Dominica

Last Updated 5 November 2021

Dominica, officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is a parliamentary democracy located in the Caribbean. Dominica is the sole republic within the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).1https://www.oecs.org/en/who-we-are/member-states It gained independence from Britain in 1978, however many of its laws and institutions still remain under British colonial influence today.

According to the 2011 Census, the most recent census, Dominica has a population of 71,293 people.2https://stats.gov.dm/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/2011-Population-and-Housing-Census.pdf Of this population, 52.7% are Roman Catholic, 31% are other Christian faiths, 1.1% are Rastafarian, 4.3% are ‘Other’ religions, and 9.4% are atheist or follow no religion.3https://stats.gov.dm/subjects/demographic-statistics/population-by-religion-1991-2001-and-2011/ The 2011 Census shows that the Roman Catholic religion has registered steady decreases over the last decades from 70.1% in 1991 down to 52.7% in 2011. On the other hand, Evangelical followers have grown 12.1% over the last decade representing 19.0% of the population in 2011, similarly Seventh Day Adventist recorded a 10.6% increase representing 6.7% of the population in 2011. Meanwhile, persons with no religious beliefs significantly increased by 54.4% moving from 6.1% to 9.4% of the population between 1991 and 2011.4https://stats.gov.dm/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/2011-Population-and-Housing-Census.pdf

Dominica is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the United Nations, the Organization of American States, the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, and the Non-Aligned Movement.

 
Severe Discrimination
Systemic Discrimination
Mostly Satisfactory
Free and Equal

Constitution and government

The Constitution5https://www.cpahq.org/media/ovfdlmgv/dom_constitution.pdf recognizes and guarantees the protection of the fundamental rights and freedoms of Dominica citizens consistent with the principles of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights. It declares that “a person shall not be hindered in the enjoyment of his freedom of conscience, including freedom of thought and of religion.”

According to Article 9(1) “except with his own consent, a person shall not be hindered in the enjoyment of his freedom of conscience, including freedom of thought and of religion, freedom to change his religion or belief and freedom, either alone or in community with others, and both in public and in private, to manifest and propagate his religion or belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance.”

Article 9(2) of the Constitution, which deals with religious teachings, states that “except with his own consent (or, if he is a person under the age of eighteen years, the consent of his guardian) a person attending any place of education, detained in any prison or corrective institution or serving in a naval, military or air force shall not be required to receive religious instruction or to take part in or attend any religious ceremony or observance if that instruction ceremony or observance relates to a religion which is not his own.”

Article 9(4) ensures that a person shall not be compelled to take any oath that is contrary to his religion or belief or to take any oath in a manner that is contrary to his religion or belief.

The Constitution prohibits a practising member of the clergy from holding public office (Article 32), however, the Dominica Association of Evangelical Churches (DAEC) and Catholic Church have sought to remove this obstacle.6https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/240282-DOMINICA-2020-INTERNATIONAL-RELIGIOUS-FREEDOM-REPORT.pdf

Education and children’s rights

Religious education within the wider education system

Article 9(3) of the Constitution states that every religious community is entitled to establish and maintain places of education and to manage any place of education. No such community shall be prevented from providing religious instruction for persons of that community in the course of any education.

Article 118 of the 1997 Education Act7http://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/natlex4.detail?p_lang=en&p_isn=48075&p_country=DMA&p_count=211 reiterates the rights of children attending state-funded schools run by religious associations (termed ‘assisted schools’) to abstain from acts of religious worship or instruction enshrined in Article 9(2) of the Constitution.

According to Section 142(2a) of the Education Act, it is not a condition of admission or attendance at any public or assisted private school that a student participates in religious education or attends or abstain from attending any place of religious instruction or worship. However, under Section 21(1e) during enrollment of a student, the parent or guardian of the student must inform the school of the religious persuasion of the student. Private schools can, at their own expense, provide religious instruction.

At public schools, teachers, principals, and students lead nondenominational prayers during morning assemblies, but students are not required to participate.8https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/240282-DOMINICA-2020-INTERNATIONAL-RELIGIOUS-FREEDOM-REPORT.pdf According to Section 142(1) of the Education Act, the school day in every public or assisted private school shall begin with collective worship by all students in attendance at the school, unless the school premises are such that it would be impracticable to assemble for such purposes or it would be more convenient to conduct such worship in the classrooms.

The government subsidizes teacher salaries at all private schools run by religious organizations, including those affiliated with the Catholic, Methodist, and Seventhday Adventist Churches.9https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/240282-DOMINICA-2020-INTERNATIONAL-RELIGIOUS-FREEDOM-REPORT.pdf

Children’s rights

The legal minimum age for marriage is 18 for both men and women, but marriage is permitted at age 16 with parental consent.10https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/DOMINICA-2019-HUMAN-RIGHTS-REPORT.pdf

Family, community and society

LGBTI+ rights

Discriminatory laws in Dominica make lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people targets for discrimination, violence and abuse.11https://www.refworld.org/country,,HRW,,DMA,,5aba9a244,0.html There are no laws in Dominica that protect the LGBTI+ community against discrimination against a person based on sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or sex characteristics in employment, housing, education, or health care.12https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/DOMINICA-2019-HUMAN-RIGHTS-REPORT.pdf

In 2012 the education minister created a task force with the purpose of “investigating and identifying the root causes of deviance and the increasing incidents of homosexuality among [the] student population.”13http://dominicanewsonline.com/news/homepage/news/general/dominica-ranked-third-worse-gay-rights-russia/ In 2014 the Prime Minister stated “I will make it clear that there are some things that this Government will not accept and we will never allow for the state to recognize same-sex marriage in our country.”14http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Dominica-PM-says-no-to-same-sex-marriage_17128008?

