HUMAN RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE WITH DISABITY IN THE DOMINICANA REPUBLIC

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Costa Rica office

National Council of Disabilities (CONADIS), Dominicana Republic

March, 2006

1

Index 1. Basic indicators of the country .......................................................................... 2 2. Theoretical Framework ......................................................................................... 8

2.1 Philosophic framework for the disability topic approach.................. 8 2.2 Conceptual Framework ................................................................................. 9 2.3 Juridical Framework ...................................................................................... 10

2.3.1 Formal Component ................................................................................ 10 2.3.2 Law 42-2000 ............................................................................................ 10 2.3.3 Structural Component .......................................................................... 14 2.3.4 Cultural – Political Component.......................................................... 15 2.3.5 International Juridical Monitoring .................................................... 17 2.3.6 International Conventions Ratified.................................................. 18 2.3.7 Interpretation and Application of the Juridical Norms ............. 21 2.3.8 Publication and Knowledge of the Juridical Norms ................... 21

3. Administration and disability policy ............................................................... 21 3.1 Identification, organization, and services provided by the Institution in Charge (Ente Rector, in Spanish) ......................................... 22 3.2 Activities of Public, Private and non Government Organizations related with the disabilities topic..................................................................... 26 3.3 Articulation and coordination among the involved organizations33 3.4 International Cooperation Actions in the Disabilities Topic........... 33

4. Divulgation and application of the international classification of functioning, disability and health (CIF) ............................................................. 34 5. Basic information about the population profile of people with disabilities. .................................................................................................................... 35 6. Situation of the full enjoyment of the Human Rights of people with disabilities...................................................................................................................... 37

6.1 Health.................................................................................................................. 39 6.2 Social Security ................................................................................................. 45 6.3 Education ........................................................................................................... 47 6.4 Labor ................................................................................................................... 52 6.5 Information and Communication ............................................................. 60 6.6 Access to physic areas and transportation. ......................................... 61

7. Mapping of actors (male and female) of information ............................. 63 8. Conclusions and Recommendations .............................................................. 65

8.1. Conclusions ..................................................................................................... 65 8.2 Recommendations.......................................................................................... 67

9. Bibliography ............................................................................................................ 69 10. Annexes.................................................................................................................. 72

1. Basic indicators of the country

2

The population of the Dominican Republic, according to Preliminary data of the 2002 Census is 8,230,722 inhabitants. Half of this population is feminine, approximately 4,127,842, and 4,102,880 is masculine. The average population's age is 25 years old, it means is mainly young. In the last years, however, there has been a tendency to aging mainly due to the changes in the rate of fecundity, as shows:

Chart 1. Fecundity Rate. Number of Children per woman in the Dominican Republic.

Fecundity Rate. Years. Number of children per woman

1970 7.5 children

1999 3 children

Estimated 2000-2005 2.7 children

Estimated 2005-2010 2.5 children

Source: Dominican Republic: National Projections of Population by Sex and Group of Age 1990-2025. CESDEM, ONAPLAN and Development Associates. 1999.

At the same way, the document reports that the expectation of life, for both sexes, in the period between 2000 and 2005 is 70 years1’2, and 71.4 years between 2005 to 2010. During the last 30 years more of the 60% of the population is living in the urban area. This migratory change has been very significant. The actual tendency is a low increment between 1.5 to 2 years each five years. Nevertheless it has to be determined the HIV impact on the mortality rates. The average grow rate of the population is estimated in 17.3 per one thousand inhabitants for 2000 to 2005. It has to be pointed out that the dependency rate was estimated in 60.2 for 2000 and the tourism and duty free zones are incorporating female population to the labor market in the Dominican Republic. For 2000 the rate of death certified by a doctor was 25% to 30%. 9% of deaths was registered as “cause and symptoms bad defined” (fifth cause of death). The causes of death tent to evolve to chronic pathologies and from external causes, like: acute heart attack to the myocardium and circulatory system illness (34%), external causes (14%), neoplasia (13%) and transmitted diseases (13%). All of them, with the infection diseases exclusion, generate a big prevalence on the disability topic...

1 PAHO-WHO. Situation of Health in America: Basic indicators, health and sanitary situation, 2004. 2 PAHO-WHO. Health Services Profile, in the Dominican Republic, 2000-2001.

3

Chart 2. Natality, fecundity, and mortality rates in the Dominican Republic.

YEARS

RATES

1995 1996

1997

1998

2002

• Natality Rate 26.98 24.55

24.55

24.55

24.55

• Fecundity Rate 3.3 3.2 *N/A 3.1 3.0 • Mortality Rate 6.35 5.96 5.77 5.3 5.3 • Maternal mortality Rate N/A 229.

8 80.7 ND 177.

0 • Infants mortality Rate >48.0 47.0 40.5 ND 31.0

*Not available Sources. National Projections of Population, ONAPLAN/CESDEN, 1999; ENDESA 1996-2002. Estimates OPS-SESPAS As the chart shows, the estimates mortality rate has decrease progressively as well as the infants’ mortality rates and maternal mortality rates, and the fecundity rates. At the same time the rate of expectation of life has been increased. These estimations are based in historical tendencies and have to be interpreted by under-registrations pointed out. It may not reflect the changes in the last years. In the Dominican Republic there is a tendency to an epidemiological transition with less than two percent of vegetative growth, with a strong reduction of morbidity or sick rates, by transmitted illnesses, a strong and fast urbanization. The infantile and maternal mortality has not decreased more, due to problems of equity to the access to health centers and the quality of the organizations that assist health problems. AIDS is one of the most serious problems in the country and, based on the registers of some hospitals, at least 5% of pregnant women are HIV positive. Estimations conclude that 2.5% of the population will be HIV positive in 2006i. However, according to the ENDESA 2002 Report, one percent of the population between 15 and 49 years old are HIV positive. The ENDESA 2002 Report indicates that the infection rate is higher in persons between 30 to 34 years-old, and it diminishes starting on 35 years old persons. An important discovery in this Survey of Health was also that between all the age and sex groups, the higher infection rate is in 30-34 years-old men, equivalent to the population's 2.7%. The transmission is mainly heterosexual. The access to health services in the Dominican Republic must be a guaranteed assistance the whole population; however, it is well-known that the effective covering doesn't get to the 100% of the people. It is considered

4

that around the population's third part is not covered in their right to health: SESPAS covers 46% of the demand, the IDSS a 7.1%, private insurances 12% and 1.7% for other types of insurance services 3 . This situation generates a great inequity in the assistance of health in the country, since the poor population pay to cover the costs of medical assistance.4

According to the Central Bank of Dominican Republic information, the analysis to the inequality in the access to the services of health is associated to the absence of a social security system, which promotes and makes possible the integration of the poor population. The social security is very low (2%) to 20 % of poorest population. Meanwhile the private insurance companies cover another 2%. That means that the 96% of the population don’t have any assistance or coverage on health. At the same time the mortality and morbidity due to traffic accidents, family violence and urban violence (delinquency) affect men and women among 15 to 44 years old. Chronic illness, like liver disease, hypertension, and uterus cancer are high causes of mortality in the country. 5 According to the National Survey of Health (ENDESA, 2002) 13% of the population is illiterate. 13% are men and 12% are women. According to the Unsatisfied Basic Needs method, ONAPLAN in 1993 revealed that 60% of the population had been included in “type poverty I – II”. In 1996 56% of the population was classified as “poor, type I- II”. At the urban area 40% of the homes are estimated like “poor”, mainly in marginal areas of Santo Domingo and Santiago. At the rural area this percentage is almost 80%. The provinces (states) with high poverty rates are in the Southwest area, near the Haiti frontier (Elías Piña, Santiago Rodríguez, San Juan, Bahoruco, Independencia, Azua) and in the Central and East of the country (Samaná, Monte Plata, Sánchez Ramírez and El Seybo). The estimation points out that the Haitian immigrants are the poorest in the country. In 1998 an Income and Outcome Survey for families elaborated by the Central Bank estimated 25.8% of families under the poverty line. (Incomes less than US$60 per month). The rate among the upper 20% and lower 20% was 14 between 1990 and 1994, descending to 13.3 in 1997. The unemployment rate estimated for 1998 was 14.7% and in 1999 was 13.3% (9.2% men and 23.9% women). Those numbers has not variation for 2000. It is expected that the strategies for tourism invigoration, which has had a growth sustained up to 7% in 2000, and the growth of the duty free areas, when the “textile parity” agreements become approved and the agreements of free market for Central America and the Caribbean begin to operate,

3 ONAPLAN and UNICEF (2000). Report of the Situation of Infancy and Women in the Dominican Republic. Period 1996-2000. Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. 4 PAHO. Regional Initiative to reforms to the Health sector in Latin American and the Caribbean. 2001. 5 ENDESA. 2002.

5

diminish the unemployment. Nevertheless, with the growing urbanization and the agriculture techniques is expected an increase of the informal employment.

At chart 3 is showed the distribution, by provinces, of the homes, and the percentage of homes in which the head of the family is a woman. It has to be pointed out that in almost all provinces women are head of the families in 20% of the homes, and in some provinces like Distrito Nacional, Santo Domingo, La Romana, San Pedro de Macorís and Monte Cristi the percentage is 30. This is important information taking into account that women are totally involved with their families, with their children, siblings, or parents who live in disability condition.

Chart 3: Distribution by Provinces (States). Women as head of the family, and Average of persons per family.

Provinces (Or States) Woman as head of families

Average persons per family

Distrito Nacional 33.3 % 3.9

Santo Domingo 30.1% 3.8

Monte Plata 26.0% 3.7

Azua 21.3% 4.4

Peravia 28.7% 4.3

San Cristóbal 29.7% 4.0

San José de Ocoa 20.3% 3.9

Espaillat 25.2% 3.9

Puerto Plata 26.5% 3.6

Santiago 28.2% 3.9

Duarte 26.9% 4.0

María Trinidad Sánchez 26.6% 3.7

Salcedo 23.8% 3.9

Samaná 24.9% 3.9

Bahoruco 21.6% 4.5

Barahona 26.6% 4.4

Independencia 27.5% 4.4

Pedernales 18.6% 4.3

El Seibo 23.5% 3.8

6

Hato Mayor 27.2% 3.8

La Altagracia 24.1% 3.5

La Romana 32.2% 3.9

San Pedro de Macorís 31.6% 3.7

Elías Piña 18.7% 4.6

San Juan 21.0% 4.4

Dajabón 26.0% 3.9

Monte Cristo 32.0% 3.5

Santiago Rodríguez 25.8% 3.8

Valverde 27.5% 3.7

La Vega 20.8% 4.1

Monseñor Novel 22.7% 4.1

Sánchez Ramírez 22.6% 4.2

Source: Health Demographic Survey (ENDESA). (From graphic 2.1) 2002

The Human Development Rate in the Dominican Republic was taken into account in the National Report of the Human Development of PNUD and published in 2005. The rate was 0.738. The Development Related to Gender Index (IDG) was rated in 0.728. The rate for Latin America and the Caribbean was 0.766. The population growth was 1.5% in 1999 with a sustained tendency to decrease. The migratory population from Haiti (not totally registered) was balanced with the migration from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico, USA, Spain, Venezuela and Panama. The Central Bank of The Dominican Republic6, elaborates, every six months, a survey which includes a national survey of labor force, and the Department of Communication shows that at the end of the1996-2000 quadrennial, the unemployment rate was 13.9% and in the 2000-2004 quadrennial the rate was increased to 19.7. The information of the National Survey of Labor Force elaborated in April 2005 shows the following:

o 60.9% of manual labor is masculine o 52.3% are among 20 to 39 years old o 44.7% has a primary level of education o El 41.9% are private enterprises employees o El 52.4% works at the informal area

6 Central Bank of the Dominican Republic, Webpage: http://www.bancentral.gov.do/

7

This information is considerate like conservative if is taken into account that in the last eight months, there has been a lot of dismissed employees due to the duty free zones as a result of the stability of the Dominican currency which is RD$29.00 and RD$30.00 per US$1.00 since August 2004. There is no official information but it has been estimated that more than one hundred and fifty thousand persons, from the duty free zone, have lost their jobs.

2. Theoretical Framework

2.1 Philosophic framework for the disability topic approach.

The low rate of access to the labor market, the absence of companies policies to promote the hiring of People With Disabilities, PWD, the lack of infrastructures (facilities) and psycho-pedagogical conditions, as well as classrooms for students who must attend the same grade at school, one more time, with misbehavior problems and school failure, create the basis to social exclusion of PWD and confirm the persistence of the traditional model in the country. At the family circle the habit is to isolate them or to over protect them, which is an obstacle for their development opportunities. “The first one to feel incapable is the person with disability. There is almost no opportunity for education, in their disabilities, in their disability. The families isolate them, keep them at home”… “We are humiliated, keep us apart, and make us very difficult to have our own family” “The labor insertion is a serious problem. At the public sector has been improved but at the private sector is a serious problem. When you ask a friend for a job he or she puts a lot of buts, because, deep inside they don’t think you can be productive for the company. The government provides some jobs, in order to keep its good image, or for pity, but they don’t believe you can do a good work” “When I was little my family kept me inside the house… I didn’t learn to do anything”

7

The medical focus at the State and the civil sectors has been accentuated, to the rehabilitation centers and the medical specialization to improve the services capacity. From the old 21-91 law and the actual 42-2000 law it has also put on attention to the approach of the medical assistance to the disability topic, establishing parameters of assistance and a data gathering system… “At the Cabral y Báez Hospital happens something special, and is the fact that Patronage Headquarter is inside the Hospital, and there is a Medical Residence endorsed by the Hospital and the PUCMM. There are two Physiatrist Doctors which work at the Hospital and at the Rehabilitation Center. It means that at that topic we have something special at educational services issue”8. 7 Focus groups with PWD. National Council of Population and Family, CONAPOFA, Inclusion in the Labor Market of PWD in the Dominican Republic. Printed in the Dominican Republic. February 2003. 8 Interview with Gregorio Pichardo. Rehabilitation Association of Cibao.

8

The human rights model begins with the projection on promoting the autonomy of PWD through the full enjoyment of their fundamental human rights. The existence of integration programs of children with disabilities at the actual called “normal” schools, the technique formation through studies of the assistance to the disability topic, the organizations of the civil society conformed by persons with some disability and the real claim of their rights, promote a vision that go beyond the traditional model and the medical focus to project an autonomous identity of integration to the society, no matter what is the disability condition of a person.

2. 2 Conceptual Framework

There is no an official definition of disability or any concept involved with the disability topic, like rehabilitation, accessibility, technical aids, support services, independent life, diversity, participation or others. The General Law on Disability Topic 42-2000 doesn’t have these definitions. When interviewing people from the civil society organizations which work with PWD it was found that there are no institutional definitions on the topic. The old 21-91 law gave an non actualised but official definition: “It is considered a person with limitations, the one who, as a consequence of a congenital or acquired deficiency has been limited or absent the capacity to do an activity, considered normal for a human being, which keep the person in a disadvantageous situation, which could impede the carrying out the correspondent role, according to his / her age, sex, social and cultural issues (handicap, invalid) 9. The definition of disability established at the Inter American Convention for the Elimination of all types of discrimination against people with disabilities could be a reference to incorporate it at the Legislation. The conceptual definitions are not considered in the Dominican Republic, although in some Latin American countries are established by law, or in an institutional level, as in 27050 Law in Peru, or the General Law for the Person with Disabilities. The lack of definitions make that the World Health Organization developed a cross-cultural applicability project to study the different concepts mentioned in the ICF, the application of question, scales, evaluation systems and the management and practice of the system of assistance. “The lack of an agreement on the definition of the concepts involved with the disabilities topic and the absence of an international measure instrument make difficult the trans-cultural application. To solve this issue the WHO developed a project for the evaluation and classification of deficiencies, disabilities, and invalidities when research units of five continents participated. It was developed a Cross-Cultural Applicability Research, CAR, with the following objectives:

9 Former Law 21-91. Substituded fy Law 42-2000 June 2000.

9

1) To verify the cross-cultural applicability of the disability topic and the different concepts incorporated to the new version of the International Classification of Deficiencies, Disabilities and Handicaps (ICIDH2) 2) To identify the cross-cultural applicability of questions, measure scales or system for disabilities evaluation 3) To evaluate the management practices and the assistance systems for people with disabilities, used by other cultures, identifying at the same time, their needs. Qualitative methods were applied such as: Linguistic, Version, Pile sorting, Concept Mapping and Key informant”. 10 The information from this research could contribute, through the PAHO national offices to define a conceptual framework about the terms related to the disabilities topic. For the implementation of official definitions the Law could be modified or establish that implementation like rules. The similar criteria will contribute to a collective identity of the approaching of the disabilities topic in the country.

