposition
to the Balaguer regime.
Migration has not,
for the most part, provided any real benefits to the country.
Returnees from the US have not fuelled the economy with diversified
investments.4 The bulk of
remittances continue to be used for household consumption. Contrary
to popular assumptions, the majority of migrant labour to the
US was not marginalized workers but semi-skilled workers, professionals
and small entrepreneurs who felt that their wages and security
were threatened. Many who returned simply re-established the
same type of business they had owned prior to emigration. 5
Nonetheless, migration
and return migration have affected the country in complex and
troubling ways. Remittances as well as returning migrants themselves
have intensified aspirations for styles of consumption associated
with life in more economically developed countries. Members
of many migrant households have acquired the trappings of a
middle-class standard of living, but one which is dependent
on external sources of income. Remittances have eased the political
pressures of landlessness, underemployment and low wages, and
thus have helped to perpetuate a lack of political will to use
government in ways that benefit more than the privileged elite.
Most Dominican migrants
leave home with the desire to return to their country, but their
permanent return is not encouraged by the State. There are no
effective incentive programmes to provide credit for small-scale
producers, and so long as cheap labour remains the country's
major selling point to international investors, there is little
encouragement for unskilled or semi-skilled migrants to give
up the wages they can earn in the US or in Europe to return
permanently to their families. Culturally, the external orientation
brought about by migration and by the domination of foreign
interests in virtually every sector of the economy has helped
to undermine a positive sense of national identity.6
Tourism
Tourism has expanded
considerably in recent years, bringing over two million visitors
to the country's coastal resorts in 1995 alone. Assessments
vary, but tourism is said to generate as much money for the
government as the Free Trade Zones and double the hard currency
generated by other exports. It has also created a boom in sex
tourism and has helped to increase the rate of AIDS infection,
currently the country's most serious health problem. Culturally,
tourism has been yet another source of free-floating and spatially
divided families. A tourism promotion fund run by the government
and the National Hotel & Restaurants Association has recently
been established. Since the State has officially launched itself
into the tourism business, it can no longer remain disengaged
from the human and ecological issues generated by this kind
of development. For one, it cannot continue to ignore the boom
in sex-tourism in the resort areas multiplying along the coasts.
Non-governmental groups hope that the CESCR Committee will question
the Dominican Government delegation concerning what precisely
the State intends to do to discourage some of the negative effects
of the country's increasing dependence on tourism.
Gatt and the World
Trade Organisation
In January 1995,
the Dominican Congress approved the ratification of the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which was the prerequisite
to becoming incorporated into the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Congress is adopting a new foreign investment law to meet the
regulations set forth by the WTO. In general, the law grants
equal treatment to all investors, foreign and domestic. It also
opens previously restricted areas of the economy to foreign
investment. A new financial and monetary code is also being
approved by Congress.7 The
WTO has praised the efforts of the Dominican Government to integrate
its economy with world markets. However, the WTO has itself
warned that this further opening of the Dominican economy will
mean "longer-term, difficult adjustments, especially for those
parts of agriculture which compete with imports."8
Informed Dominicans agree that the country cannot avoid integration
with the world economy, but those who are democratically-minded
feel that this integration must be more innovative and socially
redemptive than it has been in the past. Much of the export-led
growth in the country has been accomplished by bringing unskilled
women into the workforce at minimal wages, without any corresponding
growth in State investments in human resource development, specifically
education and vocational training.
It is widely agreed
that the State is in an administrative crisis and urgently needs
restructuring, but there is no consensus about exactly what
this should mean. Not uncommonly, there are clashes between
Dominican police and residents demanding improvements in water,
electricity or health services. Congress has approved legal
reforms which now make it possible to privatise most public
services, but there is great hostility and suspicion among the
poorer classes that the crises in electricity and other state-owned
utilities are being manufactured by those who will profit enormously
from privatisation, and are not, in themselves, proof that properly
managed public services cannot be cost effective.
Development reform
The legacy of the
Trujillo regime has been the continued predominance of the State
and its corrupt enterprises. As elsewhere in the world, the
primary casualties of the economic and monetary reforms prescribed
to cure these ills are the poorer classes. Concerned experts
warn that the regulations of the World Trade Organisation will
aggravate the hardships brought on with structural adjustment
and will discriminate specifically against workers and domestic
producers. The effect on rural agricultural producers, for example,
will increase an already existing threat to food security in
the country."9
Women and "invisible
adjustment'
Although men still
make up the majority of the economically active population (EAP),
it is estimated that since 1960 the number of economically active
women has grown at four times the rate for men. UNICEF's concept
of "invisible adjustment" is a particularly appropriate description
of the entry of large numbers of unskilled women onto the labour
market in recent years in the Dominican Republic. While employment
opportunities for men have been shrinking, the new "growth"
in the Free Trade Zones and tourism have offered unprecedented
opportunities for unskilled women, who have taken on increasing
responsibility for supporting their families.
The "social debt"
Oxfam - UK is conducting
a world-wide campaign to increase public concern for the basic
human right to work "in a dignified environment." Oxfam and
its campaign collaborator in the Dominican Republic, the Centro
de Investigaciones para la Acci�n Femenina (CIPAF), have brought
renewed currency in their campaign to the notion of an 'unpaid
social debt.' The campaign in the Dominican Republic focuses
specifically on women's employment in the Free Trade Zones.
