PARTICIPANTS’ PAPERS

PROMOTION OF LEGAL AID FOR OFFENDERS AND VICTIMSIN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Julio A. Aybar Ortiz*

I. ACCESS TO JUSTICE
Access to justice is a universally recognized principle which is of central importance within the estate oflaw, since without access to justice citizens will not be able to make themselves heard, exercise their rights,
face discrimination or hold public officials to account for state decision-making.
This principle has been consigned in several international treaties of which the Dominican Republic is asignatory, including article 10 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 25 of the American
Convention on Human Rights, article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, article 13of the Brasilia rules, and more recently in the Sustainable Development Goals, especially number 16.3, whichstates that each nation must promote the rule of law at the national and international levels and guarantee
equal access to justice for all.
Sustainable development goal 16 summarizes the interest of the signatory nations arguing that: “the ruleof law and development are significantly interrelated and mutually reinforcing, which is why it is essential
for sustainable development at the national and international level.” Goal 3 places the machinery of judiciary
systems as irreplaceable factors in achieving peaceful and just societies. This is so because equitable accessto justice is essential to guarantee the fundamental principle of human dignity, in the same way it serves asa cross-cutting mechanism for the redistribution of social justice.
In the Dominican nation, following these guidelines, the principle of access to justice has been enshrinedin the constitution itself, when it states in article 69 that every person in the exercise of their legitimate
rights and interests has the right to obtain effective judicial protection, with respect for due process that will
be made up of the minimum guarantees, the first being the right to accessible, timely and free justice.
Nationwide, the debate on justice and access to it arouses great interest in different sectors of public
opinion. The Judiciary has designated itself as a standard-bearer to reform the justice system, since 1994
there are records of clear actions and adoption of policies to improve the justice service and access to it. In
effect, since the last appointments of judges of the Supreme Court of Justice who can rule on matterspertaining to the development of justice, the country has undergone considerable reforms in the entire
justice administration apparatus, among them, the dignification of the judiciary career, the training of humancapital for the judiciary and the expansion of relevant services such as the public defender's office.
The procedural criminal law, for its part, has also enshrined the principle of fast, free and timely accessto justice; we can appreciate it in the criminal procedure code, for example, which establishes in articles 11and 12 that all persons are equal before the law and must be treated according to the same rules and thatthe parties participate in the process on equal terms. For the full and unrestricted exercise of their powers
and rights, judges must remove all obstacles that impede the validity or weaken this principle.
These principles of access to justice, equality of parties and dignity of people have promoted the creationof institutions whose purpose is to ensure the right of defence of citizens and that they can access judicialservices easily, quickly and free of charge. Next, we go on to point out those in the Dominican legal system,
their legal basis and the prevailing reality today.
* Judge, Criminal Courts of Santo Domingo Judicial Branch, Dominican Republic.