2.3 Juridical Framework

In the juridical framework, when analyzing the situation starting from the cultural, political, cultural, and formal elements, for the Dominican Republic, very similar in countries of the region, the reformations and normative creations maintain the formal preponderance on other elements that constitute the system of law of the Dominican Republic

2.3.1 Formal Component From the beginning of last decade Dominican Republic is in process of legal reformations. In 1994 it was promulgated the Code for the Protection of Boys, Girls and Adolescents, reformed by means of actual Law 136-03. In the 2002 the New Procedural and Penal Code was promulgated under the accusatory and warranty system. There is a proposal for modification to the Civil Code elaborated by a writing commission created by means of ordinance by the Executive Power.

2.3.2 Law 42-2000 At June 30, 2000 was published the 42-2000 Law, or General Law on Disabilities in the Dominican Republic. The norm has as main objective the integral assistance of PWD and the enjoyment of their fundamental human rights in all the environments: integration at the system of work (labor market) or in its defect, their incorporation to a system of protected or reserved employments. It establishes, for the social institutions dedicated to the topic of disabilities, the obligations of the State and the family and creates the National Council of Disabilities (CONADIS) and it operational structure.

10 http://sid.usal.es/mostrarficha.asp_Q_ID_E_6136_A_fichero_E_8.2.6

10

According to 42-2000 Law, the family has as fundamental obligation to give protection, to offer education and training for the person with disabilities, and the socio-economic incorporation to achieve a full development comparable to the rest of the population. This precept is inspired by the pattern of personal autonomy or of human rights, it moves away from the medical analysis and the isolation of people with some disability to look forward to the social incorporation of these persons in all the environments of the society. The State, through the Public Health and Social Assistance Secretary (SEPAS in Spanish), would keep control tools to register the occurrence or prevalence of disabilities, searching to offer de opportune and adequate assistance. SESPAS must up date, monthly, the information to CONADIS, (organization in charge) to create a data gathering and processing department. There is obligation of the State, among others: - To liberate the payment of taxes of the equipment, materials and technical aids, for to the use or service to PWD.

- Be assuring to provide houses to people with disabilities in state housing projects that are adapted to their condition.

- To guarantee the formation, specialization and professionals' continuous upgrade in the different disciplines, at technical and professional level that could assure the social integration in equality terms of PWD.

- To provide economic resources that make easier to incorporate PWD, in an effective way, to the national productive system.

- To guarantee the participation of PWD into cultural, sport, recreational and religious activities, with equality conditions.

CONADIS will be compound by state representatives and civil society organizations that provide services to PWD. The institutions of the State are the State Secretary of Public Health, the State Secretary of Education and Culture, the Director of the National Institute of Professional, Technician Education (INFOTEP in Spanish), State Secretary of Labor, the Dominican Republic Insurance Institute, the State Secretary of Public Works and Communications, State Secretary Sports, Physics Education and Recreation and State Secretary of Agriculture.

It can be mentioned the absence of the State Secretary for Women (SEM in Spanish) in CONADIS, as a state organization with autonomous character in charge of promoting, formulate, execute and evaluate the public policies for gender equality. There is a non governmental organization working in the assistance of women with disabilities, as we can see ahead in this document. The National Council for Children and Adolescents (CONANI) was not taken into account.

11

At the intervention areas, diagnosis and evaluation of the disabilities, in article 30, the Law takes the concept of the last version of the International Classification of Deficiencies, Disabilities and Handicaps (CDDM in Spanish). The law doesn’t have a definition for disabilities, and also who is a person is with some disability. By the other side the old 21-91 Law, although is out of date, didn't leave juridical gap, or emptiness. It is necessary to determinate who is or is not subject of the rights and benefits that the law provides. It would be convenient to take the elaboration of the regulations of application of the law to include definitions like disability, rehabilitation, accessibility, technical help, support services, independent life, diversity, partition, among others. The Law just takes into account repressive sanctions of character and it is referred to the general dispositions of the Penal Code, which has interpretational gaps, when not settling down for itself the type of infraction. The old Law in article 18 settled down: “When people with limitations receive an inadequate treatment, either by their families or tutors, CONAPREM (actually CONADIS) will evaluate the cases and will recommend the correctional measures and, in the event of taunt and inhuman abuses, the organization will be able to request the action of the Public Ministry to reach the Correctional Tribunal or the Civil Tribunal when it proceeds legal custody or the designation of a new tutor…Article 19: Those persons that, with ends of lucre, use people with limitations in public roads or in any place, will be punished with prison from one to six months or a with monetary mulct from one thousand to ten thousand pesos, or both punishes. In the event of repetition the punishment will be the double of the monetary and prison punishes settled down in this article. In those cases, CONAPREM could request the action of the Public Ministry.” The criminal act is directed to protect people of low economic resources, therefore it is a good thing its repeal, however the sanctions were clearly established in the same law without making extension to a general norm. A person with disabilities with minimum abilities to survive needs the family support and in absence of this, the law should foresee the mechanisms to force to execute the law. Usually the wives or the mothers of PWD are those who have to carry on with the economic precariousness. In the country if the person is under 18 years old, you can coerce a relative with more revenues to the payment of nutritious pension, but when the person is older than 18 years old there is not procedure that helps you to protect them. In those cases the persons are not legally protected. The international referendums that support 42-2000 Law are the following: - The Uniform Norms about the Equality of Opportunities for People with Disabilities, of the United Nations, UN.

12

- The 159 agreement of the International Labor Organization ILO, on the professional re-insertion and employment of people with disabilities. The last ratification made by the Dominican Republic was on June 20, 1994. It has validity until this time. The State signed agreeing the Inter American Convention for the Elimination of all types of Discrimination against People with Disabilities on August 6, 1999, but at internal level it has not been ratified. In the national classification they are other relating legal dispositions to the disability topic, as Law 66-97 or the General Law of Education on April 9 1997. Law 24-97 on Domestic or Family or Sexual Violence made the most significant modification to the Penal Code from its promulgation in 1844. It establishes the following: “Article 336.- It constitutes a discrimination all distinction carried out among physical people in reason of their origin, age, of their sex, of their family situation, of their state of health, of their disabilities, of their customs, of their political opinions, of their union activities, their occupation, of their ownership or of its not ownership, true or supposed, to an ethnos, a nation, a race or a certain religion. It constitutes a discrimination equally all distinction carried out among moral people in reason of their origin, of their age, of their sex, the family situation, the state of health, disabilities, the customs, the political opinions, the union activities, the ownership or not true or supposed ownership to an ethnos, a nation, a race, or a certain religion of the members or of some of the moral person's members. Article 336-1.- The discrimination defined in the precedent article made regarding a physical or moral person is punished with two years in prison and a mulct of fifty thousand pesos, when it is proved the following: 1.- To refuse the supply of a good or a service 2.- To impede the normal exercise of any economic activity 3. - To refuse to hire, to sanction or to dismiss a person 4.- To subordinate the supply of a good or of a service to a condition foreseen in the precedent article 5.- To subordinate an employment offer to a condition been founded in one of elements foreseen in the previous article.” These articles of Law 24-97 Law constitute a legal base to promote the respect of the human rights of PWD, in the circumstances that it becomes promoted and use, at the judicial instances with the objective of making it execute and to motivate the promulgation of the adequate juridical figure. Decrees (Ordinances)

• Ordinance 1-95. National Council of Education.

13

• M-007 Regulation. State Secretary of Public Works and Communications.

• 807 Regulation. Norms of hygiene and industrial security, of the General Department of Norms and Systems of the State Secretary of Industry and Commerce.

• Ordinance 1-95. State Secretary of Education and Culture.

• State Secretary of Education and Culture (2000). Department of Special Education. Educational policies in the area of the special educational needs: implemented by the Department of Special Education. Santo Domingo, Centennial. (Educational administration, 29)

• General Law of Education 66´97. Santo Domingo: Workshop 1997. • Department of Special Education. National Consultation Inform, 1998-

2000. Santo Domingo 2000. • Departmental Ordinance 18-2001. Santo Domingo: Workshops “SEE”

2001. • Department of Special Education. Development of inclusive schools

and community support. A demonstrative experience. Santo Domingo. (s.f.)

• Departamental Ordinance 24-2003 Santo Domingo, Workshops “SEE” 2003

2.3.3 Structural Component

There are factors in the economic, political and cultural order, that make complex, in Latin American countries, the setting in action of strategic programs.

Those strategic programs, proposed in articulated theories, almost never represent the reality, because the difficult of putting them into practice.

The Dominican Republic is in a serious economic crisis that began in 2000. It is increased, for the crash of three commercial banks at the beginning of 2003 and the political commitments that forced to a vulnerable State, in economic terms, to assume great part of the debt with institutions and creditor persons. At the state level and in a general sense, there is a lack of coordination among the public institutions to develop programs or projects. And the mechanisms of interaction are made, usually, through inter institutional agreements, which impact is not known. The experience on the formulation of state programs of any kind, shows that the budget, an the first phase are donated by multilateral organizations of international cooperation, but when the development phase has to be executed, the financial resources of the State are insufficient, which blocks the achievement of the outlined objectives.

14

The public institutions budgets are low in relation to the diversity of demands and social needs. The criteria for the technical and professional personnel's selection of these institutions is related more to the linking with the political party in the government that to the professional skills.

Journalist Edwin Ruiz says, in his article “PNUD accuses the leaders for the low (economical) growth”, published in El Caribe newspaper on May 19, 2005, at the time of the presentation of the National Report of Human Development 2005, for the United Nations Program for Development, “the Dominican Republic is the country of Latin America and the Caribbean that had more economical growth in the last 50 years, but it is the second in the region that took less advantage of the wealth created by its economy, to improve the human development.

If to the budget limitations are added the limitations of PWD in their environment, and the limitations of institutions that work in the assistance to their needs, we will also have to add the budgets of public institutions which are very low, so we conclude that they are very low in relation to the diversity of demands and social needs. Not to mention the criteria for personnel selection, related to the political parties’ links, the positive actions applied to persons with disabilities is out of contest. In interviews to representatives of institutions of the civil society, most them agree that the funds granted to the Institution in Charge were not well used or there was not information about how they spent them. Also it was pointed out that the relationship among the institutions of, and for people with disabilities, with the Institution in Charge can be improved exchanging information, in the way of speeding up the application of Law 42-2000, like the director of CONADIS said. It is not strange then that, when the interviews were carried out, in a local Office of the Secretary of Labor, they ignored that the existence of the 42-2000 Law. This is one of the institutions that belong to the National Council of Disabilities, CONADIS. As a conclusion it can be said that the structural component is sustained basically in the compound of the institutions in charge of the national system on the disabilities topic, more in the private and organizational subsystem than in the government one, with very little presence of people with disabilities, identified with their needs to work and advise in the implementation and execution of the necessary policies.

2.3.4 Cultural – Political Component In terms of the outlined objectives, Law 42-2000 prioritize the creation of a system of assistance to PWD which will be in charge of the formulation of

15

public policies on the disabilities topic through a Institution responsible of executing them. This should offer the security, social and occupational assistance, the socioeconomic integration, the educational integration, the accessibility to the physical environment, transport and information, the services of health and the legal assistance. It is through the law that the system of assistance to formulate the public policies by which the State guarantees the enjoyment of the fundamental human rights of PWD. This is a legitimate objective. The law is not clear about the concept of disability, and neither who are considered like persons with disabilities. The juridical doctrine, and specially the feminist, has given big contributions about who are the privileged people in the full enjoyment of their rights and those people “for whom the laws have been elaborated” through the history”, man, white, heterosexual, capitalist, bourgeois”. It should be understood that this law has been elaborated to guarantee the rights of PWD, but inside this community is a great diversity that, to our to understand, it is not taking into account in the norm: gay, lesbians, black people, poor, rich, with different types of deficiencies, belonging to urban, rural areas and other sectors. The ambiguity in the text presents questions subject to the interpretation of people or institutions with different ideologies, origins, social conditions and perceptions on the disabilities topic, what rebounds in the effectiveness of the implementation and the results for which it has been created. The principle of equal treatment and equal opportunities is considered, but not the equal treatment between men and women, omission that constitutes discrimination in the same law. Women with disabilities are doubly discriminated and their insertion in the labor market presents bigger obstacles than the men insertion under the same conditions. “At the time they are (the women) below men. In women with disabilities the discrimination is bigger […] the areas where women with some disability have had bigger achievements, are at the University education, labor field and in the Education field. And the biggest inequalities are given in health, sexual life and family [… [ The family degree of conscience relative is poor. At home, in the usual tasks, sometimes they are over protected and sometimes there is abuse. Men have more opportunities in the job search. The trust in women skills is smaller.” 11

About people with disabilities the law says that they are subject of right for their disability condition. They most be insert in programs of early stimulation guided to endow them a sociological and educational development, as long as the therapeutic treatments and the appropriate

11 This information was gathered in interviews to actors on disability topic.

16

additions that allow them to reach development comparable to the rest of the citizenship. Article 312. Also “…the necessary mechanisms so that the health centers, public or private, can take an exhaustive control for the registration of the occurrence or prevalence of their disabilities”. Article 4. As well as, “The general policies for services of health for PWD has, as a purpose, assuring them the appropriate operation, physical and mental, that allows an effective integration to the society” Article 53. The norm does not present a human being with political, civilian, economic, social and cultural fundamental rights, including the sexual and reproductive rights. The phrase “...appropriate operation, physical and mental, that allows an effective integration to the society” is subject of interpretation to be amplified. The absence of this specification could become a re-victimization of the Law toward PWD and is far away to contribute in the elimination of the stigma, pity and the social exclusion to those who have historically subordinated. Institutions that work with and for PWD confirm that there have been some advances in different areas. They say that there have been openings in educational programs for people without disabilities to admit and integrate young and adults PWD to guarantee their right to education. There is no data about this issue. Blind people are incorporated frequently in different labor jobs, like packing, X-Ray operators, and receptionists. In the Dominican Republic there are no longer protected workshops for PWD because it is considered that those workshops isolate the person. The policy is to integrate PWD to the society and its institutions.

2.3.5 International Juridical Monitoring

In January 26, 2001 the Committee for the Children Rights observed the Dominican Republic. U.N. Doc. CRC/C/15/Add.150 (2001) approved at the 697th session. In the document about the children with disabilities there were made the following observations:

39. The Committee observes the approval of the Law of disabilities topic 2000 and the creation of the National Council of People with Disabilities, but it’s a concern for the committee the lack of data of children with disabilities, and the inadequacy of the actions that the State has to assure the effective access of those children to health services, education and social assistance and to facilitate their full incorporation to the society. The committee is also worried about the small number of qualified professionals to work with or to support children with disabilities.

12 Law 42-2000, June 2000. The Disabilities in the Dominican Republic.

17

40. Keeping in mind the Uniform Norms about the equality of opportunities for people with disabilities (Resolution 48/96 of the General Assembly), the Committee recommends that the State elaborates programs of early identification to prevent the disabilities. It is also important to take dispositions of the internment of children with disabilities in institutions. The State must plan campaigns of sensitization to reduce the discrimination against them, supporting their inclusion in the educational system and in the society, establishing programs and centers for special education. The Committee also recommends that the State requests technical cooperation to educate to those professionals that work with and for children with disabilities. The State can request the international cooperation of, among others, UNICEF and WHO. “

In the interviews to actors, they agreed that the National Council of PWD, CONADIS, kept a low profile in 2000-2004 and it didn't fulfill the suggestions of the Committee for the Children Rights

2.3.6 International Conventions Ratified International Conventions Ratified at the UN by the Dominican Republic

Convention Date of ratification Pacto Internacional de Derechos Civiles y Políticos. International Pact of Civil and Politic Rights

October 27, 1977

Pacto Internacional de Derechos Económicos Sociales y Culturales. International Pact of Economical, Social and Cultural Rights.