Rather than minimise or ignore the complex relationship between
economics and the claims of human rights, Oxfam describes how
the legacy of authoritarian and self-serving leadership, corruption
and the constraints of an economy excessively dependent on US
and other outside economic interests, continues to express itself
in the Dominican Republic as an "endless, massive flood of migrants--more
accurately described as economic refugees," who remain "the
best indicator of the magnitude of this unpaid social debt."10
Article 2 (1)
Each State Party
undertakes to take steps....with a view to achieving progressively
the full realisation of the rights recognised in the present
Covenant by all appropriate means, including particularly the
adoption of legislative measures.
Many of the individuals
IWRAW interviewed in the Dominican Republic are lawyers. For
all of them, the problem underlying or preceding the adoption
of legislative reforms is the arbitrariness of the courts and
the relative impunity of judges. Lawyers talk about the practice
of the courts, but they are not always familiar with the wording
of the laws themselves. Copies of the civil codes are difficult
to obtain. Indeed, what the courts do is more important than
what the legal codes say. There appears to be no mechanism for
lodging complaints against judges whose conduct is arbitrary
or corrupt. By way of example, one lawyer related an instance
when a judge called him to his chambers after he had made his
decision on a particular case. The judge explained that he could
not decide against the landowner in question, even if he was
convinced that the landworker was right and that the law was
on the landworker's side, because he himself was a landowner
and he had to protect his interests.
There is no appellate
procedure to determine the constitutionality of the lower courts'
decisions, or the constitutionality of the laws. Thus, even
though the Constitution says that every Dominican citizen is
equal before the law, there is no place to challenge a law,
an executive decree, or a decision of a court on grounds of
discrimination.
The vested interests
of a male-dominated court system work against women, especially
in cases involving sexual violence or division of property,
when it is often difficult for male judges to decide against
the 'interests' of their sex. For this reason, the Coordinadora
De ONGs Del Area De La Mujer (hereafter referred to as the Coordinadora),
a national coalition of over forty-one organisations,11
has presented Congress with various reforms that would provide
mechanisms to protect women and racial minorities. One of the
proposed reforms would include the creation of a Constitutional
tribunal or court to review the constitutionality of the laws
and of lower court decisions. Proposed reforms also include
a mechanism to sanction or impeach elected or appointed officials
and functionaries who are not acting according to their designated
functions. In addition, the Coordinadora has proposed a reform
of the judiciary that would create courts or other offices to
monitor women's issues and receive complaints regarding the
misconduct of judges and other personnel in the judicial system.
The Coordinadora is also asking for a Constitutional Assembly,
elected directly by the people and not appointed by the political
parties, to produce a profound reform of the Constitution. All
of these reforms have been presented to Congress and are at
various stages of the legislative process, but according to
IWRAW's information at the time this report was being written,
none have yet passed the Senate.
Human rights
One of the unfortunate
holdovers from the period of the Trujillo dictatorship has been
a persistent perception, reinforced by the police and the media,
that individuals who denounce human rights violations are unpatriotic
and subversive. Given this attitude, it is not surprising that
economic, social and cultural rights are not yet perceived as
rights in the Dominican Republic. According to Centro Dominicano
De Asesoria E Investigaciones Legales (CEDAIL), a local non-governmental
organisation, members of the judicial system, even community
leaders, do not know about these rights. Only a small minority
of NGOs is aware that the Government has ratified the Covenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, or any other human
rights treaty, except perhaps some of the ILO conventions.
Technically, all
UN human rights treaties and conventions automatically become
part of Dominican national law upon ratification, but new legislation
is required before these international conventions will override
domestic legislation. Dominican judges do not recognise ratified
international treaties as national law. There are no human rights
courses in law faculties at the universities. IWRAW sources
said they were aware of no government programmes to make these
treaties known to the judiciary, police or other law enforcement
agencies. There is a judicial gazette (Gazeta Oficial), but
it is not distributed free of charge, and sources say that judges
do not normally purchase it.
CEDAIL gave an example
of the prevailing attitude of government toward human rights
with an anecdote concerning the Ministry of Education. CEDAIL
produced a set of public education booklets (one complete copy
has been sent to the CESCR Committee) concerning the UN human
rights treaties, the Dominican Constitution and the domestic
legal codes that it wanted to make available to the public schools.
The whole of the eighth booklet, entitled "Deberes," concerns
the responsibilities of the individual to uphold social justice
and human dignity. CEDAIL was informed by the committee within
the Ministry of Education that supervises school textbooks that
their materials "focused too much on rights and not enough on
duties."
