Various civil society organizations filed an “amicus curiae” with the Dominican Republic’s Constitutional Court on 22 July 2020. The groups want the Constitutional Court to declare child marriage in violation of the Constitution and, thus, illegal. The groups argue it is a practice that affects the rights of girls. A bill to eradicate child marriage has years in Congress, and has not passed. In an amicus curiae case, one (such as a professional person or organization) who is not a party to a particular litigation is permitted by the court to advise it with respect to some matter of law that directly affects the case in question.
The petition is filed under the name of the Civil Society Coalition against Trafficking in Persons and in support of the appeal of the International Justice Mission (IJM). It indicates that in the ENHOGAR-MICS 2014 government survey, 35.9% of young women (between 20 and 24 years old) married or joined before the age of 18 and 12.3% did so before the age of 15. Both figures are among the highest in Latin America and the Caribbean, well above the regional average for adolescents under 18 who are married or in free union (23%) and more than double the average for adolescents under 15 (5%).
The groups argue that child marriage is a flagrant violation of human rights. Child marriage violates articles 39.4, 43 and 56 of the Constitution, and articles 2 and 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, on the best interests of the child and children’s right to express an opinion and be heard,” they said.
They argued that child marriage and early unions (EYM) especially affect girls living in the most impoverished sectors: rural and peri-urban areas, noting that in the country 58.6% of girls in the poorest quintile are married or joined before the age of 18 and 23% before the age of 15.
“The participation of Dominican civil society is a fundamental component in the fight against human trafficking in the country, given its co-responsibility for contributing to the suppression of this grave human rights violation. We are demanding that all people be able to live by the values inherent in human dignity: equality, freedom and justice,” they said.
The Civil Society Coalition against Trafficking in Persons is composed of Participación Ciudadana, Free The Slaves (FTS), Observatorio de Migrantes del Caribe (OBMICA), Save The Children, Casa Comunitaria de Justicia (CCJ), Movimiento de Mujeres Dominico Haitianas (MUDHA), the Center for Integral Orientation (COIN), the Human Rights Observatory for Vulnerable Groups, the Center of Solidarity for the Development of Women (CE-MUJER) and the Socio-Cultural Movement for Haitian Workers (MOSCTHA) among others.
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22 July 2020