November 14, 1977

Protocolo Facultativo del Pacto Internacional de Derechos Civiles y Políticos. Facultative Protocol of the International Pact of Civil and Political Rights

Novembrer 8, 1977

Convención Internacional para la Eliminación de Todas Formas de Discriminación Racial. International Convention for the elimination of all types or racists discrimination.

May 7, 1983

Convención Internacional para la Eliminación de Todas Formas de Discriminación contra la Mujer (CEDAW). International Convention for the elimination of all types of Discrimination against women.

June 25, 982

Protocolo Facultativo para de la August 10, 2001

18

Convención Internacional para la Eliminación de Todas Formas de Discriminación contra la Mujer (CEDAW). Facultative Protocol for the International Convention for the elimination of all types of Discrimination against women. Convención sobre los Derechos del Niño y la Niña. Convention of the Children (Boys and Girls) Rights

May 23, 1991

Estatuto de Roma. Rome Statute Ratified for the D.R. Congress, but not presented to the UN.

Cuadro N 5: Convenciones Internacionales Ratificadas por República Dominicana ante el Sistema Interamericano

Convention Ratification Date. CONVENCIÓN AMERICANA SOBRE DERECHOS HUMANOS. AMERICAN CONVENTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS.

April 19, 1978. Accepted the competence of The Inter-American Court of Human Rights, on March 25, 1999.

CONVENCIÓN INTERAMERICANA PARA PREVENIR Y SANCIONAR LA TORTURA INTER-AMERICAN CONVENTION TO PRENVENT AND SANCTIONATE THE TORTURE

January 29, 1987

CONVENCIÓN INTERAMERICANA PARA PREVENIR, SANCIONAR Y ERRADICAR LA VIOLENCIA CONTRA LA MUJER. (CONVENCIÓN DE BELÉM DO PARÁ). INTER-AMERICAN CONVENCTION TO PREVENT, SANCTION AND ERRADICATE THE VIOLENCE AGAISNT WOMEN

March 7, 1996

Other International Mechanisms of repercussion on Special Legislations. The Ibero-American Convention that gathers Presidents and Chiefs of States of the Latin American countries each year, of Spain and Portugal, declared 2004 as “the People with Disabilities’ Ibero-American year” following the

19

European example. The 23rd Ibero-American Convention welcomed the initiative of the Ibero-American Net of Non Government Organizations of People with Disabilities and their Families (RIADIS in Spanish) and it was made a declaration on November 15, 2003. 13

Information from the web page web, discap@pnet, and making a balance about the Ibero-American Year reach, it can be concluded that some countries gave impulse to concrete actions in favor of PWD. Other countries developed the same actions that they were programmed previously, but they named them like Ibero-American Year actions, and in and in some cases they have almost no repercussion. It was an important fact, the lack of time in the preparation of the initiative, so the impact was little. Maybe the most important advances refer to the fact that the topic of the Disabilities has been included, for the first time, in the calendar of this Convention and in connection with the above-mentioned that have been able to generate conditions in the region for a decade (2005-2015) that, even, the initiative can be linked with the Objectives for the Millennium of United Nations. The Organization of American States, OAS, has opened the way when signing in Antigua Guatemala, Guatemala, on July 999, the Inter-American Convention for the Elimination of all type of Discrimination against People with Disabilities. It is important to underline that this Inter-American treaty, similar to the Convention of Belem do Pará, there is the only regional tool that would precede the next international convention14. At the end of 2004 fourteen countries had ratified this regional convention. The Dominican Republic is not part of the countries that have ratified the OAS Convention and from interviews it is deduced that, as much CONADIS and the organizations of the civil society, and the institutions that work with people that live with some disability, maybe for ignorance, have not carried out the necessary actions in the National Congress for these objectives. As example of political will, it can be mentioned the strategic coordination between the Women Movement of the Dominican Republic with the State Secretary of the Woman, SEM, when the CEDAW Conventions were ratified and on Belem do Pará. In the Dominican Republic, PAHO has specify a group of action lines on the disabilities topic, among those highlight the following: support for the invigoration of human resources studies in rehabilitation; the improvement of the prosthetic and orthetic services; the development of a system of information of the disabilities topic; the promotion and the pursuit of the

13 RIADIS, declaration on November 15, 2003. Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. 14 General Assembly of the UN Resolution, 56/168, December 19, 2001. .

20

Uniform Norms; the promotion of health and the prevention of disabilities; and the promotion of the technical cooperation among countries.

2.3.7 Interpretation and Application of the Juridical Norms The interpretation of the institutions in charge of execute the law, is also part of the structural element. It was investigated and consulted on the jurisprudence (law system) in the country the information which involved discrimination based on the disabilities and they were not information.

2.3.8 Publication and Knowledge of the Juridical Norms Law 42-2000 is known and valued in the organizations of the civil society that work with and for people with disabilities, although they mention that the application, remains at discursive levels and there is not political will for its application. “I know Law 42-2000 that, regrettably it is not applied. The works have not begun, which implies that the Secretary or Education and the Secretary of Labor, have to execute the Law, and had not taken the actions. The only thing that has been made is to print copies and to begin the diffusion process […] It is not applied in general terms, just a partial way. (The issue about the employees, the adequate education does not apply). It is necessary to have technical personnel to the correct execution of the law (…) The 42-2000 Law will be executed as long as each person and organization know their roles and accomplish it (…) It is necessary to create a reliable and well oriented environment on the execution of the Law, making conscience through the media to the accomplish of the law at all levels: Government, civil society, institutions, NGOs, services, PWD, that don’t accomplish their duties as citizens. (…) Law 42-2000 is not executed because there are architectural barriers, attitude, and inadequate transportation15

3. Administration and disability policy In the Dominican Republic the execution of the public policies for the disability topic, keeping in mind that the laws are public policies, it is associated to the application of the 42-2000 Law, a task that is still pending in the country. As policies and strategies to fulfill the rights of PWD, there are programs in areas such as education, health, work, accessibility to the physical places, social assistance, legal assistance, educational integration, security, social and occupational assistance, transportation and communication, however the application of the law bears difficulties which impede the success of those programs. The disabilities issue has been treated by civil society and private organizations which have been the precursors of the actual legislation. The

15 Interviews with actors.

21

actual scheme of administration and establishment of policies on the disabilities issue is clear since it’s normative, however, in the practice, the government and the civil society shows the difficulty of the coordination among all sectors to achieve the actual requirements

3.1 Identification, organization, and services provided by the Institution in Charge (Ente Rector, in Spanish)

The 42-2000 Law of General Law about the Disabilities in the Dominican Republic created the National Council of Disabilities (CONADIS, in Spanish) as an autonomous institution of the State, attached to the Presidency of the Republic, with the following objectives16:

1.- To dictate, evaluate and look up the execution accomplish of the policies in the different intervention areas of the Law.

2.- To look up the application and actualization of this Law.

3.- The observance of the respect of the rights of PWD. 4.- To watch over the elimination of all type of discrimination to the PWD.

5.- To plan and supervise the execution of programs directed to reach the full integration of PWD to the society.

The Law establishes that CONADIS will work at national level under the following structures:

1. National Directory. - Executive Commission - Executive Direction - Departments, divisions, technical and support units.

The National Board works for a four years period. They meet once a year in an “ordinary meeting”, in general assembly. Every June to know the annual report, and the summaries from the institutions that depends from the board. They can meet any time it is necessary, with a previous convoking of the chairman of the Board, or by their own will, or by an instance of a third part of the members.

According to the Law the Directory is as follows:

2. A representative from the Presidency of the Republic, who will preside over it .

16 The legal information is from the General Law 42-2000, about the Disability Topic in the Dominican Republic, published at the Official Edition of the Official Gazette, number 1049, of June 30, 2000.

22

- The State Secretary of Health and Public Assistance, or his or her representative.; - The State Secretary of Education and Culture, or his or her representative. - The Director of the National Institute of Technical and Professional Studies. (INFOTEP) or his or representative. - The State Secretary of Labor or a representative. ; - The Director of the Dominican Institute of Social Security, or a representative. - The State Secretary of Public Infrastructure and Communications or a representative. - The State Secretary of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation or a representative. - The State Secretary of Agriculture or a representative. ; - Two persons representing institutions of people with visual disabilities. - Two persons representing institutions of people with audition disabilities. - Two persons representing institutions of people with motor-function disabilities. - Two persons representing institutions of people with mental disabilities. - Two persons representing service institutions for people with visual disabilities. - Two persons representing service institutions for people with audio disabilities - Two persons representing service institutions for people with motor function disabilities. - Two persons representing service institutions for people with mental disabilities. - An executive Director. He or she can make suggestions but he can not vote.

The non governmental institutions or the governmental which want to be part of the National Directory of CONADIS, must have juridical personality and legal capacity according to the law in the country, and must have at least five consecutive years working on the disabilities topic.

This directory has specific tasks like:

1. To elaborate the policies to be applied in the sector. 2. To know the execution and financial annual reports of the Directors

Council. 3. To approve action and budget plans. 4. To evaluate the application of policies and programs. 5. To know and to approve the rules for the application of the law. 6. To form the Executive Committee among the members ; 7. To hire the Executive Director.

23

The Executive Committee works for a period of two years. The meetings are scheduled every two months in an “ordinary meeting”.

1. A representative from the Presidency of the Republic who will preside it. He or she is chosen by the President of the country among three experienced persons suggested by the National Directory. .

2. Two representatives from State institutions. ; 3. Two representatives of institutions of service for PWD. 4. Two representatives of institutions of PWD. ; 5. An Executive Director. He or she can make suggestions but he can not

vote.

The Executive Committee duties are.

1) To follow up the orders of the National Directory; 2) To adjust the operational planning. 3) To elaborate the strategic and operational plans, for the National Directory to learn about and approve them. 4) To elaborate the annual execution and financial reports for the National Directory to learn about an approve them. 5) To establish rules for the National Directory to learn about and to approve them. 6) To select and propose the three persons among them the National Directory can select and hire the Executive Director, as established by the rule.; 7) To approve the contracts of the department directors and to evaluate the results of the applicants for technique positions presented for the Direction.; 8) Other duties which are in the corresponding regulations.

There is, at the organization, an executive director, chosen from three persons proposed by the executive committee to the National Directory, as the regulations establishes. These people’s duties are:

1) To coordinate and supervise the executions of the programs and projects of the institution.

2) To supervise the personnel under his directions. 3) To follow up, with the person in charge, the plans and programs execution. 4) To watch over the budget execution of the institution. 5) To elaborate plan and budget proposals and to achieve the respective approval. 6) Other duties assigned by the established regulations.

24

The 42-2000 Law granted the effectiveness of its application through the necessary instances for each intervention area of the Institution in Charge, which duties are established by the operation regulations, as follows:

3. Diagnosis and valuation of the disability 2) Prevention 3) Security and social assistance

4) Socio-economic integration 5) Integration to the educative system 6) Access to the physical environment, transportation and communications.

7) Health Services

8) Social, cultural and sportive integration 9) Legal assistance

The Institution in Charge can create the necessary consultant institutions for the different areas of intervention, and the necessary departments and technical units to develop it task efficiently. The Institution in Charge has to elaborate the National programs and plans for each area of intervention, next to the organizations and institutions, paying special attention (but not limited to) the orientation and family planning, genetic counseling, prenatal and perinatal (related to the time and process of birth, for mothers and children) assistance, early detection and diagnosis and pediatric assistance, hygienic and security measures at work, at the traffic system, hygienic measures for food and pollution. All of these measures make emphasis in actions to people of the rural areas.

For the CONADIS activities and financing actions, the law mentions the following sources

1. The funds assigned in the Budget of Revenues and Public Expenses Law. Incomes Budget and the Public Expenses Law.

2. The funds from fines or mulcts due to the violation of the Law. 3. The funds from donations and official agreements or from national or

international private institutions. 4. From activities that CONADIS could make.

The commitment of CONADIS, and the private sector, is to design and execute the official policies in an effort of both sectors to gather strengths, says the Executive Director of the institution.

25

When explaining the link between people and institutions, the Executive Director explains that there are branches at the provinces (counties), as long as structures that are considered like an opportunity of decentralizing coordination. Of the thirty two counties in the country, there are seven integrated to this circumstance, and there are plans to extend their work toward the vulnerability areas, taking advantage of the structure settled down by Public Health. About the topics of gender and disabilities, the inequalities exist because there are more over protection and more discrimination to women with disabilities into the families, than discrimination for their gender, says the CONADIS Director. In the current national budget and, specifically as a program of the Presidency of the Republic, the National Council of PWD was assigned with Dominican Republic $22,708,022.00 pesos for 2005. From January 1st to June 29 2005, had been executed DR$ 6,040,961.02 pesos.17

One of the challenges of CONADIS must be the activation of its own operation and connection of the system of assistance to PWD. Their actions have to be directed to inspection of the normative execution, the formulation of policies and the effective exercise of the parsonage (leadership) of the sector.

3.2 Activities of Public, Private and non Government Organizations related with the disabilities topic.

According to the Preliminary Report of the Study: Regional Diagnosis IESALC/UNESCO: “Integration of People with Disabilities to the Superior Education” Case: The Dominican Republic, presented by Inmaculada Madera, Vice-Rector from the UNAPEC, International and Cooperation, at the Integration of People with Disabilities to the Superior Education in the Dominican Republic Seminar, on May of 2005, there were 54 institutions public, private or NGOs in the country which assisted the Education of PWD. The official institutions that are in charge of watch over the rights of PWD are: 1. Fundación Dominicana de Ciegos. Dominican Foundation of Blind People 2. Patronato Nacional de Ciegos. National Foundation of Blinds. 3. Organización Dominicana de Ciegos. Dominican Organization of Blind 4. Asociación Dominicana de Ciegos. Dominican Association of Blind 5. Rehabilitación. Rehabilitation. 6. Escuela de Sordos. School for Deaf People 7. Instituto de Ayuda al Sordo. Institute for the support to Deaf People.

17 From the Website of the National Office of Statistics.

26

8. Centro de Recursos para personas Ciegas. Center of Resources for Blind People 9. Cinco escuelas de Educación Especial. Five schools of Special Education. Public and Government Sector:18

1. Centro de Educación Especial Santo Domingo (Escuela Fidel Ferrer)

Santo Domingo. Center of Special Education Santo Domingo, Fidel Ferrer School, Santo Domingo.

2. Centro Nacional de Recursos Educativos para la Discapacidad Visual “Olga Estrella” Santo Domingo. National Center of Educative Resources for Visual Disability, “Olga Estrella”, Santo Domingo.

3. Escuela de Educación Especial “San Lorenzo de los Mina”, Santo Domingo. Special Education School “San Lorenzo de los Mina”, Santo Domingo.

4. Comunidad Digna Santo Domingo y para el país. Digna Community Santo Domingo, and for the country.

5. Escuela Nacional de Sordos Mudos de Santo Domingo (ASOCIACION PRO EDUCACION SORDOMUDOS), Santo Domingo. National School of Deaf-Mute of Santo Domingo. (ASOCIATION FOR THE EDUCATION OF THE DEAF-MUTE), Santo Domingo.

6. Secretaría de Estado de la Juventud, Santo Domingo. National State Secretary of the Youth

7. Escuela de Sordos Mudos Extensión de la Escuela Nacional de Sordo Mudos de Santo Domingo. Mute-Deaf School. Extension of the National School of the mute-deafs of Santo Domingo.

8. Escuela Nacional de Sordos Mudos de San Cristóbal. San Cristóbal National School of Mute-Deaf.

9. Escuela de la Asociación Dominicana de Rehabilitación Filial de la de Santo Domingo. Dominican Association School for Rehabilitation, Extension of the Santo Domingo School.