In 2020, experts from the UN Human Rights Committee expressed concern about the violence, harassment and marginalization of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons and by the so-called “gay panic” criminal defence that justified murder if the male victim propositioned the accused.15https://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25709&LangID=E

Dominca criminalizes same-sex intimacy between consenting persons using the term “buggery”. As such, the Sexual Offences Act 199816http://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/natlex4.detail?p_lang=en&p_isn=49696&p_country=DMA&p_count=208&p_classification=01.04&p_classcount=25 defines buggery as “anal intercourse by a male person with a male person or by a male person with a female person.” Buggery laws do not distinguish between consensual and non-consensual sex.17https://www.refworld.org/country,,HRW,,DMA,,5aba9a244,0.html In it’s testimony before the Human Rights Committee, representatives of Dominica stated that the law is not enforced.18https://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25709&LangID=E

Section 16(1) of the Sexual Offences Act states that “A person who commits buggery is guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to imprisonment for – (a) twenty-five years, if committed by an adult on a minor; (b) ten years, if committed by an adult on another adult; (c) or five years, if committed by a minor; and, if the Court thinks it fit, the Court may order that the convicted person be admitted to a psychiatric hospital for treatment”.

Dominica defines gross indecency as: “any act other than sexual intercourse by a person involving the use of the genital organs for the purpose of arousing or gratifying sexual desire.” The vague wording of the law means that LGBTI+ persons are susceptible to arrest and prosecution for a wide range of sexual acts.19https://www.refworld.org/country,,HRW,,DMA,,5aba9a244,0.html

Section 14 of the Sexual Offences Act states that “(1)Any person who commits an act of gross indecency with another person is guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to imprisonment for five years. (2) Subsection (1) does not apply to an act of gross indecency committed in private between an adult male person and an adult female person, both of whom consent. ”

The government have repeatedly rejected UN Universal Periodic Review recommendations to decriminalize same-sex acts,20Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review: Dominica, A/HRC/27/9, June 26, 2014, para. 22; Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, A/HRC/42/9/Add.1, 10 September 2019, https://undocs.org/A/HRC/42/9/Add.1; https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G19/209/52/PDF/G1920952.pdf?OpenElement citing religious opposition (particularly from evangelical churches) as well as cultural and societal opposition.21http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/reports/pdfs/violencelgbtipersons.pdf

In July 2019, an anonymous citizen, backed by the Canadian HIV/AIDs Legal Network, filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of portions of the Sexual Offenses Act that criminalize specific sexual activity between same-sex partners.22https://www.reuters.com/article/us-dominica-lgbt-rights-idUSKCN1UE2HG

In September 2020, the Dominica Christian Council applied for, and received, the High Court’s permission to intervene in a 2019 constitutional challenge to the country’s anti-sodomy law. LGBTI+ groups called the challenge a “delay tactic” by the Dominica Christian Council, because the council opposes overturning the law.23https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/240282-DOMINICA-2020-INTERNATIONAL-RELIGIOUS-FREEDOM-REPORT.pdf

In court documents filed on behalf of the Dominica Christian Council by Bishop Gabriel Malzaire, the Council has a duty to promote Christian values and oppose any legislation that “challenges, opposes and/or is likely to degrade these values and beliefs, public decency and/or public morality.”24https://www.ncronline.org/news/justice/bishop-reverses-course-supports-lgbtq-criminalization-laws-dominica

The DAEC also continues to support the government’s ban on same-sex marriage.25https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/240282-DOMINICA-2020-INTERNATIONAL-RELIGIOUS-FREEDOM-REPORT.pdf

Activists have argued that the influence of the Church in society and politics plays an important part in the realisation or lack thereof of members of the LGBTI+ community.26https://www.ncronline.org/news/justice/bishop-reverses-course-supports-lgbtq-criminalization-laws-dominica

Abortion

The Offences Against the Person Act27http://www.dominica.gov.dm/laws/chapters/chap10-31.pdf; https://abortion-policies.srhr.org/country/dominica/ criminalizes abortion under section 8, 9, 56 and 57. Abortion is not an option for victims of rape who become pregnant.

Section 8(1) “any person who with intent to destroy the life of a child capable of being born alive by any wilful act causes a child to die before it has an existence independent of its mother is guilty of the offence of child destruction and liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for life; but no person shall be found guilty of an offence under this section unless it is proved that the act which caused the death of the child was not done in good faith for the purpose only of preserving the life of the mother.”

