UN Human Rights Council 13th Session
Item 6 Consideration of UPR Reports
Statement by the Delegation of the United States
Human Rights Council, Geneva
March 17, 2010
The Statement was delivered in Spanish by John C. Mariz (See Spanish as delivered Version)
Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you to the Dominican delegation for their presentation today.
The United States commends the Dominican Republic’s efforts to strengthen human rights protections; we encourage full implementation of the National Commission to Combat Human Trafficking and People Smuggling (I.A.14) and the National Gender Equity and Equality Plan (I.A.16). We appreciate that you are considering establishing an independent national human rights institution (II.88.16).
In particular, the United States commends the Dominican response to the Haitian earthquake. As the first government to respond, the Government and the Dominican people have provided substantial assistance to Haiti’s recovery. We strongly support the recommendations to collaborate with the Government of Haiti, to ensure that Haitians living in the Dominican Republic have adequate access to civil and birth registration mechanisms in order to establish their Haitian citizenship (II.87.43.). We further note concern for Dominicans of Haitian descent, particularly children and others at risk of statelessness, who face discrimination in accessing civil and birth registration, including citizenship documentation. We share others’ concerns about child labor, migratory reform, and the need to increase awareness of and punishment for gender-based violence (II.87.1,15-21).
We note a number of concerns about the continued occurrence of arbitrary and summary executions. We support the recommendations that the Dominican Republic consider favorably the request for a visit by the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions (II.88.16)
We commend the proclamation of a new Constitution that expands the catalogue of fundamental rights for all citizens, and gives special consideration to vulnerable groups, including women, children, persons with disabilities, the LGBT community, and ethnic/racial minorities. (I.A.29) Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you Mr. President.