Does the Dominican government have the capacity to achieve meaningful reforms? The attendance of the Dominican Public Ministry at a recent meeting between the Dominican National Drug Control Directorate (DNCD) and the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) is a positive sign by the United States for promoting…
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s recent visit and meeting with Dominican President Luis Abinader was the proper moment for the United States government to directly raise the Dominican Public Ministry’s violations and abuses of human rights. Sadly, Blinken’s visit missed the mark on human rights and many other critical issues in dire need of…
British media reports that U.K. citizen Shaun Magee is being held under preventive detention in the Dominican Republic without formal charges. In addition, a Dominican judge has stated that there is no evidence to support his confinement. Shaun now joins tens of thousands of people fighting for their lives within a Dominican justice system that…
As the debate in the Dominican Republic over legal reforms and the selection of a new Attorney General continues, the independence of the Public Ministry – which is tasked with upholding human rights – has to be non-negotiable and real. Despite Miriam Germán Brito announcing that August 16th would be her last day as Attorney…
Last week, the Dominican Republic’s National Public Defense Office (ONDP) released its 2023 Prison and Detention Report, which further revealed the dire conditions inmates face while in the country’s penitentiary system. The report underscored a deteriorating situation that is “far from improving” at the hands of the government, according to Rodolfo Valentín, Director of the…
The Dominican news outlet Hoy has reported a harrowing reason why 389 Dominican prisoners remain in jail despite having completed their sentences: they must pay a “freedom fee.” This new outrage from the Public Ministry is more evidence of disregard for Dominican law, which clearly states that continued imprisonment under such conditions is reserved only…
Geraldo Luis was ordered released from prison in 2014. Prosecutors, judges and prison officials left him to rot there for ten more years. Rodolfo Valentín Santos, Director of the Dominican Republic’s National Public Defense Office (ONDP), reported yesterday that despite receiving a release order in 2014, Geraldo Luis was abandoned by the entire DR justice…
Listin Diario, a leading daily paper in the Dominican Republic, reports that the Dominican Public Ministry requested preventive detention orders in 98% of all coercive measures (i.e. before charges were filed) during the first four months of 2024. This is not only a clear violation of Dominican law but of international standards on human rights…
The government of the Dominican Republic is continuing to push back against criticism of the worsening human rights abuses in the country’s justice system. The Abinader government is now attempting to deflect attention away from the internationally condemned human rights violations committed by the Public Ministry. Its allies are taking a similar approach. Make no…
Nelson Mandela famously stated, “no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.” In honor of Nelson Mandela International Day, the Dominican Justice Initiative again shines a light on the dire human rights abuses…
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