Child Labor and Forced Labor Reports

Dominican Republic

Baked Goods
Baked Goods
Child Labor Icon
Coffee
Coffee
Child Labor Icon
Rice
Rice
Child Labor Icon
Sugarcane
Sugarcane
Child Labor Icon
Forced Labor Icon
Tomatoes
Tomatoes
Child Labor Icon
Bagasse
Bagasse
IPFL
Furfural
Furfural
IPFL
Molasses
Molasses
IPFL
Raw Sugar
Raw Sugar
IPFL
Refined Sugar
Refined Sugar
IPFL
Rum
Rum
IPFL
Dominican Republic
2023 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor:

Minimal Advancement – Efforts Made but Continued Practice that Delayed Advancement

In 2023, the Dominican Republic made minimal advancement in efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labor. The government enacted Resolution 10-2023, which added 14 additional dangerous and unhealthy categories of prohibited activities for persons under 18 years of age to the country’s hazardous work list, including domestic work. The Ministry of Labor and the Attorney General's Office also signed an inter-institutional agreement to increase their coordination to address child labor. However, despite these new initiatives to address child labor, the Dominican Republic is assessed as having made only minimal advancement because school administrators continued to deny access to education to a significant number of children who were without identity or residency documents. Barriers to education access increase children's vulnerability to child labor. Children without identity or residency documents, most of whom are of foreign origin or descent, were also being prevented from receiving social services, including access to the government's poverty reduction and vocational training programs. In addition, significant enforcement gaps remain, including limited human and financial resources for labor and criminal enforcement agencies and the lack of authority for labor inspectors to directly assess penalties for labor law violations. The Dominican Republic's legal prohibitions related to child trafficking are also insufficient because they require threats, the use of force, or coercion for the crime of child trafficking to have occurred.

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