Human Rights reports 115 extrajudicial executions this year

Santo Domingo.- The National Commission of Human Rights (CNDH) of the Dominican Republic on Mon. denounced a series of human rights violations in the country, where “extrajudicial executions” as security forces continue, with 115 deaths this year.

In presenting the Annual Report on Dominican Republic’s Human Rights Situation in 2018, CNDH president Manuel María Mercedes said civilian deaths in alleged exchanges of gunfire with officers continue to draw attention “since no member of the police are wounded in them.”

This year, moreover, “there has been a rise in cases of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment of citizens” by the security forces, according to the report, which also denounced abuses against human rights activists and of migrants, above all, Haitians.

The report also warned of the situation of women and minors, and stressed that the Dominican Republic is the fifth country in Latin America and the Caribbean in femicides, with an average of 177 cases per year.