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II. NATIONAL PUBLIC DEFENDER’S OFFICE
A. Background
The right to legal assistance has been enshrined since the first Dominican constitution, this right to legal
assistance has evolved over time and it is no longer enough that the defendant knows the accusation, butthat in his defence he can provide evidence, refute those that are produced against him, and of course, choose
the services of a lawyer he trusts, in case he does not have the financial means to pay for it, he must be
assigned a defender paid by the State as a guarantee of the aforementioned access to justice.
Before the creation of the national public defender’s office, in the Dominican Republic there was only thefigure of the office defender’s, who was a legal professional appointed by the Judiciary who was attached toa certain court. Needless to say, he did not have the same preparation as current public defenders.
This defender was assigned to any person who requested it and only during the trial phase. Along withthem, there were some popular lawyers of university law schools, some NGOs dedicated to free legal defence
and law students who carried out their legal practice, since the law at that time allowed high school
graduates to represent criminal defendants.
Faced with these deficiencies, local entities and international organizations signed a cooperation agreementin 1993, among them we can highlight the participation of the Supreme Court of Justice, the Pedro Henríquez
Ureña National University (UNPHU) and the Latin American Institute of Nations for the Prevention of Crimeand Treatment of Delinquents (ILANUD), starting a pilot project to establish a system of free legal assistance.
The project failed promptly due to lack of funding; it was only in force until 1997. We must highlight that
other entities supported and financed the project, such as the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID). In 1998, the Commissioner for Support to the Reform and Modernization of Justiceassumed this programme until it was closed for budgetary reasons and lack of political will.
Given the lack of public defenders, in 1998, the Supreme Court of Justice, making use of the power
established in Article 77 of Law no. 327 of the Judiciary Career, which deals with arranging everythingnecessary to organize a system of free legal assistance, approved by Resolution no. 512, dated 19 April 2002,
the creation of the National Office of Judiciary Defense, in order to organize, direct and guarantee theprovision of technical defence services, provided in an effective, timely, free and permanent manner, topersons of low economic resources. This office was created within the judiciary body, with administrative
dependency, but technical and functional independence.
B. PresentIn 2004, Law no. 277, created the National Public Defender’s Office. This law establishes the functional,administrative and financial autonomy of the institution within the Judiciary, remaining within it for the first
five years and at the end of the aforementioned period it acquired total independence.
Law no. 277-04 not only changed the name of the National Office of Judicial Defense to the National Public
Defender’s Office (NPDO), but also created a career for the public defenders, clearly establishing the role ofthe defence attorney.
The reform of the Constitution of the Dominican Republic in 2010, at its article 176 enshrined theinstitutionality of the Public Defenders as an independent, administrative and budgetary body, responsible
for the effective protection of the right to defence, which must be provided in response to the criteria of free,easy access, efficiency and quality, for people who for whatever reason are not assisted by a lawyer.
C. Future
The figure of the technical defender currently achieves constitutional recognition, and the fruits of thehard work carried out by public defenders every day for the benefit of low-income citizens can be appreciated.
As a defender’s office protocol, daily visits are made to the police detachments of all demarcations, so thatcitizens from the moment of their arrest – should they need it – can count on the immediate and technicalassistance of a public defender, who ensures the guarantee of their fundamental rights of rapid access tojustice as well as the protection of the offender’s integrity.
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The most serious problem that public defence currently has is that, according to the director of that body,
87 per cent of criminal cases nationwide are handled by public defenders who provide free assistance to lowincome people in conflict with the law, but without having the office, the necessary staff, much less with adecent budget that allows them to face the function for which they have been designated with greaterdignity.
The same director of the National Public Defender’s Office, when giving statements on the occasion of theDefender’s Day in 2022, explained in his speech that in relation to the cases of children and adolescents inconflict with criminal law, public defenders attend 100 per cent of the processes – a figure that powerfully
draws attention.
This constitutional body with administrative, functional and financial autonomy has spent several years
complaining in the public arena about how the budget assigned to it by the State is not enough to meet theneeds of the institution and make it functional. It stands out among the statistics that the national office has
approximately 200 public defenders, for a population of more than eleven million inhabitants, which is notenough for the universe of active criminal cases, where eight offices have yet to be opened at the national
level to be able to guarantee due process and that the rights of the processed persons are not violated.
Only in 2017, the Public Defense was seized of 3,500 cases for abandonment of private lawyers, on which
they already had assets. It stands out in practice that a single public defender handles up to 11 processes ona daily basis, which technically can affect the interests of the defendants by not being able to ensure thepreparation of a sufficiently technical and effective defence due to lack of time.

III. VICTIM REPRESENTATION OFFICE
Like the previous body, the representation of victims is also a constitutional mandate, the text is enshrinedin article 177, when it establishes that: “The State will be responsible for organizing free legal assistanceprogrammes and services in favour of people who lack the economic resources to obtain judicial representationof their interests, particularly for the protection of the rights of the victim, without prejudice to the powersthat correspond to the Public Ministry in the field of criminal proceedings.”
Even so, the treatment given by the State to this mandate does not have the same impact as that given
to the public defence, which is only in charge of representing offenders. The Attorney General of theRepublic has timidly had to regulate this right, when through resolution 8518, dated 13 June 2005, theNational Directorate for Attention to Victims is created, a body directly attached to the Attorney General ofthe Republic.
If we make a comparison, this situation was the one experienced by the national public defender’s officein its origins, when it was a dependency of the judiciary, which leads us to the conclusion that politicalinterest are needed to influence the victims representation office so that the appropriate arrangements canbe made and this office can stand out and become a true bastion of the rights of victims in judiciary processes.
Unlike the public defence, which has a body of professional lawyers, the victim assistance office is much
more modest since they have only a few offices nationwide. Currently, extensions of the office are being
created in the Duarte province in the facilities of the Center of Community Houses of Justice, with thepurpose of providing greater space facilities for the services offered to its users.
The function of these victim’s service offices includes directing, coordinating and articulating the effortsof the institutions and organizations committed to the protection, care, intervention and/or monitoring ofvictims of violence, in addition to preventing violations of citizens’ rights.
As its name indicates, this office only serves people who are victims of third parties for criminal offences
who receive free legal assistance and guidance services at its offices.

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It is worth saying that there are so few lawyers in the victims office that other public institutions have
had to provide the service in order to satisfy the demand, among them we can mention the case of the
Women’s Ministry, which has an entire legal department to provide assistance to victims of gender andintrafamily violence, but they only provide service when the crime perpetrated is of this nature.
This ministry has created the service whose sole purpose is to provide support to victims of violenceagainst women and intrafamily violence, without discrimination based on race, nationality, religion, socialcondition, in the different legal processes carried out by the users in search of that their human rights berespected, particularly their right to live a life free from violence.
This office is not independent since it is attached to the Direction of Prevention and Attention to Violenceof the Women’s Ministry, and the budget of the office also draws from the annual budget item of the ministrythat creates it.

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