This update covers developments relating to the freedoms of expression, association and assembly in the Dominican Republic from November 2025 to February 2026.
Context
IACHR raises concerns over treatment of Haitians amid large-scale deportations and human rights violations
On 6th February 2026, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), the human rights body of the Organisation of American States, expressed concern over intensified deportations, immigration enforcement linked to public hospitals, reported poor detention conditions, allegations of racial profiling and persistent barriers to nationality and documentation.
According to official data, deportations remained at a high level. The DGM reported 67,940 deportations through border crossings with Haiti during January and February 2026, around 17 per cent more than the 57,880 (31,221 in January and 26,659 in February 2025) it later reported for the same period in 2025. According to the DGM’s retrospective figures, this was also more than double the 31,342 (18,284 in January and 13,058 in February 2024) recorded during the first two months of 2024, although earlier DGM reporting gave a lower figure for that period. The figures indicate that the intensified pace of deportations introduced in October 2024 continued into 2026.
The IACHR warned that many Dominican citizens of Haitian descent continued to have difficulty proving their nationality because of the law’s deficient implementation and the lack of durable solutions for people at risk of statelessness. According to civil society, around 150,000 people remained stateless or without effective recognition of their Dominican nationality.
The IACHR called on the authorities to refrain from conducting immigration controls in or near healthcare facilities. These concerns were underscored by the death of a newborn while his 20-year-old Haitian mother was being held at the Haina Migrant Processing Centre on 14th November 2025, after migration authorities detained her following her discharge from hospital and transferred her to the centre with her child. This happened just days before Amnesty International published research arguing that the government’s hospital protocol had created fear of deportation among Haitian migrants seeking medical treatment and disputing claims that migrants were overburdening the public-health system.
The following day, the Dominican government rejected the allegations and argued that the country was confronting an exceptional regional migration crisis caused by conditions in Haiti, defended its sovereign authority to regulate migration, rejected allegations of systematic discriminatory treatment and said emergency medical care was not being denied. It also said detention infrastructure and healthcare had been strengthened and criticised the IACHR for giving excessive weight to allegations it considered insufficiently verified.
Civil society raises concerns over police killings as reform bill remains pending
On 24th December 2025, the Dominican National Human Rights Commission (CNDH-RD), a local human rights organisation, raised concerns about the number of people killed during police operations, estimating 189 deaths in 2025, compared with 227 in 2024. CNDH-RD said its investigations indicated that between 65 and 70 per cent of the cases it had examined could constitute extrajudicial executions rather than deaths resulting from armed confrontations, as authorities had reported. CNDH-RD also announced plans to bring civil proceedings in selected cases and seek a thematic hearing before the IACHR. It denounced failures to conduct effective investigations into the deaths and ensure accountability.
Earlier that month, on 8th December 2025, the government submitted a new Organic Law of the National Police to the Senate, as part of a broader police reform programme. At the time of writing, the draft law remained under consideration.
Peaceful Assembly
Police use tear gas against retired officers protesting delayed payments
On 12th January 2026, National Police officers used tear gas to disperse retired police officers protesting outside the Ministry of Finance in Santo Domingo over delayed retirement payments. According to media reports, the demonstration began peacefully before serving police officers intervened and dispersed the group.
Interior and Police Minister Faride Raful said authorities had met with the protesters and would resolve the issue, but gave no timetable. The retired officers said they would continue protesting until the government provided a definitive response.
Communities and environmental defenders face police obstruction during protest
On 28th January 2026, hundreds of protesters linked to United We Are Stronger (Unidos Somos Más), a local coalition bringing together residents and community groups, organised a vehicle caravan in Santiago, northern Dominican Republic, to oppose mining activity in the Cordillera Septentrional—one of the country’s main mountain systems and environmental reserves.
The caravan travelled from Circunvalación Norte, a major ring road around Santiago, towards the city centre, where protesters raised concerns about the potential effects of mining on water sources, agriculture and nearby communities, and called for the protection of the mountain range. According to local media, dozens of National Police officers and members of the armed forces accompanied the caravan and blocked or interrupted its progress on at least six occasions, reportedly in an effort to shorten the planned route.
United We Are Stronger has continued to mobilise. On 25th February 2026, priests, farmers and residents staged their third caravan. Media reports noted that police presence was lighter on this occasion.
On 26th January 2026, the Ministry of Energy and Mines, the government body responsible for regulating the mining sector, said authorities had authorised only exploration and had not approved any project for commercial extraction.
La Cuaba residents protest waste facility amid consultation and transparency concerns
On 23rd November 2025, dozens of residents, neighbourhood associations, religious groups and local officials in La Cuaba, a community in the municipality of Pedro Brand near Santo Domingo, held a peaceful march against plans by Relleno Sanitario Oakhouse to develop a waste-recycling and sanitary-landfill facility in El Aguacate. Protesters said the project could threaten local water sources, agriculture, public health and the area’s growing ecotourism sector.
The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources had rejected the project’s environmental authorisation in 2023. However, on 31st October 2024, the Fifth Chamber of the Superior Administrative Court, which reviews disputes involving public authorities, ordered the Ministry’s technical committee to reconsider the application. The ruling reopened the administrative process but did not approve the project.
