The most violated rights in the Dominican Republic: health, integrity, employment, justice and equality

The most violated fundamental rights in the Dominican Republic are health, integrity, employment, justice, and equality, according to the Ombudsman, Pablo Ulloa, who explained that they are the cases that reach that agency the most.

He explained that violations of the right to health account for the majority due to improper charges, access to medicines, and pension issues.

“Health in the Dominican Republic is the most violated right. We have a charge for admission, for death, because corpses are charged to leave and that is a lack of dignity,” said Ulloa, deploring the complications and actors that persist in the health system, affecting citizens.

The right to integrity is most affected on a physical and moral level in detachments of the National Police.

The complaints they receive regarding employment refer to low salaries and access to new sources based on training. Regarding justice, “because it is long, bad, expensive and inaccessible to the most dispossessed.”

Finally, the right to equality is expressed in various ways, which is why the Ombudsman has created working groups to deal with complaints about issues of disability, children and adolescents, LGBT groups, prisoners, the elderly, and gender.

Ulloa offered this x-ray during the Corripio Communications Group Lunch. He was accompanied by Ana Martich, first deputy; Darío Nín, second deputy; Harold Modesto, general secretary; Rosa María Suárez, Chief of Staff; and Juan Reyes, in charge of Public Relations.

Resistance

When asked if his work has generated misunderstandings from other instances of the State, he admitted that it has, after citing the Postal Institute and Dog Track cases, which reached the courts. He also highlighted the submission by an issue of the flag, which “he understands is part of a clear message.”

He indicated that every time a prison is inspected, a risk is assumed, given the criticism of pretrial detention and bad and expensive justice.

“One also draws attention to the issue of security and that does not please those who are acting as agents and, at the same time, serve organized crime,” he said.

He gave the closure of the Manoguayabo prison as an example, where all kinds of rights violations took place. “In prisons, you see realities, and that is not liked, because inside prisons there is also corruption,” he said, recalling that they lifted the situation of 42 prisons.

At least, as an achievement, Ulloa cited that upon their arrival, less than 20% of the communications they sent were answered, and to this day, all of them are answered.

Police Reform without depth

Regarding police behavior, Ulloa insisted that he has been very critical of the disproportionate use of force, both for civilians and active agents who have been punished, also in cases that have led to deaths in detachments.

He said that he has seen disproportionate cancellations and punishments for any situation internally. “And it has to do with that police reform, which has been a process that has not had an internal impact as it should have,” Ulloa said.

In addition, he indicated that they work with the military, who have been favored with sentences for their reinstatement, although he acknowledged that there are cases that concern him because they are dismissals related to criminal acts that were not properly prosecuted, so there is a national security issue.

Regarding whether he understands that the Police can be reformed, Ulloa is not convinced if a system of agent control does not accompany this. “Until we understand that the Police have to be controlled by a control system, we are going to be in the same situation,” he said.

He gave as an example that even if they use cameras, their actions can be audited from the moment they approach a citizen, but there is resistance to using them, and even the patrols are not properly equipped. In addition, he said that this technological part must be accompanied by a regime of consequences.

“The Police must understand that technology is a principle. Now, there is another principle that no one likes and that is the regime of consequences, an issue that the Police have been complicit in many situations that happen inside,” Ulloa said.