ARTICLE 2 (2) non-discrimination
In the months preceding
the presidential elections in May 1996, media commentators and
human rights groups decried rising repression against the country's
black population. According to then presidential candidate Leonel
Fernandez, now President of the Republic, approximately 160,000
Haitian (meaning: temporary or illegal workers with no claims
to citizenship) supporters of black Dominican candidate Jose
Francisco Pe�a Gomez had been illegally inscribed on the voter
rolls.12 The Reformist
Party of President Balaguer echoed the accusation. The president
of the Central Electoral Junta declared that the allegations
"were not sufficient to begin an operation verifying registered
voters."13 Nonetheless,
in the weeks before the elections, nearly 5,000 Haitians and
Dominican-born Haitians were deported. What is more, it is alleged
that the authorities confiscated identity cards from a large
number of black Dominicans in what has been described as a campaign
to frighten black voters from the polls. The president of the
Dominican Committee for the Defence of Human Rights declared
that the deportations were "purely political....racist, exclusive
and focused solely on electoral gain."14
The president of the National Commission for Human Rights, Porfirio
Nina, accused the government of violating international treaties
with its arbitrary deportations and commented that "more than
350,000 foreigners of various nationalities live in the country
illegally,...yet it is only those with black skin who are deported."15
The Movement of
Haitian-Dominican Women (MUDHA) publicly denounced the deployment
of the Dominican Armed Forces to carry out deportations of Haitian-Dominicans
during the election campaign. MUDHA declared that it was a violation
of Article 11 of the Dominican Constitution, which grants Dominican
nationality to all those born on Dominican soil. The vice president
of MUDHA, Lilliana Dolis, was quoted as saying that "the deportation
of illegal immigrants is an act of sovereignty on the part of
the state and ought not be questioned. However, it is worrisome
when such measures are applied to Dominican citizens of Haitian
origin."16 Most commentaries
agree that the presidential campaign was characterised by strident
anti-Haitian rhetoric, in which candidates and their supporters
repeatedly alluded to presidential candidate Pe�a Gomez's Haitian
background, his alleged practice of Voodoo rituals and to his
supposed plan to unite the Dominican Republic with its neighbouring
Haiti.17
Anti-Haitianism
and racial discrimination
President Fernandez
was inaugurated on a day that is also observed as the 133rd
anniversary of Dominican independence from Haiti.18
The historical conflict between the two countries and the relatively
greater poverty of Haiti has made it relatively easy for nationalist
politicians in the Dominican Republic to scapegoat Haitian workers
and manipulate the population into a morbid fear of the Haitian
"threat." The Dominican Republic is dominated by a small white
aristocracy, and its majority mulatto population tends to identify
as white, but it is anti-Haitianism, rather than racism as such,
which is the accepted prejudice in the Dominican Republic. The
second Government report19
to the CESCR Committee describes the population of the Dominican
Republic as follows:
"...there
is no marked differentiation on ethnic grounds among this population,
which is nearly completely integrated in all aspects of the
nation's social, economic and cultural life." (para.4)
Identidad, a national
organisation connected to the Caribbean regional women's network
Red Afrolatinoamericana , suggests that the CESCR ask the government
delegation why, if the Dominican population is so well integrated,
is it a common practice to ask applicants to send photos when
applying for jobs? Why are 'afro' hairstyles and dress prohibited
in schools? Why are Afrocaribbean religious rituals suppressed?
Since there are no more indigenous indios left in the country,
why do identity cards contain a "white" category and three for
"indios" of various shades -- indio, indio claro, and indio
oscuro -- if the population is "nearly completely integrated"
and these categories have no social basis?20
Identidad, along with other groups that advocate for the rights
of black Dominicans, says that the prevailing mentality within
the country, reflected by the above statement from the government
report, is to deny that racism exists.
Demonizing Haitians
as the "silent invasion," while keeping racial identity among
Dominicans themselves at the level of vague prejudice, shame
and fear, has been an advantage to the State, because it has
been virtually impossible to document discrimination. Black
Dominicans are commonly identified as Haitians and are susceptible
to the same or similar treatment. One practical administrative
reason for this lies with the arbitrary and corrupt practices
surrounding the issue of the cedula.
The cedula
As in many parts
of Latin America, it is extremely difficult in the Dominican
Republic to obtain public services, conduct business transactions
or to move about freely without a cedula, or personal identification
card. MUDHA, which works specifically with Dominican women of
Haitian descent, says that it is difficult to register black
children, particularly if they are born of one or two Haitian
parents. According to CEDAIL, hospitals in the Dominican Republic
issue birth certificates, but they are not required by law to
officially register births. Poor people in general have difficulties
being documented, partly because they don't know the system
and do not take their children to be documented. The older a
child becomes, the more difficult it becomes for him or her
to be documented. Haitian children, who are rarely born in hospitals
and whose mothers do not themselves have a cedula, have even
less chance of acquiring one.
Haitian migrants
During the time
of the Trujillo dictatorship, it became customary to bring Haitians
into the Dominican Republic to cut cane, and this practice has
persisted. There remains among Dominicans, despite high levels
of unemployment, an aversion to living in the shanties next
to the cane fields, called bateyes, and to cutting cane. This
aversion has been an advantage to plantation administrators,
who, by perpetuating the terrible living conditions in the bateyes,
remain more or less at liberty to hire Haitian braceros, male
temporary agricultural workers, as cheap labour. The state-run
Dominican sugar industry is in an administrative crisis, and
the egregious corruption in the bateyes continues.
Women in the bateyes
One of the problems
specific to women derives from the common assumption that only
braceros come to the Dominican Republic, and this has made women
administratively invisible. According to MUDHA, women have always
been brought to the cane fields along with men, because it is
cheaper and more convenient for landowners and plantation managers
to maintain a resident population of workers than transport
them back and forth across the Haitian border. Also, the earnings
of a resident population circulate inside the bateyes, which
contain general stores and bars, much like company towns anywhere
in the world. Along with increased profits, long-term settlements
produce more braceros. Legally, the bateyes are only hostels
for temporary workers, but human rights groups, including MUDHA,
have confirmed that they are in fact permanent settlements containing
entire families, many of whom have been living in the country
all their lives, and whose children have been born and raised
in the Dominican Republic.
Since there is no
official recognition of these populations, there is little or
no attempt to provide education, health or other primary services.
Living conditions are terrible. The people are discouraged from
speaking Creole, their native language, and are repressed in
other ways. The Government claims that it has provided schools
in some long-term settlements, but MUDHA claims that these are
inadequate, without educational materials or trained teachers.
(It is said that these schools have been used as displays for
visiting human rights workers, with chairs, for example, transported
to the schools and then sent back where they came from after
the observers have gone.)
Integral to the
system of corruption in the bateyes is the practice of selling
illegal identity cards to the braceros, making it possible for
them to remain in the country for a long time with a succession
of temporary ID cards. Although current Dominican nationalisation
laws stipulate that after a certain period aliens can apply
for citizenship, this provision has not been extended to Haitians.