Community representatives said they had repeatedly sought information and dialogue with the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources but had been unable to obtain clear information about the project’s status or the assessment underlying its reconsideration. They disputed government assertions that residents had been adequately informed or consulted and called for a public hearing and access to official documents before authorities reached a final decision. Dominican environmental law provides for public consultation as part of environmental assessment processes.
Tensions escalated on 7th December 2025, when residents opposing the project clashed with people who had arrived to demonstrate in its favour, with participants using stones and sticks during the confrontation. Police used tear gas to disperse the groups. In the following days, residents reported receiving threats and alleged that vehicles carrying armed people had circulated in the area.
On 16th December 2026, community organisations continued peaceful mobilisation, including a candlelight demonstration, involving residents, religious groups, students, and local officials.
Opposition protest draws warning from electoral authority
On 30th November 2025, the opposition Fuerza del Pueblo (FP) organised the People’s March (Marcha del Pueblo), a large protest that moved for more than two hours through several neighbourhoods of the National District, the central administrative area of Santo Domingo. Thousands of people protested against the high cost of living, insecurity and deteriorating public services, among other concerns. Party leader and former president Leonel Fernández led the mobilisation. According to media reports, protesters also displayed FP flags and chanted slogans supporting Fernández, who told the crowd that the party would win the 2028 presidential election in the first round.
The following day, the Junta Central Electoral (JCE), the autonomous state body responsible for administering elections and overseeing political parties, issued FP with a formal warning over possible premature electoral campaigning. The JCE acknowledged the right to peaceful assembly but said that the party’s organisation and promotion of the march could go beyond a neutral social protest and amount to political-party activity outside the authorised electoral period.
The JCE instructed FP to ensure that future social protests did not become confused or merged with premature electoral propaganda and warned that further violations could trigger administrative proceedings. Under Article 308.4 of the Electoral Regime Law, political organisations and candidates can face fines of up to 200 minimum wages for organising electoral demonstrations outside authorised campaign or pre-campaign periods. Article 165, however, defines campaign demonstrations and public acts by their purpose of expressing support or seeking votes for candidates or political organisations.
On 2nd December 2025, FP rejected the warning, arguing that the march concerned social grievances rather than the promotion of candidacies, and that treating the use of party symbols as electoral campaigning risked restricting freedoms of peaceful assembly and expression. The JCE had previously warned the governing Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) over premature electoral activity, indicating that it had applied similar restrictions to both governing and opposition parties.
Hundreds protest over alleged corruption at state health insurer
On 14th December 2025, hundreds of citizens and representatives of social organisations gathered outside the Palace of Justice in Ciudad Nueva, a major courthouse complex in Santo Domingo, to demand pre-trial detention for people accused by prosecutors in Operation Cobra, a corruption investigation involving National Health Insurance (Seguro Nacional de Salud, SENASA), the state health insurer. Prosecutors allege that the scheme caused more than RD$15.9 billion (around USD 272,000) in losses to an institution that provides health coverage to more than seven million people.
Participants included the Fundación Justicia y Transparencia (FJT), a civil society organisation focused on transparency and governance. FJT called its mobilisation the Marcha Negra (Black March), describing it as an expression of mourning and opposition to the alleged corruption.
Demonstrators carried placards reading “We are tired” (“Ya estamos cansados”) and chanted “If they are freed, there will be trouble” (“Si les dan libertad, aquí va a haber candela”). Some protesters also alleged that SENASA patients had died after being unable to obtain medicines or treatment, and lit candles in their memory. No official investigation or judicial finding had established these claims at the time of reporting.
Over 50 police officers deployed barriers around the courthouse, preventing protesters from approaching the entrance and containing some who tried to enter the building. According to media reports, the demonstration was peaceful, with no reported detentions.
March against US military presence in Dominican Republic
On 22nd February 2026, six left-wing organisations (the Partido Comunista del Trabajo, Movimiento Popular Dominicano, Movimiento Caamañista, Fuerza de la Revolución, Partido Patria Para Todos/as and Referente de la Izquierda Dominicana) and grassroots movements held a peaceful march in Santo Domingo to demand the withdrawal of US military personnel and aircraft from San Isidro Air Base, a major military installation, and Las Américas International Airport, the main international airport serving the capital.
In November 2025, under the 1995 bilateral counter-narcotics agreement and its 2003 protocol, the government authorised the temporary use of the facilities for non-combat logistical support to regional counter-narcotics operations, including aircraft refuelling and the transport of equipment and technical personnel, initially running through April 2026.
Protesters argued that the arrangement undermined Dominican sovereignty and the constitutional principle of non-intervention, while the government maintained that it was authorised under existing bilateral counter-narcotics agreements.
Thousands marched from Plaza La Trinitaria, passing through several neighbourhoods before ending at the statue of Colonel Francisco Alberto Caamaño opposite Parque Independencia. Organisers also raised demands concerning wages, health, education, social security, housing, environmental issues, and women’s rights, while expressing solidarity with the Cuban and Venezuelan people. The mobilisation formed part of the Patriotism Month (Mes de la Patria), the annual commemorative period from 26th January to Independence Day on 27th February.
