The Dominican Republic had been populated by the Tainos people since the 7th century. Christopher Columbus reached the island on his first voyage and created the city of Isabella as the first Spanish colony in the West.
The colonizers enslaved almost 400,000 Tainos to work in gold mines. The brutal treatment the Tainos received reduced their population from almost one million to 500 people in 50 years.
Sugar cane soon became a large crop in the Dominican Republic and the Spanish brought over slaves from Africa to work the fields. Eventually France took over the Western third of the island which became Haiti, while the Eastern two-thirds remained under Spanish rule and became the Dominican Republic.
The Haitians conquered the whole island by 1822 and held control until 1844, when Juan Pablo Duarte, drove them out and established the Dominican Republic. In 1861, the Dominicans voluntarily returned to the Spanish Empire; in 1865, independence was restored until 1916 when the US occupied it. A military dictator, Rafael L. Trujillo, took power from 1930 to 1960 and then was assassinated. After his assassination there was a series of military coups until the 1970s. From the late 1970s onwards there have been peaceful transfers of power and mainly fair elections.
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/35639.htm
Government
Executive Branch
This is the dominant branch and the President has authority over virtually all appointments and removals of public officials, and even popular elected ones; empower him to promulgate the laws passed by Congress; the laws allow him to engage in diplomatic relations; and empower him to command, to deploy, and to make appointments in, the armed forces. The president also has vast emergency powers to suspend basic rights in times of emergency, to defer the legislature, to declare a state of siege, and to rule by decree.
Legislative branch
Two houses in the National Congress, the Senate has 32 members and the Chamber of Deputies has 178 members
Judicial Branch
Highest court is the Supreme Court, which has 16 judges who are chosen by the National Council of Magistrates
There are 31 provinces, each of which has a governor appointed by the President. In addition there 103 municipal districts which all have mayors and municipal councils which are elected by the people in the districts.
Religion
Almost 90% of the Dominicans are Catholic.
Overview of Women's Rights in the Dominican Republic
ReplyDelete- 29% of women aged between 15 and 19 years were married, divorced or widowed. Pregnancy among young girls is a serious problem
- Few women in rural areas own land, and the ones that do have smaller plots and less productive land than males
- Up to one-third of women have suffered physical violence at the hands of their husbands or other men and half of the victims received no help
US. DEPARTMENT OF STATE (2006), Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, Dominican Republic , Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor
Abortion is illegal according to a new law
ReplyDeleteThis law says life starts the conception, and thus makes it illegal to have an abortion even in cases of rape, incest, or cases when the mothers life is in danger
Dominican Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecologists expressed its concerns that the impact of the article could "be catastrophic on maternal mortality"
http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?id=ENGAMR270032009&lang=e
In addition there is reason to believe that the government in the Dominican Republic discriminates against Women with HIV.
Human Rights Watch documented "violations of the rights to bodily integrity, nondiscrimination, the highest attainable standard of health, work, information on health, and privacy. These violations occurred in the form of involuntary and mandatory HIV testing, unauthorized disclosure of confidential HIV test results, and denial of work or adequate health services because of women’s HIV status"
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2004/05/24/dominican-republic-discriminates-against-women-hiv
Culture of Machismo in the Dominican Republic
ReplyDelete"Machismo is defined as a strong sense of masculine pride, or exaggerated exertion of masculinity, or male-like qualities"
In the Dominican Republic this sense of Machismo is deeply rooted and has become what people consider "male" to be and is normal. This leads to aggressive behavior by men and the objectification of women. Many tourists end up being very shocked by how aggressive and overt men are in the Dominican Republic.
Women on the other hand are expected to have submissive roles in the household and to focus on having children and cooking.
This has led to a lot of extramarital affairs, domestic violence, sexual harassment in the workplace, as well as very low representation of women in politics
http://dr1.com/articles/machismo.shtml
The Dominican Republic has tried to implement the Beijing Platform For Action which was an agenda created by the United Nations to promote women's empowerment. They have tried to enact it through the following ways:
ReplyDeleteSince then they have established an affirmative action quota for women enacting that 33% of congressional and municipal appointments should go to women. In addition they have created a State Secretariat for women.
However, the quota has not been meant because they did not make any law on political parties equal to the quota law. In addition, the women leaders are seen as appendages to men.
The State Secretariat added an office called EDUC-MUJER that is focused on implementing gender equality into the Dominican's education system.
In 2002 a microcredit program for women was launched. With an interest rate of 1% and a repayment rate of 80%. With the goal of empowering women entrepreneurs.
However, there are problems with this also including women getting smaller loans. This is caused by most of the board being males who lack a gender vision and still think women should only do some tasks and will be content with smaller loans.
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/Review/responses/DOMINICAN-REPUBLIC-English.pdf
Gender-based violence is a subset of domestic violence in the Dominican Republic. The main law outlawing it is Act No 24-97. The Act however has a number of problems including, depending on interpretations by the judges,being difficult to interpret, and that sentences are not effectively followed up
ReplyDeleteAs can be seen most of these problems arise from social prejudices. In addition there are structural underpinnings that are holding back implementation of the law, these include lack of funding, lack of legal aid available to women, protection for women is limited, and follow up and evaluation methods are basically non existent.
The United Nation's report recommends the following things to promote women's rights in the Dominican Republic:
- The clear and explicit formulation of regulations
· Processes of technical and emotional training and support to enhance management.
· Research.
· Changes in the curriculum.
· Development of a social communications strategy.
As can be seen most of these are trying to increase social awareness of women's issues.
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/Review/responses/DOMINICAN-REPUBLIC-English.pdf
Gender-based violence is a subset of domestic violence in the Dominican Republic. The main law outlawing it is Act No 24-97. The Act however has a number of problems including, depending on interpretations by the judges,being difficult to interpret, and that sentences are not effectively followed up
ReplyDeleteAs can be seen most of these problems arise from social prejudices. In addition there are structural underpinnings that are holding back implementation of the law, these include lack of funding, lack of legal aid available to women, protection for women is limited, and follow up and evaluation methods are basically non existent.
The United Nation's report recommends the following things to promote women's rights in the Dominican Republic:
- The clear and explicit formulation of regulations
· Processes of technical and emotional training and support to enhance management.
· Research.
· Changes in the curriculum.
· Development of a social communications strategy.
A new model called the National Model for Care and Prevention in the Field of
Domestic Violence is starting in the Dominican Republic. In its implementation, it would conceptualize gender-based violence
"not just as a problem to be addressed by the legal system through punishment for specific
offences, but would stress the importance of achieving an attitudinal and cultural change to
eradicate the problem."
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/Review/responses/DOMINICAN-REPUBLIC-English.pdf