10.Centro de Educación Especial “La Vega”. Special Education Center “La Vega”

11.Escuela Nacional de Sordos Mudos La Vega. National School of Deaf-Mute La Vega

12.Escuela de Sordos Mudos, Baní. School of Deaf-Mute, Baní 13.Escuela de Sordos Mudos San Francisco de Macorís. School of Deaf-

Mute San Francisco de Macorís 14.Escuela Nacional de Sordos Mudos de Puerto Plata. National School of

Deaf-Mute of Puerto de Plata 15.Escuela Especial Puerto Plata. Special School Puerto de Plata 16.Escuela Nacional de Sordos Mudos de San Pedro de Macorís. National

School for Deaf-Mute from San Pedro de Macorís 17.Escuela de Sordos Mudos. School for deaf-mute

18 Organizations dedicated to the Protection and the Promotion of the Rights of PWD, in the Dominican Republic, National System of Asístanse to PWD. Matrix work for the study: Regional Diagnosis IESALC/UNESCO: “Integration of PWD to Superior Education” Case: The Domninican Republic, By Inmaculada Madera, PhD.

27

At the private sector

1. Instituto de Enseñanza y Desarrollo Infanto Juvenil, Santo Domingo. Infant-Juvenile Institute for Teaching and Development, Santo Domingo.

2. Inst. de Educación Especial (Granja Taller), Santo Domingo. Institute of Special Education, (Farm workshop), Santo Domingo.

3. Centro de Educación Especial Rosie, Santo Domingo Oriental. Special Education Center, Rosie, Santo Domingo Oriental.

4. (Pert. Fund.Dom.Autis.) Centro Especializado Para Niños con Autismo, Santo Domingo. Specialized Center for Children with Autism.

5. CIPAL, Centro Integral de Patología Lingüística, Santo Domingo. Integral Center of Linguistic Pathology, Santo Domingo.

6. Centro Integral de Enseñanza Especializado, Santo Domingo. Integral Center of Specialized Teaching, Santo Domingo

7. Inst. Especial Taller Protegido (INETAP), Santo Domingo. Special Institute, Protected Workshop, Santo Domingo.

8. Centro de Enseñanza Especializada (CEDENE), Santo Domingo. Specialized Teaching Center, Santo Domingo.

9. Centro de Terapia, Educación Especializada y de Lenguaje (CETEL), Santo Domingo. Therapy, Specialized Education and Linguistic. Santo Domingo.

10.Escuela Especial El Arca, Santo Domingo. Special School El Arca, Santo Domingo

11.Centro Especializado Catalina de San Agustín, Santo Domingo. Specialized Center Catalina de San Agustín, Santo Domingo.

12.Servicios Educativos y Psicológicos (Centro Terapia), Santiago. Psychological and Educational Services (Therapy Center), Santiago

13.Centro Psicológico y Educativo “Susana Ovalles”, Santiago. Psychological and Educational Center “Susana Ovalles”, Santiago.

14.Escuela de Educación Especial Santiago Rodríguez (Darío Gómez), Santiago Rodríguez. Special Education School Santiago Rodríguez (Darío Gómez), Santiago Rodríguez

15.Centro de Estimulación y Desarrollo Psicopedagógico CEDETFI, San Pedro de Macorís. Stimulation and Psycho - Pedagogic Center, San Pedro de Macorís.

16.Escuela Nacional de Sordos Mudos La Romana. National School for Deaf-Mute La Romana.

Semi – Official and / or Semi - Private

1. Patronato “Dulce Milagro”, Santo Domingo. “Dulce Milagro” Foundation, Santo Domingo.

2. Escuela de Educación Especial del Centro de Rehabilitación, filial en Santiago. Rehabilitation Center, Special Education School, in Santiago.

28

3. Centro de Bienestar y Armonía, Nuestra Señora del Perpetuo Socorro, Santiago. Wellfare and Harmony Center, Nuestra Señora del Perpetuo Socorro, Santiago.

4. Federación Nacional de Discapacitados Dominicanos, Santiago. National Federation of Dominican PWD, Santiago.

5. Escuela Rayos de Sol, Villa Altagracia. Rayos de Sol School, Villa Altagracia.

6. Instituto de Recuperación Humana Santa Teresa de Jesús, La Vega. Human Recovering Institute Santa Teresa de Jesús, La Vega.

7. Centro Educación Especial Piedra Blanca, Bonao. Center of Special Education Piedra Blanca, Bonao.

8. Laboratorio de Recuperación Pedagógico (LARP), San Francisco de Macorís. Laboratory of Pedagogical Recovering, San Francisco de Macorís.

9. Escuela Especial La Romana Padre Cavaloto, la Romana. Special School La Romana, Padre Cavaloto, La Romana.

Non-Governmental Organizations. NGO

1. Fundación CARE, Santo Domingo. Care Foundation, Santo Domingo. 2. Fundación Dominicana Para Niños con Necesidades Especiales

(FUDNES), Santo Domingo. Dominican Foundation for Children with Special Needs.

3. Centro de Educación y Rehabilitación “Laura Vicuña”, Santo Domingo. Educational and Rehabilitation Center “Laura Vicuña”, Santo Domingo.

4. Centro de Educación Ocupacional Sirious, Santo Domingo. Occupational Education Center, Sirious, Santo Domingo.

5. Escuela Especial Rayos de Sol, Santo Domingo. Special School Rayos de Sol, Santo Domingo.

6. Centro Terapéutico San Judas Tadeo, Santo Domingo. Therapeutic Center, San Judas Tadeo, Santo Domingo.

7. Centro de Rehabilitación para Ciegos adultos del Cibao (CERCID-Cibao), Santiago. Rehabilitation Center for Blind Adults of Cibao. Santiago.

8. Cuidado Infantil Dominicano, Santiago. Dominican Infant Care, Santiago.

9. Madres de Niños Discapacitados (MANIDI), Santiago. Mothers of Children with Disabilities, Santiago.

10.Escuela de Educación Especial “Santa María”, San Cristóbal. Special Education School “Santa María”, San Cristóbal.

11.Escuela de Sordos Colegio Bautista, Bonao. School for Deaf People, Colegio Bautista, Bonao.

12.Instituto de Enseñanza de Niños (Antigua Escuela de Asociación Maeña de Padres de Niños Especiales), Mao. Institute for the Teaching of Children. (Former School of the Maeña Association of Parents of Special Children)

29

As the interviewers’ point of view, all the organizations labor is very important, although the coordination among them is not always good. The interviewers mention, international, regional and wide world nets with representation in The Dominican Republic, such as the National Federation of PWD of the Dominican Republic (FENADID), a branch institution of the World Organization of People with Disabilities, a net of organizations or national assemblies of PWD, established to promote the human rights of people that live with these conditions, through the full participation, the equality of opportunities and the human development. At the moment, there are five national organizations in the Dominican Republic: The Cibao Foundation for the Rehabilitation of Invalids, the Dominican Republic Association of Rehabilitation, and The Association of Assistance to Deaf People Santa Rita de Lima, The National Foundation of Blinds and The Association of Motor Function Handicapped (ASODOFIMO in Spanish). It has to be pointed out, for the country, the importance of be part of an international support net. ASODIFIMO, one of the member organizations, integrate people with motor function disabilities to be subjects of obligations and rights in the process of building a fair and equal society where the opportunities equality is recognized for every one. For this purpose there are four relevant programs in execution: Social and Cultural Learning, Labor Training, Institutional and Community Development Invigoration, and Social Assistance and Donations. There are other actions, as the Peace Corps actions, which through the coordination of volunteers work at The Dominican Republic Association of Rehabilitation, supporting the special education to qualify and to elaborate support materials, being integrated to the current Schools and creating labor workshops for woodworkers, for beauty shoppers, for cooks, in different communities from the provinces, for example in the provinces of Dajabón, La Vega, Puerto Plata and Santiago Rodríguez. The Spanish Agency for Cooperation is working in this issue too. The Dominican Association of Rehabilitation (ADR in Spanish) is the strongest NGO dedicated to assist PWD in the country. Its mission is to provide the best rehabilitation services to assist, in an integral way, PWD, no matter their socio economical level, offering services based in ethics, quality and innovation in an adequate environment, with specialists and up to date personnel, with vocation of service, projecting a positive image in the community, and also offering, the profitability that guarantees the maintenance and the institutional development. The labor insertion is a high-priority goal of this organization that established in 1970 the Program of Professional Rehabilitation that includes Labor

30

Workshops for people with disabilities older than 16 years, and includes the training and social-labor integration.19

The Dominican Association of Rehabilitation Report points out poverty as an obstacle to support the educational and socio – labor services access. It mentions the success of programs like “The Learning and Labor Insertion of People with Physical Limitations and Mental Retardation Program” developed by the DAR with support from AID among 1996 and 2000, when 588 persons with some disability where trained. 470 of them were integrated to competitive jobs. As for the topic of blind people it has to be mentioned the “Professional Rehabilitation for Blind and Visual Limited People” supported by the International Organization of Labor and implemented by the National Foundation for Blind People which runs the Rural Rehabilitation Program in which there were facilitated mobile equipment for social – labor insertion of blind people, achieving the labor insertion of 389 blind people. This rehabilitation institution has an annual average of 20,000 new cases, and if they take into account these institutional statistics, the proportion of people with disabilities that have access to the learning opportunities and employment, has been low. The access to professional rehabilitation programs is only 0.05%. According to the 2004 Annual Report, the institution offered support to 22,815 new persons with limitations. There were 362,764 functional rehabilitation assistances, educational rehabilitation and socio – labor integration. The institution reports that with the support of companies and workshops the integration of PWD was assisted in 2004 and achieves the technical – vocational training of 104 apprentices. A 30% of them presented some physical disability and 70% presented some intellectual disability. Also in 2004, forty PWD were integrated at the open labor market. 10 PWD were integrated in family business and 81 people in special conditions were integrated through the Protected Workshops in Santo Domingo and Santiago. This numbers have special importance due to the low socio economical level and the low social investment. The health and education expense is 4.0% from the Gross Domestic Product GDP. It has been registered 55.7% of homes in poverty, a 16.1% of unemployment, and an illiteracy rate of 15.4%

19 Information from the conference. Experience in the social and labor schooling integration of young and adults with disabilities. By Mary Pérez Marranzini, President of the National Board of ADR, at the seminar Integration of PWD to Superior Education in the Dominican Republic. With the support of APEC University, IESAL/UNESCO, SEESCYT, CARMJ, and CONADIS. Santo Domingo, May 6, 2005.

31

The Dominican Association of Rehabilitation DAR (or “Rehabilitation” as is known in the country) has 13 branches and gets 32% of the budget of the country. 4.9% of this amount goes to personnel salaries and 28% to direct expenses. “Rehabilitation” is a very stable growing NGO with a vital role at national level in the system of assistance of PWD.

Circle of Women with Disabilities (CIMUDIS in Spanish). A will from the gender.

The difficulties that women with some disability face, in spite of being half of “the Humanity with Disabilities”, are not reflected in the reality of their partners, on the contrary, the difficulties are deeper.

Women, in the Dominican Republic, cope with several ways or inequality, discrimination and social exclusion and many of them are victims of domestic violence and they suffer severe limitations of their possibilities of social interaction and movement by their own husbands or partners. It will be necessary to include in the demands, the Dominican women with disabilities, and also include association data among the gender violence, the HIV – AIDS.

According to the UNAIDS, JOINT UN PROGRAMME ON HIV / AIDS, there are 61.000 women in the Dominican Republic living with HIV or AIDS. This is a disability condition to add.

The Circle of Women with Disabilities, CIMUDIS, was created since the First Forum of Women with Disabilities, Washington, June 1997, as a necessity of women in disabilities conditions to participate in the taking of decisions and the will to eliminate this double discrimination toward them. At the time CIMUDIS is recognized by the NGO at the women and disabilities topics. This organization survives through the Government's monthly grant and funds of international organizations which support specific projects for training. That has allowed CIMUDIS to incorporate more women. The organization participates in the Social Movement of Women, and coordinates actions with other institutions like Ce-Mujer, Colectiva Mujer and Health, INSTRAW, You, Woman, among others. Also, CIMUDIS gives university scholarships and lessons of English to women with some disabilities. About the gender issue, as the interviewers said, CIMUDIS made the difference to integrate women in jobs traditionally assigned to men. Although the majority believes that at the disabilities topic there are more discrimination and imbalance to women participation. Women with some type of disability or without disabilities complain about the justness and equality, although in taking into account previous years, some

32

achievements are noticed, regarding the taking of conscience. The considered feminine work for the patriarchal culture, like home tasks and children care, is a heavy load to carry on. For one of the founders of CIMUDUS, the main obstacles that women with disabilities in the Dominican Republic face in the equitable exercise of their rights, it is the “machismo of the Dominicans” and regarding the opportunities as for the access to public places, the difficulties of transportation. For her, the biggest rejection at work is for disabilities, not for gender.

3.3 Articulation and coordination among the involved organizations

According Law 42-2000, the organizations of PWD are in charge of take in the society the promotion and diffusion of the actual potentials of their population. That is the reason why they must have the collaboration of the State organizations and these organizations must inform each year about their activities to the Institution in Charge, CONADIS.

The articulation and coordination dynamics among the organizations that work with PWD have been a difficult practice in the last years, according to interviewed people, because of the differences in monetary resources and also because of the lack of motivation for the execution of the Law.

Interviewed people identify the economic, politics, social and development crisis, as an inconvenience for the organizational linking, besides the centralization in the Dominican Republic, a country with 48,442 square kilometres, 7.012.500 inhabitants, 32 provinces (counties) that depend of the economic activity of the capital of the country. (1.6 kilometers = 1 mile)

3.4 International Cooperation Actions in the Disabilities Topic.

In the Dominican Republic the international cooperation is directed to actions to PWD’s benefit. This cooperation is mainly for supporting health and education programs. Some of the Agencies of Financing that support these programs are:

UNESCO, for Special Education.

IDB, Inter-American Development Bank, supports occupational health programs for more than ten years.

SIECA, Permanent Secretariat of the General Treaty on Central American Economic Integration (Secretaría de Integración Económica Centroamericana in Spanish), supports in orientation and training in labor and macro economic issues.

33

Other institutions are ILO, which in collaboration with IDB, PAHO, AECI, GTZ, European Union, World Bank, Danish International Cooperation, DANIDA and the Agency of Canadian Cooperation, IDRC, in programs of PWD relocation.

The Spanish International Cooperation Agency supports projects on Special Education and Attention to Diversity.20

The Japanese International Cooperation Agency JICA was founded in 1974 in the Dominican Republic with the objective of assist Japanese immigrants, as well as technical assistance in agriculture and fishing, public health, education, environment, international commerce and tourism. The agency does not work in programs related to the disabilities topic, although some persons from JICA had work as volunteers in Rehabilitation. There has not been possible to get the report of the assigned budgets. On one hand, the lack of a statistical register of the system of assistance to the disabilities topic, and on the other one, the access to formal sources and the poor information makes impossible to get the data. At the government's last administration, the authorities didn't enable the new special legislation and the there is the perception that the current authorities don't establish the necessary strategies, have represented an obstacle for this consultancy.

4. Divulgation and application of the international classification of functioning, disability and health (CIF)

Chile has taken the initiative of developing a short version of the ICF and implements it in the information system, as well as Peru and the Dominican Republic to exchange information to define methodological approaches for the Certification and Validation of Disabilities, based on the ICF.21

Regarding the recognition of the ICF in the country, interviewed people agree in complaining that it is not applied and they say that “the works for its execution have not began. At that the Secretary of Education, and the Secretary of Labor have to execute Law… but we are far away” (…) “Maybe the only work done is to print brochures and begin the process of divulge the information” Some of interviewed people said that “the institutions that work with PWD in the country are surprised because the State doesn't have defined policies for that sector, in spite of the fact that the United Nations indicates that in underdeveloped countries 10% to 13% of the population have some physical, mental or motor function disability”

20 This support project to the Special Education and the attention to Diversity will be executed with the financial support of the Spanish Agency of International Cooperation (AECI) and the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport (MECD) 21Interview with Doctor Dr. Armando Vásquez, regional consulter of rehabilitation from PAHO/WHO See: National Found for Disability, CHILE, Website.