In fact, it has been proposed in Congress that Haitian workers
not be allowed to acquire citizenship, by birth or naturalisation.
There is concern that the new president, who has played on anti-Haitian
fears during the campaign, and is in a very weak position with
regard to the political right, will not oppose this law.
Only the braceros
are given temporary ID cards, which give them the right to occupy
a shack and to other minimal services. Since women are not supposed
to be in the bateyes in the first place, they are not entitled
to shacks on their own, or to health or other services, unless
they have a son old enough to cut cane, or provide sexual favours
to the delegated authority (often Dominican-Haitians who have
acquired a degree of seniority). Some women in the more established
bateyes have never seen a doctor in their lives. It is claimed
by MUDHA that women in the bateyes are particularly susceptible
to high blood pressure, tuberculosis and gynaecological-related
cancers. They are also susceptible to nervous disorders. One
reason given for this is that the women and children who do
not cut cane always remain in a very confined space, surrounded
by the cane fields. There is no running water, no access to
potable water and no place to put garbage.
Roughly five per
cent of the cane cutters are women. They receive half of what
men receive.
Residents of bateyes
live in perpetual insecurity, not only because there are periodic
deportations, but because of the nature of the deportations
themselves. MUDHA claims that when these events take place,
people are rounded up and taken in trucks to the border, but
they are not handed over to the Haitian authorities. Rather,
their heads are shaved, they are branded or tattooed on the
head with an identifying mark, and told to run for their lives.
According to MUDHA many Haitians have been killed trying to
run back to Haiti.
Old Haitian workers
who have lived many years in the bateyes are not deported. Rather,
they are simply ignored. Younger workers, on the other hand,
are not free to leave. MUDHA gave a specific example of one
man who tried to leave and was chained up in plain sight for
several days as an example to others. Whenever men try to organise
for better conditions or salaries, they are subject to punishments,
such as the demolition of their shacks. (see photo sent by MUDHA)
Haitians in the
construction industry often receive only a living allowance
while they are on the job, the balance to be paid when the work
is completed. It is claimed, however, by MUDHA and other groups,
that supervisors often pay off police to deport these workers
before their work is completed. The daily newspaper El Siglo
reported in May 1996 that Haitians working for the National
Institute for Safe Drinking Water, in the Arenoso area in the
northern part of the country, were regularly arrested and deported
on pay days.21
Black Dominicans
There are no disaggregated
statistics to help determine the real situation of black Dominicans
in employment, housing, health, the prison system or any other
sector.
According to research
conducted by Identidad, black people appear in only about two
per cent of school textbooks, and when they do appear, they
are 'folklorised' in traditional costumes and in stereotyped
roles as service workers. Likewise, blacks seldom appear in
television commercials, and when they do, they appear as security
guards, maids and shoecleaners. The main exception to the service
worker stereotype is baseball players. Black Dominicans have
managed to acquire a positive public image in sports, music
and dance, but a wider range of jobs still tend to require "buena
presencia," which, in addition to a clean and tidy appearance,
means light-skinned, and for women, it also suggests that the
job applicant be young and attractive.
The growth of the
tourist industry has increased the visibility of black people.
They find employment easily in tourist hotels and other jobs
in the industry, because the tourists want the feeling of Afrocarribean
culture on their vacations. The "Miss Tourism" pageant queen,
for example, is usually black or very dark-skinned, while the
queens of most other pageants are white.
Organisations like
Identidad, MUDHA and others claim that the Government violates
their cultural rights by allowing the police and local communities
to suppress Afrocaribbean or African-identified activities such
as religious rituals and festivals that feature African drums.
They say that the police break up such activities, destroy the
drums and disperse the participants. African-related religious
rituals are condemned by the Church, and the police either actively
suppress these activities, or they stand by and fail to take
action when communities carry on the suppression themselves.
Black Dominicans say that they routinely experience antagonism
when they express themselves or self-consciously identify as
black.
Discrimination in
the legal process
Substitute prisoners
Members of the Coordinadora
agreed that it is common practice for the police to arrest a
wife or female relative of an accused and to hold her in prison
to force an accused to turn himself in to the authorities. A
well-known example was given of one eighty-five year old woman
who was incarcerated in a prison, where conditions are infamous,
and used as bait for the police to catch her son. This particular
abuse is practised quite commonly in the bateyes, by imprisoning
children in order to force their parents to come and claim them,
so that the family can be deported. (see photo of child and
mother who claimed her )
Economic discrimination
in the prison system
According to CEDAIL,
conditions in prisons are a clear consequence of economic discrimination.
La Victoria, the main prison, was constructed for 4,000 inmates
and holds about 11,000. The main reason for the overcrowding
is that eighty per cent of these inmates have not been formally
charged, many of them because they simply cannot afford it.
Until they are charged, inmates are responsible for paying their
own way. They pay for their bed, a decent cell, even a space
that removes them from violent, diseased or unstable prisoners.
To be charged, inmates need to be transported to the Palacio
de Policia and to the courts, but police transport is insufficient,
so inmates pay about 400 pesos (US$30) to be transported by
taxi. Some trials -- only a wealthy inmate could afford this
-- have required up to one hundred trips to court. The prison
does not provide food on weekends, so inmates must buy food
from vendors who come into the prison. This situation is harder
for women, who often do not have anyone to bring them food,
while many of the men have wives who do so. One reason sources
give for the brutal conditions in prisons is that the military
has assumed decision-making powers which rightfully belong to
the civilian prison authorities.
