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At OAS, Dominican Republic Joins Inter-American Agreements on Adoption of Children and against the Death Penalty

The Permanent Representative of the Dominican Republic to the Organization of American States (OAS), Ambassador Robert Saladin, today presented the Secretary General of the OAS, José Miguel Insulza, the instrument of his country's accession to the Protocol of the American Convention to Abolish the Death Penalty, and the ratification of the Inter-American Convention on Conflict of Laws Concerning the Adoption of Minors, which reiterates the country’s commitment in the fight against these scourges.

At the ceremony, held at OAS headquarters in Washington, DC, Secretary General Insulza congratulated the Dominican government and said that these two conventions "are setting a certain homogeneity of the law of the Americas in directions that are important in the current democratic political process."

In regard to the Protocol to Abolish the Death Penalty, the Secretary General Insulza expressed regret that "even though the vast majority of the countries of the Americas have assumed this even in their constitutions, there are still countries which practice the death penalty." He added that "while in Latin America the death penalty has no longer been applied for some time now, I hope that over time it can be abolished," and stressed the importance of other countries adhering to this convention so that it is possible “to obtain the ratification of most of them in a short time."

Ambassador Saladin stressed the commitment of his country to the protection of the right to life and the abolition of the death penalty, and referred to his country’s progress on this issue. "With this deposit, the Dominican Republic takes action to continue to promote the fight against this scourge," the diplomat said.

Regarding the ratification of the Convention on Conflict of Laws Concerning the Adoption of Minors, the Secretary General Insulza said that "the Convention responds to the reality that more and more children are being adopted by people living in another country, and this causes great difficulty when discussing which laws are applicable." He also recalled that "with the Dominican Republic, there are now nine countries that have agreed to harmonize their legislation and policy regarding this matter," and he hoped that "all countries of the Americas adopt the same regulations."

The Caribbean country's ambassador, for his part, stressed that "this effort is in addition to other actions the Dominican State has taken in fulfilling its obligation to take all appropriate legislative, administrative, and judicial measures to ensure that all children and adolescents fully and effectively enjoy their rights.”

"By incorporating this instrument we are strengthening the legal institution of adoption, and therefore the State has an obligation to create the necessary mechanisms to prevent the indiscriminate use of adoption," he said.

Updated information on the status of signatures and ratifications of multilateral treaties and the full texts of these instruments is on the website of the OAS International Law Department.

A gallery of photos of the event is available here.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-020/12