As talk of COVID-19 vaccines swept the world in early 2021, a new human rights crisis was already looming: profound disparities in who would receive a life-saving shot and who would face the pandemic unprotected. In the Dominican Republic, this inequity quickly became a reality: on February 16, Dominican President Luis Abinader announced a national …
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On a yellow wall, in a tiny school in the Dominican Republic, there is a sign—hand-painted in Spanish with cheery colors. It looks like the kind of sign you might find in any preschool, with a reminder of classroom rules—“Share your toys… Raise your hand… Don’t hit.” But instead, the sign reads: “These are my …
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Women and men press against the barbed-wire gate, waiting for the guards to let them in. Twice a week, the border crossing opens so that Haitians can get access without a visa to a market located on Dominican land in the northern city of Dajabón, just a short walk from the crossing point.
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As the festival of Shavuot approaches, I am reflecting back on the revelatory experiences in my life. This past spring, I was so frantically busy that it wasn’t until I slowed down that I realized I was having an experience that was changing me in a profound way. I know I’m not the only one …
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In recent years, they helped create constitutional protections for LGBT people, launched a film festival at a prestigious national venue, and inspired the country’s first openly gay candidate to run for political office. But progress wasn’t always so close at hand for RevASA, a Dominican LGBT rights organization supported by AJWS and its parent organization, …
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Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in the Dominican Republic have long faced discrimination and violence in their communities. But in recent years they have begun to speak out, advocate for their rights, and build a movement calling for change in Dominican society so that they can live as equal citizens whose rights are …
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Many Haitian migrants and Dominicans of Haitian descent work in low-wage jobs on the country’s sugar and banana plantations, or as construction workers or laborers in the informal economy. They reside in bateyes—poor districts that were established to house sugar plantation laborers and their families. Because Haitians and their descendents are often denied citizenship rights …
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