Article 3
Equal right of men
and women to the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights
In relation to Article 3 of the Covenant, the Government report
states that "...there
are more women than men in the country. This variable is maintained
in other respects, such as the professional sphere, where more
women than men go on to higher studies. The percentage of women
in businesses of all kinds has increased considerably owing
to the high qualifications of women candidates for such jobs
and for posts of responsibility in both the public and private
sectors. In this connection, it should be pointed out that a
large number of women hold Government posts as heads of ministries
or as directors of important departments in the public administrations."
(para 29)
These assertions
are either misleading or insupportable, according to sources
in the Dominican Republic. Women's groups agree that more women
than men now graduate from professional and higher studies,
but many of these women are working in jobs for which they are
overqualified. Their superior education has not, for the most
part, translated into increased economic or political power.
Also, as some professions have become feminised, the salaries
and status of its professionals has dropped. As to the Government's
allegation that increasing numbers of women hold high-level
positions in the public sector, women's groups contend that
there are no women at the highest levels, and that the overwhelming
majority are still at the lowest level.
These NGOs say that
they have been unable to document basic economic and social
conditions that they believe are discriminatory, because government
statistics are rarely, if ever, disaggregated by sex. On what
basis, they ask, does the Government report assert that the
high qualifications of women candidates has led to a considerable
increase in the percentages of women in businesses and in posts
of responsibility in the private and public sectors?
There is currently
only one woman in the Senate, and 17 in the Chamber of Deputies.
While a number of women are appointed as governors, these are
basically puppet positions, as they are appointed by the President
from within his party and they function as the President's representatives.
The Coordinadora,
which represents over forty NGOs, has been sufficiently concerned
about the low numbers of women in decision-making positions
that it has presented to Congress a reform of the Electoral
Law. This reform would give women and minorities the benefit
of a quota system which would apply not only to elective positions
but to positions throughout the entire State apparatus, including
the judiciary and the executive branch.
There is one government
department established to promote equality between men and women
in the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights, the
Direcci�n General de Promoci�n de la Mujer (DGPM). According
to informed sources, this government department is able to pay
the salaries of its staff, but there is no budget to enact any
of its ambitious plans. These sources also say that the staff
members are political appointees who have no special training
or previous experience working with women's issues. These particular
informants would like to ask the Government delegation what
specific training or experience is required for a woman to be
appointed to a technical or high-level position in the DGPM?
Women and Agrarian
Reform
The Law of Agrarian
Reform was passed in 1962 and reformed in 1968 to declare that
the land given out through the 1962 law would be considered
"bien de familia," meaning for the good of the whole family
and supposedly cannot be sold or mortgaged. In 1972 other reforms
were made to complete what is today the Agrarian Code. In this
Code women are not benefited directly with "parcelas," or pieces
of land -- only as wives of parceleros, but not in their own
right. The Coordinadora has proposed a reform of this law, so
that women heads of household may be specifically entitled to
receive parcelas. It is estimated that in 1991 female-headed
households already accounted for more than twenty-three per
cent of rural homes.22
Because the Code
says "heads of household" without specifying sex, some say that
women already have the right to benefit from the Agrarian Reform
law. In practice, however, the Dominican Agrarian Institute
does not give land to women heads of household. Women have no
administrative mechanism that allows them to file a complaint
against this practice.
Another problem
is that upon the death of a parcelero the wife cannot inherit
the parcela, although the children can. If there is no grown
son, the family has to leave the parcela.. If the parcelero
abandons his family, the Agrarian Institute can decide either
to give the parcela to the wife or the oldest son, or it can
decide that they are not fit to work the land and take it away
from them, paying compensation for the work they have done,
but not for the land itself. Also, since common law marriages
are not recognised in the Dominican Republic, if the parcelero
leaves, the common law wife and children must leave the parcela.
A common law husband can sell or mortgage his parcela without
the consent of the common law wife. (This also happens with
respect to married couples, since most men carry cedulas that
say they are single.)
The Agrarian Code
in its current form makes it difficult for women to apply for
agricultural credit, because they do not have collateral. Also,
rural women often do not have a cedula, without which it is
impossible to enter into a legal transaction.
Articles 6, 7 and
8
The right to work,
to the enjoyment of just and favourable conditions of work and
the right to join trade unions
Free Trade Zones (FTZs)
Free Trade Zones have played a leading role in the creation
of new jobs for women in the Dominican Republic. They have given
thousands of women paid employment in a time of economic crisis,
allowing them to feed their families and to take on an increasingly
active role in household decision-making.23
Nevertheless, thirty years after the first industrial park was
established, unacceptable working conditions and abuses continue.
It is important to bear in mind that the Dominican government
plays an important management role, not merely a regulatory
role, in the administration of the Free Trade Zones, particularly
through the Corporation for Industrial Promotion (CFI). The
State owns fourteen of the existing thirty-three FTZ industrial
parks, while the private sector manages seventeen, and two are
under mixed administration.24
Background
In 1986, a Korean manager in one of the FTZ factories kicked
a pregnant worker, Raphaella Rodriguez, causing her to miscarry,
precipitating a nation-wide demonstration against conditions
in the Free Zones. The armed forces were called in to protect
Koreans as demonstrators began marching toward the Free Zones.25
The 1986-87 uprising, as it is referred to by FTZ activists,
produced the first labour union in the zones. Although technically
illegal, it was regarded as an important beginning, because
it forced managers to negotiate with workers for the first time.
However, the uprising also resulted in a public campaign by
investors, who threatened to pull out of the Dominican Republic.
