ETHNICITY, GENDER AND HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

This research paper discusses ethnicity, gender and human rights in the Dominican Republic. The ethnic origins of its peoples have played an important role in shaping its social, political and economic institutions. Racial tensions have uniquely bedeviled relations between the dominant mulatto majority and blacks, especially those of Haitian origin.

Gender conflicts have not been especially significant because of the dominance of machismo culture, but women have a degree of economic power. Human rights have been largely ignored and are emerging as a significant issue as the Republic begins to modernize and to strive for greater political maturity and social justice during the post-Trujillo period.

Ever since Columbus landed in 1492 on the eastern half of the island, which he named Espanola (Hispaniola), which today comprises the Dominican Republic, it has been subjected to a variety of foreign influences. The island was situated for many centuries at the crossroads of important trade routes between the Old and New World. In the 20th century it has been of strategic importance to the United States because of its proximity to the Panama Canal and Fidel Castro's Cuba. The most important influences on the development of Dominican culture and society have, however, been of European (primarily Spanish) and Afro-Caribbean (the descendants of slaves brought from there after the early 1

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-annexation by Spain in 1861-1865 and the occupation by the U.S. Marines (1916-1924) as well as sporadic interventions in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries by the French and the British. The Dominican national anthem contains the refrain: "No nation has its freedom earned if it in servile slavery kneels" (Martin, 1966, p. 74). Nevertheless, even sympathetic foreign observers such as Szulc noted that "the nation had been shattered by the brutal Trujillo dictatorship and could not achieve stability" (1965, p. 4). Dominican politics have been dominated since 1966 and until his recent retirement at the age of 89 by Ricardo Joaquin Balaguer, a former Trujillo protege and moderate, and his Reformista (PR) party. At first under Balaguer (1966-1978) (1986-1995) and later PRD Presidents (1978-1986), economic progress was made, but after the late 1970s, falling sugar prices and the loss of sugar markets and rising fuel prices coupled with improvident government fiscal policies produced high unemployment and high inflation which reached 100 per cent per annum in 1990 (Haggerty, 1991, p. 82; Old man, 1994, p. 48). During this period and into the 1990s, the lot of the average Dominican did not improve to any measurable extent. Haggerty said
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Dominican Republic, PRD Presidents, Europa Book, Haiti Gender, Leonidas Trujillo, Human Rights, Haitians Dominicans, Ambassador Martin, Americans Wiarda, British Dominican, dominican republic, human rights, wiarda 1969, haggerty 1991, gaffney 1994, social structure, middle class, europa book, martin 1966, griffin 1995, europa book 1996, middle class emerged, celebrate 500th anniversary, 500th anniversary columbus', running dry 1991,
Approximate Word count = 2945
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page)

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