A/HRC/41/16
for the Regularization of Foreign Nationals, the National Plan of Action against Trafficking
in Persons and Migrant Smuggling, and the plan of action against domestic violence.
34.
Georgia noted the accession of the Dominican Republic to the Second Optional
Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition
of the death penalty. It welcomed the broadened National Strategic Plan against Child
Labour and efforts to fight corruption, including the creation of the Public Ethics
Commission.
35.
Germany welcomed the adoption in 2014 of Act No. 169-14, on naturalization, and
the creation of a registration plan for foreign nationals. It was concerned about the
remaining legal gaps that caused statelessness, the situation of women and the ongoing
domestic violence against children, as well as critical conditions in Dominican prisons.
36.
Guyana commended the Dominican Republic for its efforts to promote and protect
human rights. It noted in particular the national strategy regarding violence against women,
children and HIV/AIDS and the National Development Strategy for 2030. It further
recognized efforts made with a view to the elimination of child labour by 2025.
37.
Haiti welcomed efforts to promote and protect human rights. It hailed the
appointment of the Ombudsman in accordance with the principles relating to the status of
national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights (the Paris Principles)
and the approval of the National Human Rights Plan. It urged the Government to combat all
forms of racism and discrimination.
38.
The delegation of the Dominican Republic stated that the issue of de facto unions
between adolescents was being addressed under various public policies that sought to
reduce teenage pregnancy. The State had prepared the new National Plan for the Reduction
of Teenage Pregnancy 2019–2023 and its operational plan for 2019–2020, through a
participatory process that had included all key institutions forming part of the National
Commission for the Reduction of Teenage Pregnancies.
39.
Following previous universal periodic review recommendations, on 21 September
2016, the Dominican Republic had acceded to the Second Optional Protocol to the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death
penalty, in 2016. The country had signed the International Convention for the Protection of
All Persons from Enforced Disappearance on 26 September 2018 and had ratified the
Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189), of the International Labour Organization
(ILO) on 15 May 2015. It had also begun the process to ratify the Convention on the
Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, in September 2018.
40.
On 10 December 2018, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had launched the first
National Human Rights Plan (2018–2022) to expand freedoms and meet the real needs of
residents.
41.
In 2017, with the cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Paraguay, the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs had launched an information technology tool known as
SIMORED, which was a system for the monitoring of the international human rights
recommendations made to the Dominican Republic.
42.
On the issue of statelessness, the Constitutional Court had taken a decision that had
potentially placed several people in a state of vulnerability, but Act No. 169-14 had sought
to resolve the situation of children of undocumented foreigners born in the country. Several
international organizations had attempted to count that population, but due to a certain
methodological interpretation of the National Survey of Immigrants, hundreds of thousands
of people in the Dominican Republic had been classed as stateless.
43.
In 2014, the Central Electoral Board had audited the civil registry and identified
55,000 people born to foreign parents in an irregular migratory status, known as group A.
Dominican documents had been reinstated or recognized in the case of all those people and
they were recognized as full Dominicans. Group B corresponded to persons born to foreign
parents in irregular migratory status who had never registered in the civil registry. Act No.
169-14 had called for the submission of necessary documentation within 90 days to obtain
the right to an expedited special naturalization, which had been extended by 90 further days
5