34

For others, “In the country no one works according to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health ICF, because there is no knowledge, even at people working in health topic (doctors, nurses etc.)” [...] “There is a poor knowledge of The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health ICF in our country, because the ICF is very wide…” (…) “It is necessary more knowledge for its execution” [...] “It is necessary to train personnel to diagnose and to value the disabilities, according to the WHO report” [...] “One doesn't work, in the country, according the ICF and its strategies, and they are not executed, nor the formal or the private sector, because the barriers that contribute to the integration of PWD have not been overcome..." 22

However, the PWD in the Dominican Republic, are used to express their demands, and claim for the rights that they are not granted yet, situation that is frequently pointed out in the newspapers.

5. Basic information about the population profile of people with disabilities.

According to the National Program of Action for the Socioeconomic Integration of People with Disabilities of the Dominican Republic (PRAXIS-DOMINICANA), the country is one of the areas with more population with disabilities. Although there are no reliable statistics, the estimations agree that in Central American and the Caribbean countries the rate of PWD is up to 10%. This rate is a reference to the WHO and the UN and due, among other reasons, to natural disasters, like George hurricane, for example.23

The 8th National Population and Housing Census in 2002 shows that from approximately 400,000 persons living at the Dominicana, 5% of them have some type of disability. 56,000 persons (14.4% of PWD) are children among 5 to 19 years old.24

40% of this population is located in three provinces: Santo Domingo (17.85%), Santiago (11.39%) and the National District (10.27%). Some of the provinces with more percentage of PWD are located at the North: Duarte (6.04%), Espaillat (6.01%), María Trinidad Sánchez (6.39%), Salcedo (6.08%) y Santiago Rodríguez (6.41%). The most frequent disabilities are, physic (24.3%), visual (14.0%), intellectual (11.5%), auditory (6.8%) and speech (3.9%). This pattern 22 From interviews to relevant actors. 23 Association Movement of Blind People, in Latin America. Judith A. Varsavsky, Cuadernos GESTA, Ano I Nº 1 July 2001, Página web. 24 Source: National Office of Statistics. Special tabulation from the 7er National Census of Population and Housing, 2002. From the Diagnosis Study of Special Education and Assistance to the Diversity in the Dominical Republic. Final Report. Presented by the Spanish Cooperation International Agency, AECI, October 2004. Information from Special Tabulation from the 8th National Census of Population and Housing, 2002, from the de National Office of Statistics.

35

continues no matter the provinces of residence. Although, is important to consider that the data varies significantly in population between 5 and 19 years, where the disabilities of speech occupy the third place in all the provinces (counties) and the intellectuals the first or second place, followed by the physical disabilities. When comparing the distribution for the population's age affected by the different types of disabilities it is observed that in almost all the counties the cases of disabilities of speech are in more than a 30% among boys, girls and adolescents. In relation to the non satisfied potential demand of education for population with Special Educational Needs associated to different types of disabilities, the 2002 Census, evidence that with the exception of three provinces (Elías Piña, San Juan and San José de Ocoa); more than the 60% of PWD attended an Educational Center. The level of school attendance of this group is smaller than the school attendance of same ages which is 83% for the country versus 64.3% for those and those that have some type of disabilities (Source: Webpage National Office of Statistic). The same behavior is observed at levels school desertion levels. The Census shows at 2002 that 7% of children and adolescents among 5 and 19 years old didn't attend any Educational Center, but they had attended school at some time before. Among PWD the percentage is three times higher. (26.1%). The statistical tendencies shown don't allow supposing that disabilities are related with social and economic development at the place of residence context. The tendencies show that among the counties of more or less disabilities prevalence there is heterogeneity in the social and economic development level. Maybe the difference could be tied to the type of disability in the counties.

The diffeerent types of disabilities affect almost from an equitable way women and men. The study carried out by Castle and Quiteria, indicates that for each 100 people with some type of disability, 49 are women and 51 men. The percentage is similar to the gender composition of the population.

The data presented in the study, reveal that independently of the type of disability, the most affected population is the older one, although important differnces are observed. In older population, speech and intellectual disabilities are observed. In population among 5 to 14 years old the speech disability is higher. People with intellectual disabilities are more frequent among the ages of 10 to 39 years old. The percentage of infants with physical, intellectual, visual and auditory disabilities is the lowest.

36

There is a lack of reliable data which can give the profile of PWD, although the International data is useful there is the probability that the numbers get higher if the constant economic crisis, the index of poverty and the vulnerability to the weather phenomena, among other precariousness.

6. Situation of the full enjoyment of the Human Rights of people with disabilities

In the Dominican Republic people suffer the consequences of the dichotomy of the Third World countries, where the constant theory " must be" exists, causing the stagnation of the "to be". This situation is reflected in the human rights when they are discriminated at the exercising of their citizenship. As the feminist Ochi Curiel says, all the groups of people that do not behave as the hegemonic pattern does, white man, heterosexual, in productive age, and people with economical resources, they become, for the pattern power, in" the others". Those “others” (“otredad” is the term used in the country that means "to be other or to be different") are black people, gay and lesbians, people getting older, people who live with some disabilities, women, and all those groups that are not the hegemonic pattern of power, neither part of "the legitimate thing".25 This situation presents for the oppressed groups of the Dominican Republic, a waste of strength in the vindicatory actions for the duplicity of efforts that means to take off the democratic speech and the traditional praxis of a discrimination pattern that doesn't allow the (traditionally oppressed) population's advance. The disabilities problem is also present in these oppressed groups.

Inside “the others” (otredad) group, still exist “more marginal people” that became invisibles. They are women with disabilities. Therefore, in the patriarchal culture in our country, when someone speaks of women with disabilities, it is to point out a “double margin”: There are women deeply whipped by social injustice, applied too to PWD such as the exclusion to the daily environment, under validation of PWD, and injustice just for the fact of being a woman.

The Government’s file on the Human Rights issue is poor. Although there has been improvement in some areas, there still big problems. These problems are shown in international reports: Members from security of the State continued perpetrating extra judicial murders. The police forces, and the militaries tortured, hit and abused people under suspects, incarcerated persons and prisoners. The prison conditions go from bad to worst. The 25 CURIEL, Ochy. The political fight of women, facing the new types of racism. An analysis to strategies approximation. http://mulheresnegras.org/doc/ochy_curiel.pdf

37

police arbitrarily arrested suspects and their family members. The long preventive detentions and the delays of the trials are still a problem. In some cases the authorities violated the citizens’ rights of privacy, and the police carried out breaking entering without warrant. The journalists and editors are their own censors. The Government restricted the Haitian and the Dominican-Haitian emigrants’ free motion and deported some emigrants by force. Other serious problems include the violence and discrimination against women, child prostitution, child abuse, discrimination against the handicapped, and the discrimination against Haitian emigrants and their descendants. The traffic of people is a serious problem, although the Government has increased the investigation against them. There are reports of people doing hard labor. Some workers could not be organized in unions freely and they continue confronting the lack of labor security. The infantile work is a serious problem. 26

According to the Valuation Report of the damage for The Dominican Republic, Vitamin and Mineral Deficit, published by the Micronutrient Initiative and UNICEF27, around 15% to 20% of the children of the Dominican Republic grow up with low immunity levels, which increase bad health and small growth in them. Each year almost 1000 Dominican children are in risk of dying before or after birth (perinatal period), due to their mother’s severe anemia. There are almost 400 severe childbirth malformations or abnormalities, like infantile paralysis. These problems increase costs to the social security system, the educational system and the families of children with disabilities. In 2004 PWD were discriminated on job and services offer. The law grants physical access to public and private new buildings, but the authorities didn’t execute the law all the time. By their own will, some managers provided facilities with easy access to PWD. The Dominican Rehabilitation Association, with 17 branches in the country, gets a subsidy from the Secretary of Public Health to offer rehabilitation services to PWD. There had been some efforts to design public places for PWD. For example the only access in the new footbridge in an important sector in Santo Domingo is by stairs. Discrimination against people with mental challenges is usual and there are limited resources to assist mentally challenged people.28 The reports, when reflecting the reality of the Dominican Republic, show the will for the correct application of public policies, in the human rights context, and the rights of PWD.

26 Report of the Human Rights practices in the Dominican Republic, 2004. Report to the Foreign Issues from the Chamber of Representatives and the Foreign Relations Commission of the USA Senate, by the Department of State. According to sections 116(d) and 502(b) from the 1961 Law of Foreign Assistance 27 More information: www.micronutrient.org 28 Report to the Human Right practices in the Dominican Republic, 2004.

38

About the Health, Social Security, Education, Labor, Information and Communication, and access to public spaces areas the situation is, as follows:

6.1 Health

In the Dominican Republic the public sector is constituted by the Secretary of State of Public Health and Social Assistance (SESPAS), Institution in Charge of health issues, the Dominican Institute of Social Security (IDSS), with a group of clinics, hospitals, with different types of assistances, and Hospitals from the Armed Forces and the Police. At private sector there are also several clinics distributed in the whole country, those clinics accept patients with insurance policies. Finally, there is a group of non lucrative organizations, patronages, and non-governmental organizations, that are also part of the system services of health of the country.

One of the most important achievements in that process was the promulgation of a normative, based on the human rights considerations:

1. The New General Law of Health, 42-01.

2. Social Security Law 87-01

3. The National Norms of Assistance in Health to Family Violence against Women. 2002.

4. National Norms for Mental Health Assistance. 2004.

Level of Attention in Health: General Indicators, Morbidity and State of the Population’s Health.

Chart 6 shows the general conditions of the population’s health and can be observed that the illnesses and health problems that the interviewers suffered during the last 30 days is high, specially in children under 5 years, and affect a 50% of this population. Chronic illnesses experience a permanent growth starting from persons form 15 years old. In persons of 55 years old the prevalence of chronic illnesses affects more than the 50%. .

In relation to the disabilities topic, the prevalence is relatively low and rises a little in persons among 55 to 64 years old. In people 65 years old this prevalence rises highly and affects 21% of people of this group of age.

Women show more health problems than men, with the exception of disabilities which have more incidences on men. That can be explained taking into account that men can be more exposed than women to traffic and work accidents.

Chart 6. Problems of Health, Chronic Illnesses or Disabilities, in the Dominican Republic Population.

39

“Population's percentage with illness or problems of health in the last 30 days. Percentage of people that suffers chronic illness, or disability,

according to selected characteristics, Dominican Republic 2002”

Characteristic

Problems of Health on the last 30 days.

%

Chronic Illnesses

%

Disabilities

%

People with at least one of the previous condition %

Persons

Interviewed

Age

0-4 50.5 6.2 0.4 52.4 5,883

5-9 30.3 5.8 0.9 33.6 6,137

10-14 22.6 4.1 0.6 25.0 6,056

15-24 22.4 6.8 1.2 27.2 10,066

25-34 23.2 11.7 1.8 31.3 7,964

35-44 23.2 20.6 2.5 38.0 6,055

45-54 24.9 33.6 3.7 48.7 4,496

55-64 30.1 50.7 7.1 64.8 2,720

65 y + 29.8 61.1 20.7 74.8 2,973

Gender

Men 26.5 13.4 3.2 36.0 26,566

Women 29.1 19.3 2.6 41.9 25,792

Residence Area

Urban 26.6 16.3 2.7 37.9 34,104

Rural 29.9 16.3 3.2 40.9 18,256

Source: Demographic Survey of Health (ENDESA). (Chart 13.1). 2002.

At Chart 7 it is analyzed in the same square how many people needed Services of Physiotherapy, Psychotherapy, or Rehabilitation for Drugs or Alcohol. Regrettably ENDESA, is the only National Survey of Health that has investigated these indicators, presented like added data.

It calls the attention that less than 1% of the interviewers need Physiotherapy, Psychotherapy, and Drugs of Alcohol Rehabilitation services.

40

Chart 7: People with health issues that attended Physiotherapy, Psychotherapy, Drugs or Alcohol Rehabilitation Centers in the last six months. Dominican Republic, 2002.

Percentage of persons which needed Physiotherapy, Psychotherapy, and Drugs of Alcohol Rehabilitation Services.

People interviewed

Age

0-4 0.2 5,883

5-9 0.3 6,137

10-14 0.1 6,056

15-24 0.3 10,066

25-34 0.3 7,964

35-44 0.5 6,055

45-54 0.5 4,496

55-64 0.6 2,720

65 y + 0.8 2,973

Gender

Men 0.3 26,566

Women 0.4 25,792

Residence Area

Urban 0.4 34,104

Rural 29.0.29 18,256

Source: Demographic Survey of Health (ENDESA). (Chart 13.14), 2002.

Chart 8 shows, in urban or rural areas that the majority of the interviewed attend Public Hospitals or Private Clinics. The health assistance in Physiotherapy, Psychotherapy, or Drugs or Alcohol Rehabilitation is similar in the private and the public sectors.

It has to be pointed out the assistance to Churches and Institutions. It is almost 40% of people assisted by the private and public sectors, in rural or urban areas.

41

Chart 8: Percentage of the population which has attended to physiotherapy, drugs of alcohol rehabilitation centers during the last six months, by place and residence area.

Urban Area

Hospital or Clinic Attended Physiotherapy. Psychotherapy, Drugs of Alcohol Rehabilitation Centers

SESPAS Hospital 35.2

SESPAS Clinic 2.1

Rural Clinic 1.1

IDSS Hospital 2.4

IDSS Clinic 2.7

Military Hospital 0.1

Private Clinic 34.6

Church or Institution Clinics 13.6

Others 1.7

Do not know 6.6

Total 100

Persons 152

Rural Area

Hospital or Clinic Attended Physiotherapy. Psychotherapy, Drugs of Alcohol Rehabilitation Centers

SESPAS Hospital 28.0

SESPAS Clinic 0.0

Rural clinic 2.2

IDSS Hospital 3.0

IDSS Clinic 0.0

Military Hospital 0.0

Private Clinic 40.5

Church or Institution Clinics 12.2

Others 0.0

42

Do not know 14.2

Total 100.0

Persons 38

Source: Demographic Survey of Health (ENDESA). (Chart 13.15.1), 2002.

Chart 9 shows, in urban or rural areas that the majority of the interviewed men and women attend Public Hospitals or Private Clinics. It has to be pointed out those Churches and Institutions assisted a high number of women with a high percentage, in comparison to men’s percentage.

Chart 9. Percentage of the population which have attended to physiotherapy, drugs of alcohol rehabilitation centers during the last six months, by place of consultation and gender.

MEN

Hospital or Clinic Attended Physiotherapy. Psychotherapy, Drugs of Alcohol Rehabilitation Centers

SESPAS Hospital 37.7

SESPAS Clinic 2.7

Rural Clinic 1.5

IDSS Hospital 3.5

IDSS Clinic 0.0

Military Hospital 0.2

Private Clinic 34.3

Church or Institution Clinics 6.9

Others 2.8

Do not know 10.5

Total 100

Persons 91

WOMEN

Hospital or Clinic Attended Physiotherapy. Psychotherapy, Drugs of Alcohol Rehabilitation Centers

43

SESPAS Hospital 30.2

SESPAS Clinic 0.8

Rural Clinic 1.1

IDSS Hospital 1.6

IDSS Clinic 4.2

Military Hospital 0.0

Private Clinic 37.1

Church or Institution Clinics 19.2

Others 0.0

Do not know 5.9

Total 100

Persons 99

Source: Demographic Survey of Health (ENDESA). (Chart 13.15.1), 2002.

Chart 10 shows the accessibility and distance from the nearest Health Center to of the interviewers’ homes. Approximately 50% are less than 1 kilometer* from the health center. 25% are between 1 and 2 kilometers. 20% are 3 or more kilometers away the health center. *1 mile = 1.6 kilometers Chart 10. Distance from homes to the nearest Health Center.

