International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

We thank the Chair of this Permanent Council for allowing us to address a subject so important and so central for the Dominican Republic, and we offer special thanks to all the excellent speakers who have preceded us, in particular the Vice President of Costa Rica, the President of the Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM) and the Ministers for Women of Nicaragua and Panama, as well as the representation of Ecuador and Commissioner Antonia Urrejola Noguera. Mr. Secretary General, Mr. Assistant Secretary General, ambassadors, permanent and alternate representatives.

We begin our remarks by recalling Salomé Ureña, the Dominican poet of the nineteenth century, who in her poem “Mi ofrenda a la patria” gave lasting expression to the importance of education for women. Salomé Ureña's connection with the evolution of the social and political thought of her time is evident: she succeeded in fostering the participation of women not only in education but also in health and in politics and, more important still, in passing on to them an early form of empowerment.

In the interest of guaranteeing the human rights of women, and with the aim of eliminating violence against women, the Government of the Dominican Republic has strengthened the Ministry for Women, giving priority to its work and increasing its allocation of financial resources, as well as its capacity and competence to carry out research and analysis and to influence public policy, and to review existing legislation with the aim of adapting it to the present day in matters of gender and the fight against the scourge of violence against women. The Ministry likewise carries out functions of communication, coordination and oversight of the application of policies with a gender perspective.

The role of the Ministry for Women of the Dominican Republic is reflected in Article 39 of our Constitution, which promotes the measures necessary to guarantee the eradication of gender inequality and discrimination, with the mission of defining and leading the execution of public policies, plans and programs that contribute to gender equality and equity and to the full exercise of citizenship by women.

Our country is also committed to implementing policies sensitive to gender inequalities in order to mitigate the effects of economic crisis and recession on the lives of women, promoting regulatory and policy frameworks that energize the economy in key sectors, including care; integrating the gender perspective into national policies on adaptation to climate change and migration and the mitigation of their effects; and recognizing their differentiated impacts on women, adolescent girls and girls.

As the governing body for standards and as coordinator of the execution of policies, plans and programs at the sectoral and inter-ministerial level and with civil society, our Ministry for Women is directed toward achieving gender equity and the full exercise of citizenship by women. That is the mandate conferred by Law 86-99 of the Dominican State.

In this month of November, in which we meet to commemorate the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, we have presented in our country several programs for the prevention of this scourge, remembering that, as is already part of the collective memory of all Dominicans and of the region, on this date we recall how Patria, Minerva and María Teresa Mirabal perished, victims of a vile act that cut short their lives.

The Mirabal sisters will forever be a symbol of the struggle that all our peoples wage against the violence inflicted on women; as such, we approach it in a multidisciplinary way and, indeed, the goal of gender equality can never be reached without first eliminating all forms of violence against women.

In this regard, Mr. Chair, and on the occasion of the commemoration of this day, allow me to read out the declaration on Political Violence against Women, which has been subscribed to by the following delegations:

“THE PERMANENT MISSIONS OF ARGENTINA, CANADA, COSTA RICA, CHILE, ECUADOR, EL SALVADOR, HONDURAS, MEXICO, PANAMA, PERU, THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, URUGUAY AND VENEZUELA,

CONSIDERING the American Convention on Human Rights, the Inter-American Convention on the Granting of Political Rights to Women, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, “Protocol of San Salvador,” and the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women, “Convention of Belém do Pará,” as instruments whose purpose is to protect the human rights of women and girls in all their diversity and to remind States of their duty to design and implement measures and policies to prevent, punish and eradicate gender-based discrimination and violence in both the public and the private spheres;

TAKING INTO ACCOUNT the declaration on political harassment and violence against women that the competent national authorities of the Follow-up Mechanism to the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women, “Convention of Belém do Pará” (MESECVI), of the Organization of American States (OAS) signed in 2015, on the occasion of the Sixth Conference of States Parties to the Convention of Belém do Pará;

REITERATING the commitments undertaken by States at the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, in particular the Quito Consensus (2007), the Brasilia Consensus (2010), the Santo Domingo Consensus (2013), the Montevideo Strategy for Implementation of the Regional Gender Agenda within the Sustainable Development Framework by 2030 (2016) and the Santiago Commitment (2020), as well as the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development (2013), adopted at the First Meeting of the Regional Conference on Population and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the commitments undertaken by States in the Declaration and Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995), the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo, 1994) and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2015), especially through its Goal 5, “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”;

TAKING INTO ACCOUNT the Declaration of Santo Domingo on equality and autonomy in the exercise of women's political rights for the strengthening of democracy, which, adopted at the Thirty-Eighth Assembly of Delegates of the CIM in 2019, includes the commitment to redouble efforts to achieve equality and autonomy in the exercise of women's political rights and access to positions of leadership and decision-making in all areas of public and political life under conditions of equality and free of violence; and

REITERATING the deep concern expressed in various instruments at the political and administrative harassment and violence experienced by women in all their diversity in gaining access to decision-making positions, whether by election or by appointment, at both the national and the local level, as well as within political parties and movements, a problem that prevails in the Hemisphere, limiting their access to the system of representation and therefore to decision-making, and thus impeding representative and participatory democracy in the region,

DECLARE THAT:

• The States Parties have the obligation to comply with the international instruments mentioned above so that women and men participate in political life under conditions of substantive equality, guaranteeing the access of women in all their diversity to political, senior and decision-making positions without discrimination or violence.
• The equal political participation of women and men is an essential component of democracy; and it is indispensable to implement the measures conducive to achieving the full, equal and meaningful participation of women in all their diversity in the democratic system.
• Public policies must be advanced that promote, in the administrative framework of the State, in electoral institutions, in political party organizations and in other relevant entities, the adoption and implementation of measures to eradicate political violence against women in all their diversity, to protect their electoral rights and to ensure a comprehensive approach to combating impunity, paying particular attention when the perpetrators hold public office or are candidates for it.
• Parity laws take on special relevance in guaranteeing the access of women in all their diversity, under equal conditions, to spaces of political representation.
• It is necessary to adopt all affirmative action measures and all relevant mechanisms, including legislative reforms and budget allocations, from an intersectional approach, to guarantee the full participation of women in all their diversity in public office and political representation in all branches and at all levels of the State, especially targeted policies to ensure equality in local governments and in the judiciary.
• It is essential to recognize political violence as a form of violence against women in all their diversity and actively to promote its incorporation into domestic legal systems.
• It is important to support the work of the Inter-American Commission of Women and of the Follow-up Mechanism to the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women, “Convention of Belém do Pará” (MESECVI), so that work continues toward a region free of all political violence and harassment, ensuring the substantive participation of women in all their diversity in politics, in electoral processes and in decision-making, in order to safeguard representative and participatory democracy in the Hemisphere.”

We would not wish to conclude, Mr. Chair, without thanking the delegations for their support for this declaration.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.