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In a landmark step forward for gender equity in the Dominican Republic, the national Cabinet for Women, Adolescents and Girls has officially submitted a groundbreaking piece of legislation — named the Mirabal Law — to the country’s Chamber of Deputies. The bill’s core mission is to shore up the nation’s existing legal framework and build a unified, coordinated state-wide response to the persistent crisis of violence against women.

The draft legislation was formally presented at the National Congress by Gloria Reyes, the country’s Minister of Women, joined by top congressional leaders and senior representatives from the nation’s justice and security sectors. Reyes emphasized that the initiative is designed to fix a long-standing flaw in the current system: the fragmentation of institutional support services that forces women fleeing violence to navigate a maze of disconnected government agencies just to access life-saving protection.

“A woman in danger shouldn’t have to find many doors. She should find only one State,” Reyes told attendees at the presentation, underscoring the bill’s user-centered, survivor-first design.

Unlike many past policy proposals, the Mirabal Law was forged through a year-long collaborative inter-institutional process that brought together a diverse cross-section of stakeholders. Beyond the Ministry of Women, the drafting table included leaders from the Public Ministry, the Ministry of the Interior and Police, the National Police, grassroots women’s organizations, national feminist collectives, and leading human rights advocacy groups. The final draft integrates evidence-based recommendations drawn from years of case analysis, assessments of critical service gaps, and decades of sustained grassroots demands for comprehensive, holistic legislation targeting gender-based violence.

If approved, the legislation will codify clear, binding responsibilities for all state institutions involved in addressing gender-based violence. It mandates action across every stage of response: prevention of violence before it occurs, expanded protection for at-risk women, timely access to critical support services, strengthened investigation and prosecution protocols, stricter sanctions for perpetrators, and guaranteed reparations for survivors. It also includes provisions to improve protective outcomes for survivors and their minor children, and ensures inter-agency coordination is backed by dedicated funding, clear accountability structures, and formal monitoring mechanisms.

Congresswoman Kinsberly Taveras, a leading voice on gender equity who spearheaded the earlier “Let Her Go” legislative initiative, noted that the Mirabal Law builds on more than 20 years of incremental work by women’s organizations and public institutions to confront gender-based violence across the country.

Minou Tavárez Mirabal, a prominent advocate and relative of the iconic Mirabal sisters, voiced strong support for the proposal and called for an urgent update to the country’s existing 1997 gender violence law (Law 24-97) to reflect the hard-won lessons learned from nearly three decades of implementation. She also highlighted the deep symbolic weight of naming the legislation after Patria, Minerva and María Teresa Mirabal — three activists assassinated under the Dominican Republic’s Trujillo dictatorship, whose legacy has grown into a global symbol of resistance to gender-based violence and political oppression.

Proponents of the bill are pushing for fast-track consideration by Congress. They have called for legislative leadership to prioritize the proposal, establish a special bicameral commission to review the text and align it with the country’s existing Penal Code, and target a final approval vote in November 2026 — a timeline that would coincide with the annual global commemoration of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

During Tuesday’s elections held on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly session in New York, the Dominican Republic has won re-election to the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) for the 2027 to 2029 term, marking a renewed endorsement of the Caribbean nation’s human rights commitments by the global community.

Dominican Republic Foreign Minister Víctor “Ito” Bisonó emphasized that this successful re-election outcome is far more than a procedural result: it demonstrates the widespread trust UN member states hold in his country’s ongoing dedication to upholding human rights, advancing democratic governance, strengthening the rule of law, and advancing inclusive multilateral cooperation.

Bisonó extended his gratitude to all UN member nations that cast their support for the Dominican Republic’s candidacy. He affirmed that over the coming term, the country will maintain its active efforts to reinforce global human rights governance frameworks, amplify the voice and participation of small island developing states in global human rights discussions, and center the unmet needs of vulnerable populations across the globe in HRC deliberations.