Health Center Less than 1

Kilometer %

Between 1 to 2

Kilometers.

%

More than 3

Kilometers.

% SESPAS Hospital 35.5 28.1 32.1 SESPAS Clinic 59.6 22.3 16.6 SESPAS Rural Clinic 44.0 26.0 28.0 IDSS Hospital 66.6 19.3 14.2 IDSS Clinic 55.3 20.3 17.5 Military Hospital 29.9 28.2 40.7 Private Clinic 65.0 22.7 9.9 Church or Institution Clinics 69.1 26.3 4.2

Source: Demographic Survey of Health (ENDESA) 2002. (Chart 13.16). Distance to the nearest Health Center.

Chart 11 shows the areas to improve in health centers. The chart also show the reasons why the interviewed do not attend health centers like the time of

44

waiting, the attention hours and the readiness of the doctors, as well as the cost of medicines. Chart 11. Percentage Distribution of the areas to improve in Health Centers.

Area to improve SESPAS Health Center

IDSS Health Center

Private Health Centers

Easiness to get appointment

26.7 11.4 2.4

Attention hours 36.5 17.8 4.1 Doctors availability 30.4 28.3 4.8 Waiting time 39.6 28.8 6.2 Doctors skills 9.0 3.9 1.9 Doctor’s time and attention per patient

18.0

6.8

2.1

Bed occupation easiness in the center

10.6 6.8 1.8

Waiting time for surgery 1.2 0.3 0.5 Rooms comfort and privacy

3.5 1.7 1.8

Hygienic Rooms 5.1 3.1 1.8 Food 1.2 1.1 0.4 Nurses treat 3.4 0.0 1.4 Assistance cost 5.9 9.5 6.0 Medicines cost 17.3 23.2 3.0 Test cost 6.0 1.1 2.2 There is no medicines 38.7 11.4 8.9 Source: Demographic Survey of Health (ENDESA) 2002. (Chart 13.21). “Areas of services to improve in Health Centers”

6.2 Social Security

The social security health is managed through the IDSS as the Risk of Health Administrator, ARS, at public and private sectors, and 40 private ARS. IDSS covers 7.1% of the population. The Armed Forces and Police Department Social Security Institute covers from 2% to 3% of the population. The private ARS covers 12% of the population (in individual basis) and the self managed ARS covers 2% of the population. These institutions cover almost 24.1% of the population. In some cases there is double insurance coverage as in the case of private companies which have both insurances with IDSS and ARS. In these cases the effectiveness of the ARS could be smaller.

45

The new pensions systems, from Law 87-01, will produce extensive benefits as much as it delays the saving of the quota of the insurance of pensions to produce benefits to thousands of affiliated persons. If there are 1.3 millions of employees form the private sector, with a progressive covering from 40% to 80% in five years, some rates of the pensions from 5 to 8% in the fifth year and a capitalization of this amount to an annual interest rate of 7%, (paying a commission of the Pensions Fund Administration of 0.5%), at 2005 it has been accumulated about RD$16,000 millions.29

The Health Family Insurance, SFS, is a group of designed preventions health services to be used before the person get sick, but at this time the persons with insurance search for health assistance only when they get sick. This assistance is covered for the Basic Health Plan, PBS, and the cost is 10% of the affiliate salary. 3% is contributed by the employee and 7% the employer. This payment assure the access to a list of prevention actions, vaccines, basic attention, prenatal control and risk, emergencies, laboratory test, specialized first assistance, deontological prevention, rehabilitation, and others.

Chart 12 shows the population with Social Security, according to their residence area, rural or urban. The majority resides in urban areas, and the insurances, in almost all cases, are from private health insurances companies. People in rural areas are covered by insurances from the companies where they work. Chart 12. Percentage of population covered by some health insurance policy, by residence area.

REGION

IDSS30

FFAA/PN31

UNION

PRIVATE INDIVIDUAL

PRIVATE FROM THE COMPANY

PERSONS WHIT INSURANCE POLICY

Urban 5.8 2.0 2.0 3.9 15.1 28.2 Rural 4.0 1.8 1.2 1.6 8.9 18.5

Source: Demographic Survey of Health (ENDESA) 2002. (Chart 13.6. “People covered by any Insurance Policy”

Chart 13 shows the relation by gender of the population covered by any insurance policy. The distribution is similar for both groups. 22% of men and 20.1% of women are covered. Chart 13. Percentage of population covered by some health insurance policy, by gender.

29 Superintendencia de Pensiones. SIPEN. Pension Superintendence. Website: www. cnss.gov.do 30 IDSS: Instituto Dominicano de Seguro Social. Dominican Institute of Social Security 31 FFAA/PN: Fuerzas Armadas y Policía Nacional. Armed Forces and National Police.

46

IDSS32 FFAA/PN33 Union Private

Individual Private from the Company

Persons with Insurance Policy

Men 6.2 2.2 1.4 2.8 10.7 22.0 Women 4.1 1.6 1.9 3.4 10.1 20.1

Source: Demographic Survey of Health (ENDESA) 2002. (Chart 13.6. “People covered by any Insurance Policy”

According to ENDESA 2002 information, 75% of the population in The Dominican Republic has not a health insurance policy. The majority are residents of the rural area. The data refers to all the inhabitants of the country and affects, in higher proportion PWD, because the insurance companies do not cover congenital malformation and osteo synthesis materials. The population with health insurance policies coverage is the economical active population from 25 to 54 years old. Taking into account that PWD are not working and don’t earn a salary it can be estimated that almost no one are covered by health insurance.

6.3 Education

In the last thirty to forty years, the human rights topic, the social justice and the justness, showed the necessity to recognize the differences between people and their circumstances, taking the paradigm from the difference to all the socio cultural differences, to cause deep changes in social relationships and how a person must be treated. This new Cosmo vision has been favored an open minded attitude to sectors and social groups less gifted, establishing the paradigm of the difference that tries to support the needs of PWD to get the kind of live they want, and can sustain. It is a vision that allows identifying the persons not only for their lacks but for their potential (without judgments) and intervening to procure the support they need to get a better life quality.34

The respect to Diversity has had a big influence for the changes on the educational systems, with new policies that also establish new answer strategies to children with different educational needs, granting them opportunities to learn beyond their individual conditions. In 1969 when the Special Education Department was created, the work pattern in the Dominican Republic schools was based in the belief that the 32 IDSS: Instituto Dominicano de Seguro Social. Dominican Institute of Social Security 33 FFAA/PN: Fuerzas Armadas y Policía Nacional. Armed Forces and National Police. 34 A look to the diversity. The resilence focus. Héctor Lamas R. Alcira Murrugarra Abanto, from the Peruvian Society of Resilence.

47

students had learning difficulties due to deficiencies of personal limitations, therefore, efforts to identify, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment were carry out. This pattern segregated the students in such conditions. This model coexists with methodological innovations, and valued the technical team supported with psychologists, in specialized educational centers for students with disabilities. There are Schools of Special Education in the following provinces:

1. Dajabón 2. Santiago 3. La Vega 4. Puerto Plata 5. Bonao 6. San Francisco de Macorís 7. Two Schools in Santo Domingo

In the preliminary report of the Study Diagnosis about Special Education and Attention to the Diversity in The Dominican Republic 35 , by investigators Castillo and Quiterio, since 1997 is carried out a public campaign of sensitization, to favor changes in the society attitude toward people with special educational needs and in 1998, it was implemented a Project of Development of Inclusive Schools and Community Support in five regular educational centers of urban-marginal areas of the National District, with the purpose of stopping the segregation and exclusion, and to foment the process of educational inclusion. Also, through educational actions, as the National Journeys of Educational Upgrade, a change of attitudes begins in the directive, technician and educational personnel, in favor of the access of boys and girls with special educational needs, working with more than 25,000 teachers of Initial and Basic levels in the whole country, more than 1,000 counsellors and psychologists, and more than 800 principals of educational centers. It has being emphasized the Attention to the Diversity, the attitude in psycho-pedagogical models of attention, and the adaptation of the curriculum to the students needs. The report points out that among 1998 to 2000 it was developed a National Consultation of Special Education36 to get to know the situation of Special Education in The Dominican Republic at that time. The results show the following conclusions:

• The majority of the Special Education Centres come from regular schools, where they were rejected for problems in learning, behaviour,

35 This preliminary report from 2004, from AECI and SEE consultancies will be taken into account as the Basic document for the Educational issue. 36 State Secretary of Education. 2000. National Consult report. Santo Domingo, 1998-2000.

48

over age, students who must course the grade twice, and in rare cases for disabilities.

• Regular schools are not prepared to assist the diversity of the students which attend classes.

• A high percentage of students with high and multiple disabilities do not get teaching classes in special education centres.

• Teachers are not trained in the disability topic. • Most of the centers don't have appropriate facilities neither appropriate

didactic materials • There is a lack of covering because there are only six public centers

and 13 semi public centers of special education. • There is a lack of sensitization in the community. • There is a lack of conscience among fathers and mothers to get their

children with disabilities into educational centers. • At the special education centers there are not access approaches,

promotion and permanency criteria. • All the centers integrate students to the regular centers starting from

the fifth grade of primary, when students have already acquired the knowledge and the necessary social behaviors to include them in regular schools and for this reason, they are generally integrated when they are over age.

The conclusions of the research (showed bellow) motivated the creation of the Departmental Ordinance 18-2001 which reorganize the Special Education Centers in the country37:

• Students with special educational needs that can not be assisted in regular schools will be received on the Special Education Centers.

• Students with Special Needs (NEE) will have access to and adapted regular curriculum

• The learning cycles will be two, with a four years period per each one. • If the general objectives are not reached, the students with special

needs will remain in one cycle, for a two years period. • The initial level in special education will have access to the regular

curriculum, with the adaptation needs for this type of education. The State Secretary of Education approved to support the Project to the Special Education and Attention to the Diversity, that will be executed with the financing of the Spanish Agency of International Cooperation (AECI) and the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports (MECD), with the purpose of improving the quality of the attention to the students with special educational needs, by means of supporting the inclusion mechanisms in public schools and the direct attention to children, and adolescents with needs associated to severe disabilities, that cannot be integrated to the regular population.

37 State Secretary of Education. 2001. Departmental Ordinance 18-2001. Santo Domingo. Workshop from SEE.

49

Special Education, as is established in the Study Diagnosis about Special Education and Attention to the Diversity in the Dominican Republic is only for those students which suffers a specific disability. There have being excluded students with learning problems and it is then when the Educational Plan, and later the Decennial Plan (or ten years plan) began to consider the special education from different philosophical and psycho-pedagogical conception which are expressed in the curricular proposal established in 1995. About the inclusion of children with disabilities in regular schools, interviewed persons says: “There is some chance, but a lot of reserve from teachers and parents (…) “There is no trained personnel in special education” (…) “Frequently we find, in teachers, a lot of reticence to accept persons with these conditions” (…) “Requires a lot of resources to training the assistance to blind, mute-deaf or walk impaired conditions” (…) “Although there is some opening to the children inclusion in regular schools, there is a big reticence from teachers and also form the parents” (…) “Regrettably there is a lot to do, get in to schools, talk with the principals, defend and advocate to get the children into these schools” (…).38

Due to the lack of training, and as a consequence, PWD have two big difficulties: to go to school and to go to work. One of the interviewed recognizes and points out some of the barriers:39

i- Structural barriers, buildings construction, sidewalks, ramps... ii- Transportation Barriers: Some disabilities conditions must

accomplish some requirements to people transportation. iii- Resistance Barriers: From parents of children who don’t want their

kids studying with children with disabilities. At the time Rehabilitation Institute of Cibao, The Institute of Educational Formation INAFOCAM, and the Secretary of Education (SEE), is organizing studies to obtain a Diploma in Assistance to the Disabilities topic, incorporating new technologies to the Assistance of Special Education. A novelty at the education issue are the Itinerant Teachers, point out persons interviewed, as in the National Center of Educational Resources for Visual Disabilities Olga Estrella, from the Secretary of Education. This center has a Bibliographic Production Unit, with a Braille Press donated by the Christofel-Blindenmission CBM, which provides text in Braille for blind students.

The advantage of this proposal is that a single team of teachers rotates in different special education centers, training teachers in curricula adaptations, sensorial learning, inclusive and integrated education, visual problems, and designing a learning plan for different educational centers.

38 This information was gathered from actors’ interviews. 39 Interview with Gregorio Pichardo, Rehabilitation Institution of Cibao.

50

For some of the interviewed persons, the proposal of inclusion of the new Law of Education has pros and cons because it establishes that the boy or the girl can not be rejected. If the level of disability is low the children are into regular schools. The problem is that the level of disability can be detected in third grade when children are 9 or 10 years old. If the boy or girl needed early special education, there has been lost years... In the teaching training area 21 persons graduated in Retardation Educational Teaching at The Catholic University of Santo Domingo. There is also a National Consultation of Special Education at the Educational Series 1998-2000, and a National Consultation of Special Education. Teacher Esclarecida Núñez, Director of ITECO, Technological Institute of Cibao wrote about her experience with a blind student at the University, for the seminar “Integration of People with Disabilities in the Superior Education in the Dominican Republic”:

“Ramón, a student who dares from the classrooms”

Ramón, is a student with special education needs who dares, he is announcer, journalist, write poetry, dreams and sings. He describes him as a happy person and that is the impression he gives to people around him. Several months ago he decided to study at ITECO University, the institution I proudly direct. He presented at my office, with his former teachers and the Principal of Liceo de Cotuí. He successfully graduated from High School and this grade is enough to begin superior studies (College degree). He tells me his interest to study Law. He just wants to be accepted for his merits and requests a scholarship, because he has not resources to pay them. In exchange he offers to be part of the University Rondalla (band of strolling musicians) and do any other services required by the University authorities. My first reaction was a doubt, then of deep concern. Meanwhile, the analysis by the light of the logic and the rationality, induces me to be extremely careful in function of the quality and institutional efficiency, the sense of justice, of justness and the right to be educated that constitutionally has each Dominican, guided me to carry out my best efforts to offer the educational opportunity that Ramón requests. I had meetings with the Law School Director, with representatives of the National Direction of Blind People, with the Academic Senate of the University and later with the body of professors. Only, with their approval and motivation we could dare to present this proposal to the Admission Committee. The Director of the School and the professors, understood this application like a fair right and they assumed this teaching commitment to a student with special educational needs, as a challenge to the creativity, to the vocation of service, generosity, and a recognition to the desire of professional grow and to be

51

useful, manifested by the applicant. Today, Ramón is studying at the University, he is the bravest student in his class, he is cheerful and amusing, he recognize people just listening to them for their voices, (because he is blind), he participates actively in the University Rondalla, he walks through the campus with his partners of alone, because he uses his cane effectively. The Institution should have to adapt the curriculum implementation, and to get in touch with some of the former teachers of Ramón, from the National School of Blind. His professors and partners support his advances and development. They become the readers, tutors, collaborators and his eyes in some occasions. His Braille texts, his cane, his tape recorder, his dynamism, his sense of humor, and his well developed perception are his fundamental tools. Ramón is 23 years old, he is a student with special educational needs he course with success the eighth trimester of a University Career (Law), he has a high self-esteem, he competes with his partners in the juridical practices, he plays to be speaker. He repairs radios and washers, he is an announcer, he has a TV program about show business, he sings, he dances, he serenades, he is a composer, he has girlfriend and he is happy.

This example shows the results of a motivated direction, in this case a Superior Education Institution, and the respect to the differences and de human rights, as a starting point to achieve a fair and equal society.