Section 9 “(1) Where, upon the trial of any person for the murder or manslaughter of any child or for infanticide, or for an offence under section 56 (which relates to administering drugs or using instruments to procure abortion), the jury are of opinion that the person charged is not guilty of murder, manslaughter or infanticide, or an offence under section 56, as the case may be, but that he is shown by the evidence to be guilty of the offence of child destruction, the jury may find him guilty of that offence and thereupon the person convicted shall be liable to be punished as if he had been convicted upon an indictment for child destruction. (2) Where upon the trial of any person for the offence of child destruction the jury are of opinion that the person charged is not guilty of that offence but that he is shown by the evidence to be guilty of an offence under section 56, the jury may find him guilty of that offence and thereupon the person convicted shall be liable to be punished as if he had been convicted upon an indictment under that section.”

Section 56 “ Any woman being with child, who, with the intent to procure her own miscarriage, unlawfully administers to herself any poison or other noxious thing, or unlawfully uses any instrument, or other means whatsoever, with the like intent, and any person who with intent to procure the miscarriage of any woman, whether she is with child or not, unlawfully administers to her, or causes to be taken by her, any poison or other noxious thing, or unlawfully uses any instrument or other means whatsoever with the like intent, is liable to imprisonment for ten years.”

Section 57 “Any person who unlawfully supplies or procures any poison or other noxious thing, or any instrument or thing whatsoever knowing that the same is intended to be unlawfully used or employed with intent to procure the miscarriage of any woman, whether she is with child or not, is liable to imprisonment for two years.”

Freedom of expression, advocacy of humanist values

Freedom of expression is constitutionally guaranteed, and the press is generally free in practice.28https://freedomhouse.org/country/dominica/freedom-world/2021 Criminal defamation29http://www.dominica.gov.dm/laws/chapters/chap7-04.pdf and Seditious Libel30http://www.dominica.gov.dm/laws/chapters/chap10-03.pdf laws remain on statute, although they are not reported to be enforced.31https://cpj.org/reports/2016/03/the-caribbean/ However, defamation lawsuits and threats of lawsuits are commonly used by the government against members of the media, resulting in some self-censorship.32https://freedomhouse.org/country/dominica/freedom-world/2021

The UN Human Rights Committee in 2020 noted that “The 2018 Anti-Terrorism Act contained a very broad definition of terrorism and there was concern that it might be used as a tool to intimidate political opposition. The excessive use of force against the opposition, combined with the police raids on opposition villages and political meetings indicated a broader pattern. The wording and implementation of the Public Order Act possibly infringed on the freedom of assembly, as it was being used to disperse opposition’s meetings.”33https://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25709&LangID=E

Several domestic and international human rights and advocacy organizations operate without government restriction, investigating and publishing their findings on human rights cases. Government officials are somewhat cooperative and responsive to their views.34https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/DOMINICA-2019-HUMAN-RIGHTS-REPORT.pdf

References

References
1 https://www.oecs.org/en/who-we-are/member-states
2, 4 https://stats.gov.dm/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/2011-Population-and-Housing-Census.pdf
3 https://stats.gov.dm/subjects/demographic-statistics/population-by-religion-1991-2001-and-2011/
5 https://www.cpahq.org/media/ovfdlmgv/dom_constitution.pdf
6, 8, 9, 23, 25 https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/240282-DOMINICA-2020-INTERNATIONAL-RELIGIOUS-FREEDOM-REPORT.pdf
7 http://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/natlex4.detail?p_lang=en&p_isn=48075&p_country=DMA&p_count=211
10, 12, 34 https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/DOMINICA-2019-HUMAN-RIGHTS-REPORT.pdf
11, 17, 19 https://www.refworld.org/country,,HRW,,DMA,,5aba9a244,0.html
13 http://dominicanewsonline.com/news/homepage/news/general/dominica-ranked-third-worse-gay-rights-russia/
14 http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Dominica-PM-says-no-to-same-sex-marriage_17128008?
15, 18, 33 https://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25709&LangID=E
16 http://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/natlex4.detail?p_lang=en&p_isn=49696&p_country=DMA&p_count=208&p_classification=01.04&p_classcount=25
20 Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review: Dominica, A/HRC/27/9, June 26, 2014, para. 22; Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, A/HRC/42/9/Add.1, 10 September 2019, https://undocs.org/A/HRC/42/9/Add.1; https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G19/209/52/PDF/G1920952.pdf?OpenElement
21 http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/reports/pdfs/violencelgbtipersons.pdf
22 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-dominica-lgbt-rights-idUSKCN1UE2HG
24, 26 https://www.ncronline.org/news/justice/bishop-reverses-course-supports-lgbtq-criminalization-laws-dominica
27 http://www.dominica.gov.dm/laws/chapters/chap10-31.pdf; https://abortion-policies.srhr.org/country/dominica/
28, 32 https://freedomhouse.org/country/dominica/freedom-world/2021
29 http://www.dominica.gov.dm/laws/chapters/chap7-04.pdf
30 http://www.dominica.gov.dm/laws/chapters/chap10-03.pdf
31 https://cpj.org/reports/2016/03/the-caribbean/

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