Anti-Haitian mobilisation in Los Mina
On 15th February 2026, Antigua Orden Dominicana (AOD), an ultranationalist group known for anti-Haitian mobilisation, held a march in Los Mina, a densely populated neighbourhood of Santo Domingo Este, a municipality immediately east of the capital. The group demanded the removal of Haitian migrants from the area and called for justice over the killing of 14-year-old Nauriel Misael Medina. Before the march, AOD had issued a 10-day ultimatum calling on Haitians living in parts of Los Mina to leave by 15th February 2026.
The ultimatum and mobilisation contributed to heightened anti-Haitian tensions in the area. Local media reported that several Haitian residents had left Los Mina because they feared reprisals, AOD’s ultimatum and possible immigration enforcement operations. Before the march, on 9th and 10th February, Interior and Police Minister Faride Raful and the Director General of Migration, Luis Rafael Lee Ballester, publicly rejected AOD’s ultimatum. They stressed that only state authorities had the power to enforce immigration law and that any enforcement action must comply with the Constitution, national law and due process.
Bayaguana residents protest rise in armed robberies
On 24th February 2026, dozens of residents of Bayaguana, in Monte Plata province, held a candlelight vigil in the municipality’s central park to protest a reported rise in robberies and armed assaults and demand greater action from the authorities. Residents said over 20 armed robberies had been reported across the municipality during the first two months of the year.
Protesters called for more police patrols and effective measures to improve public security. The vigil remained peaceful, with no reported interference by the authorities. Two days later, the National Police announced reinforced preventive operations in Bayaguana, and said that the increased police presence would be maintained.
Expression
Journalists attacked while reporting on public water distribution
On 30th December 2025, employees of the state-owned Santiago Aqueduct and Sewer Corporation (Coraasan) obstructed and allegedly attacked journalists María Tejada and Natalia Estrella, and camera operators Pedro Herran, Luis Domínguez and Robinson Reinoso from CDN and Teleuniverso—two Dominican television outlets— while they covered water distribution in La Yagüita de El Ejido, a neighbourhood of Santiago, the second-largest city in the country.
According to media reports, Coraasan staff forced the journalists and camera operators to leave the area, prevented them from filming, verbally abused them, threw water at them and attempted to strike them. Video footage reportedly showed one employee attempting to hit camera operator Robinson Reinoso.
The Santiago branch of the Dominican College of Journalists (CDP), a professional association representing journalists, denounced the attacks. They said that media workers had been carrying out their professional duties peacefully and called on public institutions to respect press freedom. Coraasan subsequently condemned the conduct and suspended the employees pending disciplinary proceedings.
Dominican Republic tops regional press freedom index amid concerns over economic and regulatory pressures
On 24th February 2026, the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) reported that the Dominican Republic ranked first in the 2025 Chapultepec Index of Freedom of Expression and the Press, which assessed developments between November 2024 and November 2025. The country scored 82.17 out of 100, an increase of 4.92 points from the previous edition, and was the only one of 23 countries assessed to fall within the Index’s ‘with freedom of expression’ category.
However, the country scored lower on state action to address violence and impunity affecting journalists and media, receiving 27.57 out of 40 and falling within the ‘low restriction’ category. Despite the positive overall assessment, IAPA identified continuing pressures from the executive branch on media independence, including discretionary allocation of state advertising, financial vulnerability of independent outlets and proposed legislation to establish a National Institute of Communication (INACOM), which IAPA warned could increase the risk of undue state interference or censorship. Journalists also denounced increasing obstacles to accessing public information.
🔎 Algunos datos clave del índice:
— SIP • IAPA (@sip_oficial) March 10, 2026
• 🇩🇴 República Dominicana lidera con 82,17 puntos.
• 🇺🇸 Estados Unidos registró la caída más fuerte (–22,65 puntos).
• 🇻🇪 Venezuela (7,02) y 🇳🇮 Nicaragua (18,22) siguen en la categoría Sin Libertad de Expresión.
Other developments
Constitutional Court strikes down discriminatory ban on same-sex conduct in security forces
On 18th November 2025, the Constitutional Court struck down provisions that criminalised consensual same-sex conduct among members of the National Police and Armed Forces. In Judgment TC/1225/25, the court declared articles 210 of the Police Code of Justice and 260 of the Armed Forces Code of Justice unconstitutional, finding that they violated the rights to equality and non-discrimination, privacy, free development of personality and work.
The provisions had provided for prison sentences of up to two years for police officers and up to one year for members of the armed forces, while imposing no equivalent criminal penalties for heterosexual conduct. The court found that sexual orientation could not provide a lawful basis for restricting these rights and that the provisions served no legitimate constitutional purpose linked to the functioning of the security forces.
Human rights organisations, including Human Rights Watch, welcomed the ruling as an important precedent against discrimination based on sexual orientation.
For decades, these provisions forced LGBT officers to live in fear of punishment simply for who they are. This ruling is a resounding affirmation that a more inclusive future is both possible and required under Dominican law.
- Cristian González Cabrera, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch.