Background

The UN Working Group on discrimination against Women and Girls (WGDAWG) will conduct a country visit to the Dominican Republic to gain first-hand understanding of issues related to discrimination against women and girls and gender equality, including efforts made and remaining challenges.

The Working Group will consider all forms of discrimination, in law and in practice, relating to all areas of women’s and girls’ lives, namely public and political life, economic and social life, family and cultural life, and health and safety. It will also consider discrimination in respect of the enjoyment of the right to a healthy environment. The Working Group will take into account both States’ duties and corporate responsibilities. Violence against women and girls, racism, poverty and socioeconomic inequality, trafficking and access to justice will be examined as cross-cutting issues.

Throughout the visit, the Working Group will pay particular attention to women and girls who encounter multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination. The Working Group will address issues pertaining to specific groups of women and girls, such as women and girls from minority groups and African descent, stateless, migrants, asylum seekers and refugee women and girls, women and girls with disabilities, girls and young women, older women, women in sex work, LBTIQ+ women, and women in detention. These areas of interest are indicative, and the WGDAWG might also look at other relevant issues as they emerge during the visit.

For this purpose, the WGDAWG will meet with a broad range of national stakeholders involved in all aspects of work and action related to the elimination of discrimination against women and girls, including Government officials, representatives of public authorities and independent institutions, members of the legislative and judicial powers, , civil society organizations, academics, and women and girls themselves, with a view to examining the situation of women’s and girls’ human rights in the country.

Objectives

At the end of the visit on 31 July, the Working Group will present an end-of-mission statement and a press release containing preliminary findings and recommendations for State and non-State actors to implement. The full mission report will be presented at the 59th session of the Human Rights Council in June 2025.

Key questions and types of input/comments sought

Civil society actors and all interested stakeholders are encouraged to submit general inputs and specific proposals on the topics listed below as well as other topics which they find relevant. This encompasses any information on possible locations to visit, and relevant actors and stakeholders to meet with.

Context and legal and domestic policy framework on women and girls’ rights

• Impact of social attitudes and practices on women’s and girls’ social, economic, political, public, cultural, and family life, including impact on the following areas:
• Work;
• Education;
• Health;
• Safety;
• Social protection and security; and
•  Promotion of gender equality and women’s and girls’ rights. Impact of social attitudes and practices on women’s and girls’ life including social, economic, political, cultural, and family life, including work, education, health and safety
• National mechanisms and institutions for the advancement of women’s and girls’ rights and for mainstreaming gender equality in national planning and policymaking, including gaps and shortcomings in their functioning and results achieved
• Discriminatory legal and policy framework
• Retrogressions of women’s and girls’ rights and gender backlash, including the impact of those retrogressions and backlash on women and girls human rights defenders
• Stereotypes and harmful practices addressed in national legislation and policies
• Disparities in the country in the enjoyment of women’s and girls’ rights
• Constitutional and other legislative initiatives and reforms to recognise women’s and girls’ rights, gender equality and non-discrimination
• Issue of denationalization, racism and racial discrimination, particularly against women and girls of African descent and Haitian women and girls
• Engagement of the State with human rights mechanisms, including any follow-up actions taken to respond to the recommendation formulated by these mechanisms

Family and cultural life of women and girls

• The role of women and men in the family, including regarding child raising, care work and housework
• Women and property, including division of matrimonial property in divorce and inheritance laws
• Legal sources of family law, and legal definition of family
• Legislation on marital status, custody rights, nationality, adultery and modesty codes
• Gender-based stereotypes, including in the media, and their impact on women’s and girls’ participation in cultural life
• Specific issues faced by women and girls in vulnerable situations