6.4 Labor

The State Secretary Labor (SEP in Spanish) have been carried out efforts for the integration of PWD. The institution and the national office of the International Labor Organization ILO developed the program named PRAXIS, which objectives are to promote the labor integration of the community of PWD. The information on this program was gathered from the SEP Website, but there is no information about the achievements of the program when interviewing representatives of the Labor General Direction. The information gathered in interviews, to people who work in the SEP and members of different organizations and institutions, you can infer that the efforts, from the labor department, to apply policies of integration to work, were not always sustained. In this aspect, they coincide in recognizing the administration of the current Vice-president of the Republic, when he was Secretary of Work, and the interviewed say: “during the administration of Doctor Alburquerque there were good intents… he named a national coordinating person… to hire people with disabilities […] “Eight years ago, when Rafael Alburquerque was Secretary of Work, SET developed a program

52

to promote the labor insertion of PWD, but there is no data about the issue or a report of its conclusions” (…).40 There are isolated experiences of integration of PWD to work. Timberland, a company at the duty free zone of Santiago asked the State Secretary of Labor to train workers, male and female, with some disabilities. A National Council of Population and Family (CONAPOFA in Spanish) study about the labor insertion of PWD analyzed the socio demographic characteristics of managers, their attitude and perception, and the characteristics of hired PWD41.

The investigation took 362 managers, men and women, from the provinces of the country, with a major proportion of people from Santo Domingo, Santiago and Puerto Plata, because there are cities with major labor market.

The managers, men and women, are mostly young. Almost 67% among 30 to 44 years old. A fifth part of the interviewers are men older than 45 years and only the 4% are women.

Concerning to attitudes and perception, 93% of the managers said that there were not PWD hired. An 83% said that there were not policies at the company to hire PWD.

Companies that would hire or not PWD, and the existence of policies to hire this persons.

To get to know attitude and perception of the interviewed managers and their disposition to create institutional policies in favor of hiring PWD, and identify the barriers or obstacles that impede the hiring.

The chart shows the relation between the existence of a hiring policy and the attitude to hire PWD. In companies with policies to hire PWD, almost 97% said that would hire PWD. In companies where there are not policies 51.7% answered that they would not hire PWD. In companies where there are policies for hiring PWD just a 3.2% answered that would not hire PWD. 48.3% of the managers of companies with no policies to hire PWD answered they would not hire PWD.

As the chart shows, if there are policies of hiring PWD the attitude of the manager is positive.

Chart 14. Policies of hiring PWD.

40 This information was gathered from relevant actors’ interviews. 41 National Council of Population and Family, CONAPOFA. Labor inclusion of PWD in the Dominican Republic. February, 2003. Consejo Nacional de Población y Familia (CONAPOFA). Inserción en el Mercado Laboral de Personas con Discapacidad en República Dominicana. Impreso en República Dominicana. Febrero del 2003.

53

Source: Chart 8 CONAPOFA, 2003. Chart 15. Companies with PWD hired or not, taking into account the existence of policies.

Source: Chart 9, CONAPOFA. 2003 The attitude to the social inclusion of PWD in the company policies gets a higher level when the results are the expected. Only 24, from 362 managers, answered that there are persons with some disability hired. There is no information, at the study, if there is some relation between the gender of the manager and the hiring of PWD. This relation doesn’t show in the existence of policies for hiring PWD.

Will the company hire a person

with disabilities?

Yes No

Total

Is there a policy?

Total % Total % Total %

Yes 60 96.8 2 3.2 62 100.0

No 155 51.7 145 48.3 300 100.0

Total 215 59.4 147 40.6 362 100.0

Is there some person with

disabilities hired in the company?

Yes No

Total

Is there any policy?

Total % Total % Total %

Yes 17 27.4 45 72.6 62 100.0

No 7 2.3 293 97.7 300 100.0

Total 24 6.6 338 93.4 362 100.0

54

The chart shows that in the 62 companies where there are policies of hiring, 27.4% answered that there are persons with some disability hired. A 72.6% answered that there are not persons with some disability hired. In the 300 companies where there are not policies, only 2.3% answered there are PWD hired, and almost 98% answered there are not PWD hired. Companies with policies of hiring, 45 are more than two times the companies with PWD hired. Although, in companies where there is some policy, the number of hired persons is still higher (17) to the number of companies where there is no policies (7). The study shows that, when the design of company policies for hiring PWD is higher, the number of persons with disabilities working in those companies is higher too. Managers that would hire PWD. . No matter if there is or there is not policies for hiring PWD of how many PWD would be hired, 60% from the 362 managers answered that would hire persons with some type of disability. 40% answered they would not. Chart 16 shows the reasons of the last ones to change their mind. Chart 16. Managers that would or would not hire PWD. .

Would youhire…? Total % Yes 215 59.4 No 147 40.6 Total 362 100

Source: Chart 10. CONAPOFA, 2003

55

Managers that would or would not hire PWD

No41%

Yes59%

Source: Chart 10. CONAPOFA, 2003

Chart 17. Interviewed managers. PWD hired.

Source: CONAPOFA. Chart 11,.2003 PWD as a result of an accident or illness are hired in high percentage, 41%, followed by deaf-mute with 16%. The chart shows also, hired people without an extremity, without explanation of what was the cause although this disability could be a result of an accident. Reason why Managers won’t hire PWD.

The absence of companies’ internal policies is the higher reason to not hiring PWD, followed by the absence of precedents. 36% of the managers answered that if there were some policies they would hire PWD. 13% answered that they would hire PWD because there is no

Type of Disability Total %

As a cause of illness of accident.

10

41.7

Deaf-Mute person 4 16.7 Lack of some extremity (legs of arms)

3

12.5

Blind person 2 8.3 Others 5 20.8 Total 24 100

56

precedent. 12% said that the type of job is an obstacle to hire PWD. Chart 18: Interviewed managers who will not hire PWD.

Why you do not hire PWD? Total % Absence of policies 53 36.1 There is no precedents 20 13.6 For the type of job 19 12.9 Manager’s prejudices 17 11.6 Infrastructures 16 10.9 The company is small 9 6.1 The economic situation does Not allow it.

2

1.4

Doesn’t know/Doesn’t answer 11 7.5 Total 147 100

Source: CONAPOFA. Tomado del cuadro No. 12. 2003

Chart 19: Managers interviewed, and the reasons which motivate them to hire PWD.

57

Source: CONAPOFA. Tomado del cuadro No. 13. 2003

Reasons Total % Capability of the person 165 76.7 Economical incentives from the Government

23

10.7

Capability of the person and incentives form the Government

8

3.7

Humanitarian Reasons 1 0.5 Depends of the type of job 1 0.5 Others 17 7.9 Total 215 100

The usual practice of hiring PWD in public and private companies would be the higher factor to motivate the hiring of PWD, no matter the gender of the managers, as shown in the chart.

Chart 20. Attitude of the managers interviewed if there was some governmental policy to support companies which would hire PWD.

Attitude Total % To hire a person with disabilities 107 49.8 To adequate the facilities 33 15.3 To do sensitization activities 30 14.0 To hire PWD and to adequate the 7

3.3 Facilities

To hire PWD and to do 4

Sensitization activities 1.9

All the above mentioned 1 0.5 Other reasons 33 15.3 Total 215 100

Source. CONAPOFA. Chart 14, 2003 The capability of the person and the governmental economical incentives are the reasons which motivate the hiring of PWD. It is important to have a governmental policy to hire PWD, and also the modification of the facilities of the company.

58

Socio-Demographic characteristics of PWD hired. Characteristics Total % Gender 38

23 15

100 60.5 39.5

Male Female Age 38

15 16 6 1

100 39.5 42.1 15.8 2.6

Younger than 24 years From 25 to 44 years old From 45 to 64 years old

Older than 64 years old Level of Studies (Schooling) 38

2 14 14 8

100 5.3 36.8 36.8 21.1

None Primary Secondary

Universitary te: CONAPOFA. Tomado d cuadro 5. 2003 Fuen el

38 4 22 4

Years working at the company Less than 1 year 1 to 3 years 4 to 5 years No. 1

More than 5 years 8

100 10.5 57.9 10.5 21.1

Source: CONAPOFA, 2003. From Chart 15.

The PWD as result of an accident or disease profile hired by the companies shows men among 25 and 44 years old, with primary and secondary studies. They are working at the companies from 1 to 3 years. This shows that the practice of hiring is recent. The number of women hired is significant related with the number of men. The access to education favors the possibilities of hiring. When the academic of technical level is higher there is more chance to access the labor market. This is where take importance the need of an adequate curriculum and the physic access to the facilities of education centers of all levels to integrate PWD of all ages. It will contribute to develop their potential and to increase their self-esteem. It could have been interesting to get data from the State Secretary of Labor that show the number of unemployed persons, and compare this numbers to PWD unemployed.

59

6.5 Information and Communication

The Dominican Institute of Telecommunications (INDOTEL, in Spanish) is the State Institute created by the 153-98 General Law of Telecommunications that regulates and supervises de telecommunications market. Its mission is to regulate and to promote the services of telecommunication to the society in a free, loyal and effective competitive market. Personnel from the Executive Direction Office and the Fund for the development of Communication (FDT) from INDOTEL, said that there are not policies or programs for PWD and also there is no statistical information. A representative from the most important company of telecommunications, Verizon (former Dominican Company of Telephones) said that, in the company, there are no policies or sales offers of services for PWD. A representative of the Customer Service of the headquarters office in Santo Domingo, from the national company TRICOM, the second in importance, said that there are no policies or sales offers of telephones to persons with hearing disability. Neither Orange from Santo Domingo has special aids for people with some hearing problem, nevertheless they say that “if a person has interest, asked in a dealer office it is possible to verify if they have some accessory that can be requested to the matrix office. At the website of Centennial there is for sale cellular pone “Kyocera Phantom”, with characteristics such as TTY and TDD programming for persons with hearing problems. The text has the following information: Basic Characteristics -The CDMA2000 1X technology allows archives transfer at 153 Kbps -25 ring tones and vibrating buzzer mode. - Several languages - Speakers connector - Games Program of predictive introduction, to easily write texts TTY and TTD for people with hearing disability. Additional Characteristics - Optional interchangeable

60

- Incoming call alert with illustrations, games and screen protector, easy to visualize in a monochromatic five lines screen. The main office of Santo Domingo said that there is a sales point at the well know Plaza Internacional where you can find the phone, the lady employee was surprised when we asked for the cell phone and get to know that it has characteristics for PWD. She can not explain the specific functions for PWD, and consulted with the Marketing Department. They told us that there is an accessory for people with hearing problems, but the accessory is not available in the country. At the State Corporation of Radio and Television (former Antigua Radio Televisión Dominicana) and specifically at the Programming and Press Department, we asked about the sign language services at the TV News and they said that the service was suspended two years ago. The person who worked as sign translator had a specialization at the USA but is not longer at the TV Station.

6.6 Access to physic areas and transportation.

The lady director of the Municipal Urban Planning Office from the Municipality of Santiago, the office which since 2004 gathers statistical data, gave the information about the issue. In the revisions to public buildings construction planes, the execution of the international standards demanded ramps, no winding-staircases, parking space measures, among others. These demands are revised, with unified criteria, by the Colleges of Architects, Engineers, Surveyors (CODIA in Spanish) and the City Secretary of Public Infrastructure. The international norms are: Neufer, Piazzolla Encyclopedia and American Standard. There is no information about how many planes have been corrected to accomplish the disability related norms. Some years ago the municipal constructions were not revised. Now, the office works have relation with public and private constructions. Plan of the Model Unit to the Violence Assistance based in gender, which the Municipality is in constructing now, accomplishes the norms. There is the probability that at the north region the Urban Planning Offices of the Municipalities do not accomplish the norms. The Municipality of Santiago gives consultantship to Tamboril, Licey, San José de las Matas, La Canela, La Ciénaga, for these municipalities ask for advice only in case of big constructions. At Santo Domingo the Urban Planning Office demands the execution of these norms. The lady director of the Municipal Urban Planning Office from the Municipality of Santiago said that she has been in meetings with PWD, organized by the

61

Rehabilitation Association and is thankful for the collaboration which will be taken into account and suggest to make a revision of the norms with all the Urban Planning Offices, the Secretary Public Infrastructure and CODIA to unify criteria and demand common norms on the construction plans. At the largest cities in the country, you can observe the increase of parking lots with spaces signalised for PWD, although there are persons that do not respect this spaces. To enable physical spaces for a better access of PWD contributes to eliminate their development barriers in all spaces. One person with disabilities interviewed said that when he was studying, that the universities don’t promote the independency of PWD. At that time his classmates carried him in arms to climb the stairs and go to classes. A person told him to change his career studies. Now the persons interviewed is the Director of some Department at the new facilities of the University and talks about the institutional policies, which haven’t change, “I am a biology professor and can not climb the stairs to the Laboratories, at the second floor in the new facilities in Santiago, because there are not ramps”.42

At the commemoration of the International Day of Women, on March 8 of 2004, the Municipality authorities inaugurated eight ramps to access the Homeland Altar and other Colonial Monuments of the capital city. For the first time persons from organizations of women with some disability were able to take floral offerings. The Dominican Association of Rehabilitation asked for these ramps in 2003.

To know about this situation, from the point of view of PWD, we took this example from the website www.monografias.com, which shows the troubles of a motor function disability. The article is titled: The equality of opportunities for people with disabilities at The Dominican Republic, by Amauris Rafael German Polanco.43

A normal day for Ogando begins at six o’clock in the morning. From his home in Maquiteria (a capital city suburb) he goes to the OMSA bus stop, in front of Darío Contreras Hospital when he works as Security Officer (guard). Among imprudent drivers which don’t let him pass, and snooping people who stops to look at him to see how he can reach the bus stop Ogando begins his travel in his wheelchair. Some pedestrians can’t stand him in their way and yield: “Get out of my way, you cripple”. When the bus stops he can climb it in less than two minutes, thanks to his day to day training. He can not take a taxi or “voladoras” (like mini-buses) because the

42 This information was gathered from interviews with relevant actors

43 http://www.monografias.com/trabajos5/perdisc/perdisc.shtml

62

drivers refuse to transport this kind of persons. The bus left him at the Caribe Tours corner (a corner with too much traffic) when he has to “climb” in the sidewalk because there is not a single ramp. Then he crosses the street to get to his job without in unsafe street where there is not a semaphore. After several hours at his job he notices that have a lot of errands to do. First he has to go to El Huacal (a building with government offices) when he has to process some personal documents. When he arrives he realizes that he can go further because, although there are elevators, they are not working or there is no electric power. People come and go and nobody ask him if he needs help. He decides to pay someone DR$50 pesos to a handyman and so, he is in. To get down he has to do the same procedure. That’s why he says that he can not leave home without money. Then he goes to the National Library. He has to get some book. When he arrives he realizes that can not go inside because this is not the right building for PWD. He has to go to another place. He arrives to the Plaza de la Cultura facilities and realizes, one more time, that the constructors didn’t take into account the needs of PWD. After 6 P.M. he goes to the University (UASD) when he repeats the same daily “viacrucis” (succession of troubles). Take the bus and he arrives to the University he finds the same conditions, but here the students’ vision is different. At the Humanistic Faculty there is no change to arrive the third floor. He stops and two young students help him, with a lot of troubles in the narrow staircases, which makes his arrival a difficult matter.

7. Mapping of actors (male and female) of information This mapping of actors and the information is based in the valuation and analysis of each one of the answers of the actors selected for the individualized interviews of at the Focus Groups. There are included officers from the government, from the Secretaries of Education (SEE), Health (SESPAS], and Labor (ST). This work was compared with the answers and the empowering found in PWD. It means that the grading will allow locating each group of actors in function of their achievements, the level of power and the levels of integration to the community, and the labor participation, as well as the Dominican society. The mapping of actors is showed, by groups, in the final graph. The Level of Power to work in favor of PWD of each group is valuated, understanding their possibilities because of the environment where they are involved, and knowing that their work does not depend of the officers or the leaders per se. It depends from structures, such as social, economical and cultural environment, which influences the way the actors express their opinion and explains the level of power to react in favor or PWD.

63

The other element took into account to elaborate the Mapping of Actors is the Level of Adhesion or Opposition, expressed or forbidden, that was identified when interviewing the key actors. This level of adhesion or opposition is related with the level of personal commitment assumed by the selected actors. These three elements allow to graphic the results. (See Annexes)

• Grading of the key actors, representatives of the Government. Eleven actors. Four from Communications, three from the State Secretary of Labor, two from the Secretary of Health, two from the Secretary of Education and one from the National Council of PWD, CONADIS. See Chart 29.