This re-election follows the Dominican Republic’s first tenure on the 47-member intergovernmental body, which runs from 2024 to 2026. During its first term, the country prioritized a series of people-centered initiatives spanning access to education, peacebuilding, the expansion of rights for people living with disabilities, economic empowerment for women, and targeted protection for marginalized groups. It also drew urgent international attention to two pressing underaddressed issues: the negative impacts of climate change on the full enjoyment of human rights, and the complex, multifaceted crisis unfolding in neighboring Haiti.

The Dominican Republic will take its 2027–2029 seat alongside Brazil and Uruguay, the other two successful candidates elected to represent the Group of Latin America and the Caribbean (GRULAC) regional grouping at the HRC.

First established in 2006, the UN Human Rights Council is the leading intergovernmental body tasked with the global mandate to promote, protect, and advance human rights around the world, as well as to respond systematically to situations of fundamental human rights violations that require international attention.

A comprehensive audit conducted by the Comptroller General of the Dominican Republic into the operations of the country’s Ministry of Culture has uncovered more than 300 million Dominican pesos (RD$) in financial and administrative discrepancies spanning the tenure of former minister Milagros Germán, from September 2021 to December 2023. The audit, which assessed every core function of the institution including budget execution, public procurement, treasury management, accounting protocols, asset tracking, inventory control and human resources administration, identified systemic weaknesses in internal governance that regulators warn could compromise institutional operations and financial accountability.

The audit graded the Ministry of Culture’s overall internal control framework at just 58.73%, with uneven performance across different governance components. While the control environment scored a strong 97.67% and information and communication processes reached a perfect 100%, critical control activities only earned a 28% score, and mandatory monitoring and evaluation mechanisms registered a 0% grade. The Comptroller General’s Office warned that these unaddressed gaps pose risks to the integrity of institutional processes, the accuracy of official financial information, and the agency’s ability to mitigate operational risks.

Additional deficiencies were found in the ministry’s accounting infrastructure: key functional modules of the existing system were disabled, and the core accounting component was vastly underutilized. This limitation restricts access to up-to-date, comprehensive financial reports and requires manual interventions to correct data discrepancies, opening further room for error. Ministry representatives confirmed they are currently reviewing proposals to replace the outdated system with a more robust alternative.

The total RD$304.8 million in identified observations breaks down into several distinct categories of concern. The largest component is RD$144.6 million in unexecuted budget allocations, followed by RD$56.3 million in disbursed financial advances for public cultural events, RD$55.6 million in discrepancies between official financial statements and the national Asset Management System, and RD$47.8 million in procurement transactions that were never logged in the official asset tracking system. The audit also flagged RD$526,756 in procurement activities that may have been illegally split to avoid competitive bidding requirements, plus RD$77,100 for an unaccounted-for government-issued tablet that auditors were unable to locate.

However, Germán has pushed back against the framing of the aggregated total as evidence of widespread financial malfeasance during her leadership. In an official statement released Tuesday, the former minister argued that the 304.8 million peso figure lumps together observations of vastly different natures, and should not be automatically read as proof of public funds lost, embezzled or misappropriated.

She specifically challenged the inclusion of the RD$144.6 million in unspent budget, noting that unused allocations remain in public coffers and do not in themselves constitute illegal spending or public losses. Germán also questioned the addition of the RD$56.3 million in advances for major cultural events including Carnival, national book fairs and seasonal festivals, pointing out that the audit’s own section on these transactions confirms the funds were properly authorized and raises no objections to their disbursement.

Germán further noted that a number of the original audit findings have already been withdrawn by the Comptroller’s Office or formally marked as corrected, including initial observations related to petty cash management, staff attendance tracking, software licensing and inventory policies. She also cited a 2024 follow-up audit that recorded a dramatic improvement in the Ministry of Culture’s internal control score, which rose to 83.32% from the 58.73% recorded during her tenure, reflecting progress in addressing governance gaps.

The former minister has called on local newspaper Acento to issue a correction and add necessary context to its initial reporting of the audit findings. She emphasized that she does not oppose transparency or scrutiny of her time in office, and supports full public disclosure of all audit results, the ministry’s official responses, final determinations from the Comptroller General, and any outstanding issues that remain to be resolved.