Information on organizations that work to improve the lives of children or youth employed as sex workers and on the protection or aid offered to individuals who no longer wish to work in the sex industry [DOM26860.E]

In a 4 June 1996 Spanish-language facsimile received by the DIRB, the coordinator of Dominican Haitian Women's Movement (MUDHA, Movimiento de Mujeres Dominico-Haitiana) provided the following information on organizations that work with street children and sex workers. MUDHA addresses legal and social issues relating to women of Haitian origin in the Dominican Republic, a group-at-risk in the sex trade.

The Center for Intregral Research and Orientation (COIN, Centro de Orientación e Investigación Integral) is an organization in the Dominican Republic that offers legal and health services for sex workers. The organization has two lawyers and offers services at institutional and local levels.

At the institutional level, the organization focuses on helping women who have suffered abuses and/or been forced into prostitution while overseas as contractual workers, as well as informing women who accept contracts to work overseas about the situation of prostitution in the destination country. COIN also provides the women with lists of organizations that work with prostitutes in the destination country.

Local legal assistance includes offering services to prostitutes who have been victims of abuse or forced into prostitution, as well as offering counselling to individuals who wish to leave the profession. COIN also offers counselling on health protection for sex workers and their clients.

The following organizations work with street children in the Dominican Republic: Niños y Niñas del Camino; Niños en Marcha; Niño Caminante; Pastoral Juvenil; and Pastoral de la Infancia.

Please find attached documentary information on women's organizations and the sex trade in the Dominican Republic, and on the extent to which minors are involved in prostitution.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the DIRB within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

Reference


Dominican Haitian Women's Movement (MUDHA, Movimiento de Mujeres Dominico-Haitiana), Santo Domingo. 4 June 1996. Spanish-language facsimile sent to the DIRB by coordinator.

Attachments


Encyclopedia of Women's Associations Worldwide. 1993. Edited by Jacqueline K. Barret. London: Gale Research International Ltd., pp. 967-68.

The Fresno Bee. 21 May 1995. Home Edition. "Cholera Outbreak in Mexican Cities." (NEXIS)

International Organization for Migration (IOM). June 1996. Trafficking in Women from the Dominican Republic for Sexual Exploitation. [Internet] [Accessed 29 May 1997]

Inter Press Service. 11 April 1997. Gustavo Capdevila. "Human Rights: Child Abuse Hits Epidemic Levels." (NEXIS)

Latinamerica Press [Lima]. 19 September 1996. Vol. 28, No. 34. Lucien O. Chauvin. "Dominican Republic: Lending Prostitutes a Hand," p. 5.

The Palm Beach Post. 15 December 1996. Final Edition. Bill Douthat. "Sugar Fields' Sweet Angel of Mercy." (NEXIS)

The Salt Lake Tribune. 25 May 1997. Tom Harvey. "Latin America." (NEXIS)

United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). 1996. "Organization: About UNICEF: Girls." [Internet] [Accessed 29 May 1997]

The Weekly Journal. 22 June 1995. "Curb Abuse Says Rights Group." (The Ethnic NewsWatch/NEXIS)

World Congress Against the Commercial Exploitation of Children. n.d. "Regional Profiles: Latin America and the Caribbean." [Internet] [Accessed 29 May 1997]