The Dominican Republic’s Constitutional Court will hear a pivotal challenge to laws that criminalise consensual same-sex conduct among officers in the police and armed forces.
Human Rights Watch, which announced the challenge, argues that these laws violate the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender officers under international law, including their rights to equality, privacy, and the ability to work without fear.
Currently, Article 210 of the Code of Justice of the National Police and Article 260 of the Code of Justice of the Armed Forces punish same-sex “sodomy” among officers with up to two years and one year in prison, respectively. Notably, no such criminal penalties exist for heterosexual sexual acts.
“These draconian laws are a stain on the Dominican Republic’s human rights record and contribute to an unchecked discriminatory environment in the police and armed forces,” said Cristian González Cabrera, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. “State-sanctioned bigotry has no place in a democratic society governed by the rule of law and in a region that has mostly disavowed the criminalisation of private sexual acts between people of the same sex.”
While same-sex conduct is not banned for private individuals in the Dominican Republic, the country lags behind in advancing LGBTQ+ rights. It lacks comprehensive civil anti-discrimination laws, recognition of same-sex marriage or civil unions, and legal gender identity recognition for transgender people. Recently, LGBTQ+ activists have criticised a proposed criminal code for failing to include protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity, such as hate crimes provisions.
A 2019 viral video that exposed a Dominican army sergeant in a same-sex encounter led to his dismissal, with the army citing a “duly proven serious fault that tarnishes the morals and ethics of the institution.” The sergeant appealed the decision, but an administrative court dismissed his case in 2021 on procedural grounds. He has since filed a new appeal and is awaiting a final decision.
In 2014, the then-director of the National Police informed a congressional committee that existing legislation “does not allow people who are homosexual” to serve in the force. When questioned about the fate of current homosexual officers, the director reportedly requested their identification.
Anderson Javiel Dirocie de León, one of the lawyers spearheading the constitutional challenge, remarked, “The discriminatory provisions mean that LGBTI officers serve in constant fear of being discovered, sanctioned, and losing everything, including their livelihood. The provisions convey a message from the state that LGBTI people are inherently unfit to perform public functions and can be considered criminals for being who we are.”
Although a 2004 criminal procedure reform limited the ability of the police and armed forces to criminally sanction officers, it left intact the institutions’ administrative “disciplinary powers.” In 2019, the Constitutional Court clarified that ordinary criminal courts should handle criminal cases against officers but did not strike down the sodomy provisions within the security forces’ codes of justice.
In recent years, countries across the region, including Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, and the United States, have repealed laws criminalising same-sex conduct among officers.
In its brief, Human Rights Watch argued that criminalising same-sex conduct violates international standards, including the right to protection from arbitrary and unlawful interference with one’s private life and the right to dignity and reputation, as emphasised by the United Nations independent expert on sexual orientation and gender identity.
While the challenged provisions target same-sex conduct specifically within the military and police, they place the Dominican Republic among the few remaining countries in the Americas that continue to criminalise same-sex conduct. In the Caribbean, five Anglophone nations – Jamaica, Grenada, Guyana, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines—still maintain similar laws, a legacy of British colonial rule. Globally, 63 countries, including Iran, Myanmar, and Sudan, continue to criminalise consensual same-sex conduct.
“President Luis Abinader and Congress should not wait for the Constitutional Court’s ruling and should promptly introduce legislation to repeal these outdated and discriminatory laws that meddle in officers’ private lives,” González urged. “Repealing these laws would send a strong signal to LGBT people and the world that the principles of equality and nondiscrimination are of the utmost importance in the Dominican Republic.”