The government responded by prohibiting all union organisers
from entering the Free Zones. Workers, mainly women, responded
in turn by conducting an international campaign to tell the
world about conditions in the Free Zones, lobbying the US Department
of Commerce, denouncing violations of ILO treaties and occupying
churches and other public places inside the country, including
the Ministry of Labour (which they claim to have done 200 times).
Organisers were repeatedly jailed during this campaign, which
resulted in some concessions regarding union activity and modifications
to the Labour Code. However, the principle of "fuero syndicale,"
(the stipulation that workers cannot be fired while attempting
to form a union for the first time), is neither observed by
management nor enforced by the Ministry of Labour.
Among the 469 enterprises existing in December 1995, only
130 labour unions have been registered, less than ten of which
are active. CIPAF/OXFAM notes that "in all the years that FTZs
have existed in the country, only two labour unions have ever
been able to sign collective bargaining agreements."26
Nonetheless, the Secretary General of the United Federation
of Free Trade Zone Workers informed IWRAW that there have been
undeniable improvements since the national demonstrations in
1986-87. Women are no longer locked into factories or forced
to work overtime without pay. Unions can at least sit down and
negotiate informally with employers.
Working conditions
Despite a slight decline, garment manufacturing accounts for
sixty per cent of FTZ employment.27
In 1995 women accounted for almost sixty percent of the total
FTZ labour force, although the percentage of males has increased
rapidly in recent years as the unemployment situation in the
country worsens. The overwhelming majority of women in the FTZs
are assembly workers. Men are also assembly workers, but even
at this level the work is gender-segregated. Men dominate the
higher status technical and managerial positions.28
While conditions for assembly workers may have improved over
time, they are still very bad. Workers are still restricted
to a certain number of passes (two or three) per day to use
the toilets. They are not allowed to leave work to see a doctor.
FTZ companies employ their own doctors, although women claim
that they provide little or no medical attention, and that their
real function is to perform pregnancy tests and in some cases
AIDS tests. A study of about 700 FTZ workers found that reproductive
disorders are one to three times more common after a woman begins
work in an FTZ factory.29
Pregnant women are routinely fired, and sexual harassment is
still a common complaint. (Employers opposed the definition
of harassment as a criminal offence throughout the negotiation
process between government, workers and employers that preceded
the enactment in 1992 of the new Labour Code of the Dominican
Republic.)30
Workers are afraid to denounce these conditions, because so
many others are waiting to step into their jobs. This adds to
already elevated levels of stress. Assembly workers are subject
to production quotas and must race against the clock in very
hot and noisy environments. Thus, despite its youthful nature,
the FTZ work force wears out fairly quickly. Young women, often
from the rural areas, with no previous work experience, move
from one short-term contract to another, acquiring few or no
transferable skills and no social security benefits, until they
become unfit for further work in the FTZs.
Characteristics of the FTZ labour force
The labour force in the FTZs constitutes, to a large extent,
a self-contained reservoir of unskilled workers.31
Very little labour comes into the FTZs from the domestic manufacturing
sector, despite its high rate of unemployment. The exception
is the few skilled workers required in the FTZs, who are usually
drawn from the outside. Likewise, it has been observed that
mainly only skilled labour transfers back into the domestic
economy.32
The garment industry in particular is isolated from the domestic
economy and does not contribute to improving the human resource
base of the country. FTZ firms claim that a substantial amount
of training takes place. Labour activists, corroborated by a
recent study by D.T. Mathews, contend that very little of this
training contains any cognitive or theoretical component and
that the bulk of it, particularly in the garment making operations,
deals with work habits and related issues.33
The bulk of FTZ enterprises in the Dominican Republic are
low-investment assembly operations that provide very few of
the elements necessary to generate domestic-based, higher level
production. Particularly in the garment sector, little more
than routine assembly operations for mainly US multinationals
takes place. Although the FTZs are one of the country's main
sources of foreign exchange, they are a classic example of low
value-added assembly production that is wholly dependent on
externally based "mature" industries. Their only real competitive
advantage is cheap labour.34
One plant manager in a garment conglomerate was quoted by OXFAM:
"Free Trade
Zones emerged in a special situation, thanks to special legislation,
special support, a favourable environment. Now things have changed,
now we have globalization, conditions are not as favourable
and thus we have to change. What makes me sad is that our advantage
lies in the poverty of the Dominican people. When Dominican
business representatives promote our country internationally,
it's our low salaries they sell, that's the advantage they promote...We
have to find other ways...."
Implementing the
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the current
economic environment
Informed Dominicans
are aware that one of the critical economic challenges for the
new government is to break out of its self-defeating dependence
on cheap labour as a competitive advantage. Some economic analysts
urge that dependence on the US market, and the constraints of
its tariff agreements, do not necessarily condemn the Dominican
economy to its current system of FTZs. Analysts are already
observing the declining importance of cheap labour as the primary
competitive advantage in certain industries. According to the
former president of the Free Trade Zone Association of the Dominican
Republic, Jose Ceron, more than 20,000 jobs have been lost in
the Zones since 1995, in part due to the regional consequences
of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The competitive
advantage of the Dominican Republic is beginning to erode.35
Experts say that it is critical for the Dominican Government
to be proactive in facilitating a transition towards more sustainable
models of economic development.36
Some refer to this as the necessity to turn the free trade zones
into genuine "development zones."37
Until now, State
policy has offered the greatest advantages to foreign-based
industries and allowed domestic industry to wither. It is unclear
whether or not the new President has the political leverage
to initiate much needed reforms in such areas as customs procedures
as well as procedures and laws governing the relationships between
FTZs and domestic producers. Equally important, however, is
the need for much greater State investment in education and
training. Current State expenditure on education is less than
half the average in Latin America. The public school system
is badly managed, faculty is poorly paid and unmotivated.38
High dropout rates are getting even higher, because of the fundamental
lack of faith in the educational system as a means of social
and economic mobility. An economic development policy at least
partly based on a competitive work force rather than a competitive
wage scale is being urged by many as the best means to promote
the rights and well being of workers, as set forth in the Covenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Article 10 Protection
of the family
Economic conditions
have led to dramatic cultural changes in the Dominican Republic,
most notably in the structure of the family. Traditionally,
manhood was inseparable from taking responsibility for one's
children, even children born out of wedlock. As a well-respected
Dominican journalist said: "the value of fatherhood is being
lost, with nothing to replace it." This is reflected by a disturbing
new pattern in migration. Dominican migration until the 1990s
involved extended families, including sons as well as daughters,
males in almost equal proportion to females. In the past few
years, however, another wave of migration has been developing
which involves predominately females emigrating to European
cities. Although many go to be domestic servants, many also
go to work as prostitutes.
A decade ago in
the Dominican Republic it was considered shameful to be a prostitute.
Now, among the poor, it is not unheard of for husbands to help
their wives or other female members of the family to migrate
for prostitution, leaving the children to be raised by grandparents.
It is said that whole municipalities rely on financial support
from women working in Europe, and campesinos in the most economically
depressed areas increasingly shelter the hope that young female
members of the family will save them by going to Spain and elsewhere
in Europe to work. Perhaps most of these young women do not
migrate with the intention of becoming prostitutes, but there
are numerous reasons why many of them end up doing so. Some
are tricked, others are influenced by the amount of money that
can be made. Because of the financial support they provide their
families, it becomes very difficult for these women to return
home. (See pamphlet sent to the CESCR Committee) If a prostitute
becomes the family's main provider, the young woman increases
her status within the family. The social consequences for the
family, however, can be extremely negative, particularly for
males, who, if they can no longer be breadwinners for their
families, have lost status and function. As men become less
responsible parents, women enter the self-defeating cycle of
bearing children for a succession of potential providers.
The government of
the Dominican Republic has no policy or attitude about this
socio-economic phenomenon, or about the exploitation of women
migrants, because it has not yet acknowledged that these problems
exist. One reason for this may be that the remittances of this
new wave of migrants provide the government with an important
additional source of foreign exchange.
Article 10 (2) Pregnancy
and childbirth protection for working mothers
Article 232 of the
Labour Code ostensibly prohibits an employer from firing a woman
because of pregnancy, but it also says that if this happens,
then the employer must pay the woman five months salary. This
is obviously not a prohibition but a condition that the employer
must fulfil if he wants to fire a woman because of pregnancy.
Most employers can easily afford to pay the requisite compensation,
and their willingness to do so prevents women from appealing
to the law in the first place.
Common law marriage
One NGO wishes to
bring to the attention of the CESCR Committee a potentially
misleading comment in paragraph 82 of the Government report.
The report states that men and women are "free to form a common
law marriage," but it does not go on to clarify that such unions
are not legally recognised.
It is estimated
that sixty per cent of unions between men and women in the Dominican
Republic do not involve legally recognised marriage. As to property
acquired during an unrecognised union, in the majority of cases,
due to culture and tradition, the property will be in the man's
name even if the woman has worked or paid equally to acquire
it. This means that if there is a separation or the man dies,
the woman loses everything. It also means that the man can sell,
mortgage or in any other way dispose of the property at his
will.
Ironically, this
is not so different from the situation of a legal wife. Even
though the law says that there are two property regimes a couple
can choose -- separate property and community of property --
most couples choose community of property. This should mean
that the husband cannot dispose of the property without the
wife's consent, and that in case of a divorce the wife and husband
should share equally in the property. Although the law says
that husbands and wives are equal before the law, the law also
says that the man is the sole administrator of this common property,
so that when a man decides he wants to divorce his wife he can
begin to sell the common property, and by the time the divorce
is final, there is practically no common property left. The
law says that the wife has two years to challenge this state
of affairs after the divorce, but a challenge to the sale of
the common property is an expensive and complicated procedure.
Also, in practice the husband usually registers the divorce
and pays off the bailiff so that the wife does not find out
about the divorce until it is too late for her to legally challenge
the division of the common property. This is a common practice
and there is no law to prevent it or to sanction the person
who commits this form of fraud.
Article 11 - The
right to adequate housing
The Ciudad Alternativa
in the Dominican Republic working with the international Centre
on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) have submitted detailed
information to the CESCR Committee concerning Dominican State
housing policy and its consequences. IWRAW wishes only to add
the expressed concern of the Coordinadora that women are not
beneficiaries of the government housing programmes. However,
they have been unable to document this because housing statistics
are not disaggregated by sex. The Coordinadora would like the
Committee to ask the Dominican Government delegation what percentage
of women have been beneficiaries of government housing programmes,
and how are they able to document this?
Article 12 - The
right to health
As in many other
countries around the world, the Coordinadora reports an increase
in sexual and domestic violence in the Dominican Republic, as
well as an increase in the number of registered complaints.
The government, and society in general, still tends to either
ignore the problem of sexual violence, or to recognise only
the most aberrant cases, or cases in which habitual abuse finally
erupts into extreme violence.
NGOs emphasise that
the lack of gender-specific statistics is a serious constraint
to practical research on gender violence, or for that matter
on any issue important to the welfare of women.
Domestic violence
as a public health issue
The legislature
is currently reviewing the entire health sector and preparing
provisions reforming the Health Code. A general reform was passed
recently in the lower house of Congress that recognises domestic
violence as a public health issue, but there is apparently not
much support for this legislation in the Senate. Women's NGOs
are currently campaigning to get the reform passed.
According to members
of an international agency working in the Dominican Republic,
government programmes funded by the International Development
Bank and the World Health Organisation were set up to assist
victims of domestic violence. However, these programmes were
badly managed and the donors have since rescinded their support.
Currently, all programmes related to domestic abuse and violence
against women are supported by NGOs. The State rhetoric on the
subject of gender-based violence is progressive, but so far
there has been very little effective, practical action.
Maternal mortality
Despite the very
high number of hospital births in the Dominican Republic --
ninety-three per cent institutional deliveries, one of the highest
rates in Latin America -- maternal mortality remains very high.
IWRAW sources believe that this statistical anomaly is the result
of callous and neglectful medical care. Ninety-seven per cent
of women receive at least minimal pre-natal care, and yet this
has not affected the high rate of maternal mortality.
Thousands of doctors
around the country went on strike in February 1996 and marched
to the presidential palace demanding better wages and benefits,39
forcing President Balaguer to call in military doctors to take
their place in operating rooms. The Government is well aware
that the health services in general need reform, and until this
takes place, the inferior treatment of women during pregnancy
and childbirth will continue. However, even if administrative
reforms take place and doctors receive adequate compensation
for their work, UN experts interviewed by IWRAW believe that
the country's unacceptably high level of maternal mortality
is a reflection of the low priority accorded women's reproductive
health and a clear example of state gender discrimination.
While abortion remains
illegal, family planning services receive an inadequate proportion
of government health spending. Women do not have adequate access
to contraception. Birth control education is provided only by
NGOs such as Profamilia. NGOs and popular organisations currently
shoulder the main burden of women's health education. The government
has created a Comit� National de Mortalidad Materna, but it
is not a priority office and has no budget to actualise any
of the ambitious rhetoric of its recently published "Plan de
Acci�n Nacional para la Reducci�n de la Mortalidad Materna,"
a national plan for the reduction of maternal mortality.40
Endnotes
1
En El Paraiso/In Paradise, (CIPAF/OXFAM, Dominican Republic,
1996). back
2
Grasmuck, Sherri and Pessar, Patricia R., Between Two Islands:
Dominican International Migration, (University of California
Press, 1991) 39. back
3
Grasmuck and Pessar 39. back
4
Grasmuck and Pessar 90. back
5
Grasmuck and Pessar 95. back
6
Grasmuck and Pessar 93. back
7
Grasmuck and Pessar 93. back
8
"WTO Praises Dominican Republic," Lloyd's List International,
17 February, 1996. back
9
Grasmuck and Pessar 48. back
10
En El Paraiso/In Paradise. back
11
The Coordinadora includes organisations that are not exclusively
women's organisations but which contain sectors or departments
that focus on women's issues. It is the Coordinadora which produced
the Dominican Republic's non-governmental report to the Beijing
World Women's Conference. back
12
"Controversy Over Deportation," Inter Press Service, Global
Information Network, 7 May 1996. back
13
"Controversy Over Deportation" back
14
"Controversy Over Deportation" back
15
"Controversy Over Deportation" back
16
Alphonse, Henri, "Deportations of Haitians Denounced,"
Inter Service Press, Global Information Network, 2 May 1996.
back
17
"Jose Francisco Pena Gomez Will Face Leonel Fernandez In
Presidential Runoff June 30," NotiSur-Latin American Political
Affairs, Latin American Database/Latin American Institute, 24
May 1996. back
18
Darling, Juanita, "President of Dominican Republic Takes
Office With Eye to the Future Caribbean,", Los Angeles Times,
Times Mirror Company, 17 August 1996. back
19
E/1990/6/Add. 7, 15 March, 1995, hereafter referred to
as the second Government report. back
20
Some Black Dominicans have fought and managed to have the
word "negro/a" inscribed in their identity cards. back
21
"Controversy Over Deportation" back
22
En El Paraiso/In Paradise back
23
En El Paraiso/In Paradise back
24
En El Paraiso/In Paradise back
25
IWRAW's background information about the beginning of the
labour movement in the FTZs comes from Mayra Jim�nez, Secretary
General of the United Federation of Free Trade Zone Workers,
an affiliate of the United Confederation of Workers. She joined
the first demonstrations in 1986 in the Free Zones as a fourteen
year old worker. back
26
En El Paraiso/In Paradise back
27
En El Paraiso/In Paradise back
28
Mathews, Dale T., "Export Processing Zones in the Dominican
Republic: Their Nature and Trajectory," diss. University of
Sussex, 1995. back
29
Reigo, A. del; Mart�nez, M. y Orestes, A., "Da�os reproductivos
en trabajadoras de Zona Franca: el Caso de la Rep�blica Dominicana,"1994,
referred to in En El Paraiso/In Paradise. back
30
ibid. back
31
Mathews, Dale T. back
32
Mathews, Dale T. 211. back
33
Mathews, Dale T. 323. back
34
Mathews, Dale T. 323. back
35
"Free Trade Zone Job Slump," Caribbean Update, 1 August
1996. back
36
Mathews, Dale T. 225. back
37
Mathews, Dale T. 225. back
38
Grupo de Acion por la Democracia, Agenda Nacional del Desarrollo,
Vol. I, (Pontifica Universidad Catolica, Madre Maestra, June
1996). back
39
"Dominican Republic: Health Services and Financing," Caribbean
Update, Vol. 12 No. 4, 1 May 1966. back
40
published by the Secretaria De Estado De Salud Publica
Y Asistencia Social, Santo Domingo, 1995. back
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