Economic and social life of women

• Women in full time employment, temporary, and part-time work, and gender wage gaps
• Women in the informal economy
• Categories/fields of work where women are mostly represented/underrepresented
• Measures taken to promote women’s economic and financial empowerment
• Women holding leadership and senior level positions in entrepreneurship, commerce and business
• Women and poverty
• Women and socioeconomic inequality
• Child and family friendly policy measures to encourage and support women participation in the labour force and to reconcile work and family, including childcare support, and their impact
• Corporate responsibility and measures taken by companies to ensure economic leadership of women, including representation on the boards of listed companies
• Women’s access to education, including higher education and education achievement
• comprehensive sexual education based on science and human rights

Political and public life of women

• Participation of women in all spheres of public and political life at the central and local levels, in the executive, the legislative and the judiciary, including level and extent of representation and meaningful participation achieved and challenges
• Gender stereotypes and possible violence in the political life
• Challenges faced by women human rights defenders when participating in public life

Women and girls’ rights and access to health

• Enjoyment of the right to health, including sexual and reproductive health rights; access to health services, including prevention services, maternal health, and abortion services guarantee of women’s safety, integrity and bodily autonomy
• Factors and situations affecting physical and mental safety (this may include violence against women in the public space and in closed institutions as well as women’s access to justice to secure their right to health and security)
• Special legal reforms and practices to promote non-discrimination and gender equality with regard to health, in particular regarding equal right to enjoy the highest available standard of health; equal access to all forms of healthcare at the highest available level; equal right to enjoy benefits of scientific progress and its application in medicine; and access to sexual and reproductive health information, goods and services, including abortion
• Actions from the State to promote gender equality and non-discrimination, including measures, policies, and national action plans, to ensure women’s and girls’ safety, including in confined spaces (e.g., detention facilities, pre-deportation centres, camps for displaced women and families) or opened spaces (e.g., transports)
• Access to information and to education regarding sexual and reproductive health services
• Teenage pregnancy
• Access of rural and minority women and girls to health services, including sexual and reproductive health services
• Women in situations of sex work

Violence against women and girls as a crosscutting theme

• Statistical data (estimated incidence and prevalence, number of cases reported, number of cases brought to justice, number of sentences)
• Legal framework on all forms of gender-based violence, including, inter alia, domestic violence, psychological violence, sexual violence (including marital rape), sexual harassment, violence perpetrated by State actors, etc.
• Implementation of the legal framework
• Services for the protection, care and rehabilitation of victims of violence in the context of economic crisis
• Awareness and capacity building of public officials to prevent and address cases of violence against women and girls
• Violence affecting women who encounter multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, including rural women, minority women, women with disabilities, lesbian and transgender women, older women, girls and young women, and women in detention

Women and girls living in vulnerable situations

• The following groups of women and girls will be addressed, among others: girls and young women, rural women and girls, women and girls from minority groups, women and girls of African descent, stateless women and girls, migrant, asylum seekers and refugee women and girls, women and girls with disabilities, older women, women in sex work, LBTIQ+ women, women human rights defenders, and women in detention

Women's access to justice

• Situations faced by women in accessing justice (existence of free legal aid, gender-based stereotyping in the justice system, etc.)
• Existence of human rights training for judges and any other promising practices in relation to the protection and promotion of women’s and girls’ human rights
• Access to remedies for business related human rights abuses

Women and Girls in the digital space

• Gender digital divide and women’s and girls’ access to technologies
• Digital dimension of gender-based discrimination and violence
• Artificial Intelligence and women’s and girls’ rights
• Bridging the digital gender divide/ human rights based digital policies responsive to women and girls’ needs
• Critical contributions of women human rights defenders and feminist movements using the transformative power of digital technology to connect, mobilize, and drive social change, while fighting against the persistent pushback of women’s and girls’ rights

How and where to submit inputs:

You do not need to provide inputs on all the issues mentioned above, you can focus on the ones relevant to your area of work. If you reply after 15 June 2024, your submission might not be considered during the country visit, but it will be taken into account in the drafting process of the Working Group’s report which will be presented at the Human Rights Council in in June 2025. Early submissions are greatly encouraged.

Processing of inputs received:

Submission will remain confidential. They will be considered during the country visit and will be taken into account in the drafting process of the Working Group’s report.