Chart 22. Government officers.

Actors Interviewe

d

Level of Power to act in favor of PWD

Adhesion to governmental

programs

Opposition

Government officers

4

2

2

Power : Very high 5, High 4, Medium 3, Low 2, Very Low -1 Adhesion: High 3, Medium 2, Low Opposition: High 3, Medium 2, Low 1

• Grading of key actors, representatives of the civil society, including patronage organizations, private educational institutions, clubs and organizations of PWD that promote the in insertion and integration to the society, in pleno jure, of PWD. 10 actors: Association of Blind People of Cibao, Cibao Association of Rehabilitation, Young Volunteers Program, Dominican Association of Rehabilitation, Sport Club in Wheelchairs, Circle of Women with Disabilities (CIMUDIS in Spanish), APEC University, Urban Planning Department from the Municipality of Santiago and National Institute of Technical and Professional Formation (INFOTEP in Spanish). See Chart 30.

Chart 23. Interviews with leaders of the civil society, in the country.

Interviewed Actors

Level of power to act in favor or PWD

Adhesion to the programs

Opposition

Líderes de la sociedad civil

2

5

1

64

Power : Very High 5, High 4, Medium 3, Low 2, Very Low 1 Adhesion : High 3, Medium 2, Low Opposition : High 3, Medium 2, Low 1

• Grading of key actors representatives of PWD. Eleven actors. One University Professor with motor function disabilities, nine members of a focus group facilitated by the Blind People Association and the Executive Director of CONADIS.

Chart 24. People who live with some disability condition. Interviewe

d Actors Level of power

to act in favor of their disabilities

Adhesion to the programs

Opposition

PWD 1

4

1

Power : Very High 5, High 4, Medium 3, Low 2, Very Low 1 Adhesion : High 3, Medium 2, Low Opposition : High 3, Medium 2, Low 1 The mapping and the information gathered through the interviews to actors show a summary of how they are aware of the current situation of PWD. With a promulgated law in 2000 it was observed that the officers of the Government express a high level of power to impact in the assistance of PWD. However it is evident low level of adhesion to the programs, plans and projects, and the worse thing is that some opposition levels were identified to get in action these programs plans and projects.

In relation to the leaders of the civil society, and in relation to all the gathered data it can be synthesized in that this sector expressed to possess little level of power to be able to impact in the attainment of what PWD need, but they have a high level of adhesion to work in favor of PWD needs. It was noticed low levels of opposition for the progress and the advance of actions in favor of PWD. Finally, when PWD was interviewed it could be noticed that they believe to possess low level of power to carry out important works and efforts to impact the society, due to their disability condition. Although is evident their adhesion to fight and work for projects that allow their progress and advance of PWD.

8. Conclusions and Recommendations

8.1. Conclusions

65

There is a sustained work in assistance to PWD from more than thirty five years behind in the Dominican Republic. This work is done by the civil society, where organizations have maintained and managed programs to the rehabilitation and the recovery of mental or motor-function abilities. There are macro factors at the economical, political and cultural orders that affect the country and rebound in the development of programs directed to assist the disabilities topic at public and private sectors, and the interviewed persons identified them as an inconvenient to the organizational linking. Through the years, the State actions did not represent recognition of the problems neither a political will. It was until 2000 when the Congress promulgated the Law 42-2000, a legislative work as a result of international and national efforts. However, the imbalance among the elements of the Law System of the Dominican Republic has impeded its execution and impact, in five years. Neither the Inter-American Convention for the Elimination of all type of Discrimination against PWD ratified and signed by the State nor the National Congress on August 6, 1999, a tool to strengthen up the national mechanisms, was executed. Law 42-2000 lacks a conceptual framework on the disabilities topic and related terms. There are no dispositions that enlarge on the time of parental responsibility, for example the establishment of pensions for those persons with disabilities older than 18 years. There is a lack of data to profile PWD and, although the international percentages are assumed, it is probably an increase of the percentages taking into account the actual economical crisis, the poverty index, the vulnerability at the nature phenomena, among other circumstances. The most frequent disabilities in the country are: physical (24.3%), visual (14.0%), intellectual (11.6%) and auditory (6.8%). The different types of disabilities affect women and men equally. But women with disabilities also have to cope with the “blindness of gender” or the nearsighted vision of the System toward women. Although they have been carried out investigations and there is statistical data in some areas, the information about the disabilities topic is dispersed and it becomes difficult to make a compilation of the issue. In the governmental sector, exists the political criteria of keep the information or make it not accessible the budget data to the public due to the intention of determine protagonists from the political party.

At social level there are prejudices and stigmatization against PWD in their own families and in the society, as can be seen in the exclusion of the education and labor systems, and the access to the public places and areas, as a reflect of the traditional pattern of isolation. The medical and education models seem to be the most developed. That opens space to the human

66

rights model based in the promotion of the autonomy and the enjoyment, under conditions of equality, of the fundamental human rights in all the environments. In the Latin American region the responsible institutions for developing the state commitments are dedicated to the direct attention, through programs of assistance and rehabilitation, to the disabilities topic, but they hardly impact in the inspection of the execution of an effective regulatory scheme in the countries and in the formulation of law policies, to eradicate poverty and to improve the quality of PWD’s life. They are institutions that still don't have an outstanding role, in the inclusive agenda of development. In our country, the budget of the Institution in Charge (Organo Rector in Spanish) is low. In the last government period the funds were not well spent, and in the current administration a strategic breakthrough becomes difficult. The education for the Diversity has been executed for those students in segregated classrooms. There has being excluded of appropriate assistance those who, being in regular classrooms, had difficulties to learn due to different causes. The lack of programs in the superior system of education (University level), that give expertise to the teachers, as long as the low budgets in the Education system, impede the implementation of processes based in the promotion of the autonomy and the respect of the right of equality. In public and private companies whit policies for recruiting PWD, the number of persons hired is higher than in those companies which do not have a policy for hiring PWD. There is not foreseen, in general, institutional policies to hire PWD.

Keeping in mind that the index of disabilities is increased in countries like ours, where the risk of acquiring disabilities secondarily or starting from birth conditions are high, there is the necessity of an opening to the system of assistance to PWD, which held enough economic resources and political will from the State of the Dominican Republic.

8.2 Recommendations

To establish constant and coordinated campaigns programs to locate the topic of disabilities in the public opinion and to sensitize the people and the structures of power in the country. To ratify the Inter-American Convention for the Elimination in all type of Discrimination against People with Disabilities signed by the State of the Dominican Republic on August 6, 1999. It is also recommended to adopt official definitions on disabilities and relative issues, taking from reference the international documents as long as the terms of same Convention.

67

It is necessary to promote the 42-2000 Law, and starting from its knowledge, to ponder it modification and to introduce the necessary upgrades. In this sense, to motivate the civil organizations, still those that are not dedicated to the topic of disabilities, to enlarge on the version of the regulatory scheme in the topics of gender, age, among others.

To speed up the creation of the by-laws regulations of the 42-2000 Law, starting from CONADIS, as Institution in Charge, and to take advantage of the elaboration of the regulations to include concepts, focus, as well as approaches that enlarges on its interpretive vision for application issues. To promote the access of PWD to the Justice system, through public and private programs of legal consultantship, allowing them to claim for discrimination topics due to their condition, and to promote the creation of Jurisprudence.

The State Secretary of Labor, SEP and the State Secretary of Public Health, SESPAS should include in its statistical reports the information related to the integration at the labor market, special treatments assistance and education of PWD. This information should be published for the knowledge of the society, inside and outside institutional limits. The State Secretary of Labor should recapture the development of programs, like PRAXIS, to promote the labor integration of PWD, through agreements of protected jobs in public and private companies. It will be another recommendation to promote the medical specializations in the national education system curricula. To reinforce the implementation of development projects of inclusive schools and community support, with the purpose of ending the segregation and exclusion, and to foment the process of educational inclusion.

To promote the creation of companies’ policies that favor –facilitate- the recruiting of people with disabilities.

68

9. Bibliography

• CURIEL, Ochy. 2004. La Lucha Política de las Mujeres ante las Nuevas Formas de Racismo. Aproximación al análisis de estrategias. http://www.mulheresnegras.org/doc/ochy_curiel.pdf.

CURIEL, Ochy, 2004. The Political Fight of Women before the New Forms of Racism. Approach to the analysis of strategies. http://www.mulheresnegras.org/doc/ochy_curiel.pdf

• Informe Referente a las Prácticas de Derechos Humanos en la

República Dominicana Año 2004, sometido a la comisión de asuntos exteriores de la cámara de representantes y la comisión de relaciones exteriores del senado de los Estados Unidos por el departamento de estado de conformidad con las secciones 116(d) y 502(b) de la ley de 1961 de Asistencia Exterior y sus enmiendas. (Traducción no oficial) http://www.usenm.gov.do/HR_report_2004.pdf

Report related to the Practices of Human Rights in the Dominican Republic 2004, subjected to the commission of foreign affairs of the Chamber of Representatives and the Commission of Foreign Relationships of the US Senate by the Department of State according to sections 116(d) and 502(b) of the 1961 Law of External Assistance and their amendments. (Non official translation) http://www.usenm.gov.do/HR_report_2004.pdf

• PNUD. 2005. Informe Nacional de Desarrollo Humano. República

Dominicana. Déficit Vitamínico y Mineral, República Dominicana, Informe Valorativo del Año. http://www.micronutrient.org/VMD/DARs/DomRep.pdf.

UNDP, 2005. National Report of Human Development Human. Dominican Republic. The deficit of Vitamins and Minerals. Dominican Republic, Report for Leaders, Evaluative Report of the Year. http://www.micronutrient.org/VMD/DARs/DomRep.pdf.

• PACHECO, Gilda, Tojo, Liliana y otras. 2004. Los Derechos Humanos

de las Mujeres: Fortaleciendo su promoción y Protección Internacional. Instituto Interamericano de Derechos Humanos, IIDH y Centro por la Justicia y el Derecho Internacional, CEJIL. Impresora Mundo Gráfico.

PACHECO, Gilda, Tojo, Liliana and others. 2004. The Human Rights of Women: Strengthening up their promotion and International Protection. Inter-American Institute of Human Rights, IIDH and Center for Justice and International Right, CEJIL. Printed by Mundo Gráfico.

69

• CASTILLO D., Gineida Y QUITERIO B., Gisela. 2004. Estudio Diagnóstico sobre Educación Especial y Atención a la Diversidad en República Dominicana. Informe Preliminar presentado a la Agencia de Cooperación Española Internacional, AECI. Santo Domingo CASTILLO D., Gineida AND QUITERIO B., Gisela. 2004. Diagnosis and Study on Special Education and Assistance to the Diversity in the Dominican Republic. Preliminary Report presented to the Spanish Agency of International Cooperation, AECI. Santo Domingo.

• LANTIGUA A, Diógenes y otros/as.2003. Inserción en el Mercado

Nacional de Personas con Discapacidad en la República Dominicana 2003. Para el Consejo Nacional de Población y Familia, CONAPOFA. Santo Domingo, R. Dominicana.

LANTIGUA A., Diógenes and others. 2003. Inclusion in the National Market of People with Disabilities in the Dominican Republic 2003. For the National Council of Population and Family, CONAPOFA. Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

• VARSAVSKY, Judith A. 2001. “El Movimiento Asociativo de los Ciegos

en América Latina”. Cuadernos GESTA, Año I, No. 1, Julio. VARSAVSKY, Judith A. 2001. "The Associative Movement of Blind People in Latin America”. GESTA Notebooks, Year One, Number 1. July.

• Asociación Dominicana de Rehabilitación. (ADR). Memoria Anual 2004

Asamblea General Nacional Ordinaria. 2005. Dominican Association of Rehabilitation. (ADR). Annual Report 2004. National Ordinary General Assembly, 2005.

• Encuesta Demográfica y de Salud. (ENDESA). República Dominicana.

2002.

Demographic and Health Survey. (ENDESA). Dominican Republic. 2002.

• Resolución 56/168, Asamblea General de las Naciones Unidas, 19 de

diciembre del 2001. Resolution 56/168, General Assembly of the United Nations, December 19, 2001.

• Ley General 42-2000, sobre Discapacidad en la República Dominicana,

Publicada en la Edición Oficial de la Gaceta Oficial No.1049, del 30 de Junio del 2000.

70

General Law 42-2000 on Disabilities in the Dominican Republic, Published in the Official Edition of the Official Gazette number 1049, June 30, 2000.

• Censo Nacional de Población. República Dominicana. 2002.

National Population Census, Dominican Republic. 2002.

• SESPAS/OPS, 1996. La situación de Salud de la República Dominicana.

SESPAS/PAHO. 1996. The situation of Health in the Dominican Republic.

• Oficina Nacional de Planificación (ONAPLAN). Focalización de la

Pobreza en la República Dominicana. 1997 National Office of Planning (ONAPLAN). Focusing Poverty in the Dominican Republic. 1997.

• FACIO, Alda. Cuando el Género Suena Cambios Trae. 1999... Costa

Rica. ILANUD

• FACIO, Alda. When the Gender Sounds, it Brings Changes*. 1999... Costa Rica. ILANUD. *Note: An analogy for the colloquial refrain: Where there is smoke, there is fire.

• Consejo Nacional de Población y Familia (CONAPOFA). 2003. Inserción

en el Mercado Laboral de Personas con Discapacidad en República Dominicana. Impreso en República Dominicana.

• National Council of Population and Family (CONAPOFA). 2003.

Inclusion in the Labor Market of People with Disabilities in the Dominican Republic. Printed in the Dominican Republic.

• Convención Interamericana para la Eliminación de Todas Formas de

Discriminación Contra las Personas Discapacitadas. Organización de Estados Americanos (OEA)

• Inter-American Convention for the Elimination of all Type of

Discrimination against PWD. Organization of American States (OAS).

• Ley 24-97 sobre Violencia Doméstica o Intrafamiliar y Sexual. Law 24-97 on Domestic - Family and Sexual Violence.

• Secretaría de Estado de Relaciones Exteriores. 1998. Derechos

Humanos. Recopilación de Tratados, Leyes, Decretos, Reglamentos y

71

Resoluciones vigentes en la República Dominicana. Amigo del Hogar. Santo Domingo

• State Secretary of Foreign Relationships. 1998. Humans Rights.

Summary of Treaties, Laws, Ordinances, Regulations and effective Resolutions in the Dominican Republic. Amigo del Hogar, Santo Domingo.

10. Annexes

SPANISH ENGLISH MAPA DE POSICIÓN MAP OF POSITION PODER LEVEL OF POWER APOYO SUPPORT OPOSICIÓN OPPOSITION MUY ALTO VERY HIGH ALTO HIGH MEDIANO MEDIUM BAJO LOW MUY BAJO VERY LOW SECTOR GUBERNAMENTAL GOVERNMENTAL SECTOR SOCIEDAD CIVIL CIVIL SOCIETY PERSONAS CON DISCAPACIDAD PEOPLE WHIT DISABILITIES

72

Poder : Muy alto (5), Alto (4), Mediano (3), Bajo (2), Muy bajo (1)Apoyo : Alto (3), Medio (2), Bajo (1)Oposición : Alta (3), Media (2), Bajo (1)

MAPA DE POSICION

APOYO OPOSICION1 3 3

PODER

1

5

4

3

2

12 2

Sector GubernamentalSociedad CivilPersonas en Discapacidad

Poder : Muy alto (5), Alto (4), Mediano (3), Bajo (2), Muy bajo (1)Apoyo : Alto (3), Medio (2), Bajo (1)Oposición : Alta (3), Media (2), Bajo (1)

MAPA DE POSICION

APOYO OPOSICION 1 3 3

PODER

1

5

4

3

2

1

5

4

3

2

12 2

Sector GubernamentalSociedad CivilPersonas en Discapacidad

i CENISMI” HIV infection and Aids, as a maternal infantile Public Health problem in the Dominican Republic. Series: Reuniones Tácticas. Edited by Edith Pérez, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, 2000.

73