Dokument #1263533
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Autor)
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]