Dominican Republic

Article 55: Rights of the family

The family is the basis of society and the fundamental space for the integral development of people. It is formed by natural or legal ties, by the free decision of a man and a woman to enter into marriage or by the responsible willingness to conform to it.

1. All persons have the right to form a family, in whose formation and development the woman and man enjoy equal rights and duties and owe one another mutual understanding and reciprocal respect.

2. The State shall guarantee the protection of the family. The good of the family in unalienable and unattachable, in accordance with the law.

3. The State shall promote and protect the organization of the family on the basis of the institution of marriage between a man and a woman. The law shall establish the requirements to enter into it, the formalities of its celebration, its personal and patrimonial effects, the causes of separation or dissolution, and the regime of the property, rights, and duties between the spouses.

4. Religious marriages shall have civil effects in terms established by law, without prejudice to that dictated in international treaties.

5. The singular and stable union between a man and a woman, free from matrimonial impediment, that form a real home, creates rights and duties in their personal and patrimonial relationships, in accordance with the law.

6. Maternity, whether the social condition or the civil state of the woman, shall enjoy the protection of the public powers and causes the right to official assistance in the case of need.

7. All persons have the right to have their personality, their own first name, and the surnames of their father and mother recognized, and to know the identities of the same.

8. All persons have the right from their birth to be inscribed without payment in the civil register or in the book of foreigners and to obtain the public documents that prove their identity, in accordance with the law.

9. All sons and daughters are equal under the law, have equal rights and duties, and shall enjoy the same opportunities for social, spiritual, and physical development. All mentions of the nature of parentage are prohibited in the civil registers and in all identity documents.

10. The State promotes responsible paternity and maternity. The father and the mother, even after separation and divorce, have the shared and non-renounceable duty to feed, raise, train, educate, support, and provide safety and assistance to their sons and daughters. The law shall establish the necessary and appropriate methods to guarantee the effect of these obligations.

11. The State recognizes work at home as an economic activity that creates aggregate value and produces social richness and well-being, therefore it shall be incorporated into the formulation and execution of public and social policies.

12. The State shall guarantee, through the law, safe and effective policies for adoption.

13. The value of young people as strategic actors in the development of the Nation is recognized. The State guarantees and promotes the effective exercise of their rights, through policies and programs that assure, in a permanent manner, their participation in all spheres of national life, and in particular, their training and access to first employment.

Dominican Republic Constitution 2015 – Constitute Project – English (PDF)

Article 1.

For the purposes of this law, the following shall be understood to mean:

a) Trafficking in Persons: The capture, transportation, transfer, reception or reception of persons, using the threat, by force, Coercion, abduction, abuse, abuse of power, or situations of vulnerability or the granting or receipt of payments or benefits to obtain the consent of a person having authority over another for the purpose of exploitation, so that Engages in any form of sexual exploitation, pornography, debt bondage, forced labor or services, servile marriage, irregular adoption, slavery and / or similar practices, or the extraction of organs;

Article 3.

It is considered passable liable of the crime of trafficking in persons that through the capture, transport, transfer, reception or reception of persons, Children, adolescents, women, resorting to threat, force, coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power, situations of vulnerability, concession or receipt of payments or benefits, to obtain the consent of a person having authority over another, To engage in begging, any kind of sexual exploitation, pornography, forced labor or service, debt bondage, servile marriage, irregular adoption, slavery or similar practices, servitude or the removal of organs, even with the consent of the person Victim, and will be sentenced to 15 to 20 years imprisonment and a fine of 175 minimum wages.

Article 5.

The attempt of the illegal traffic of migrants or trafficking in persons will be punished as the same fact erected in violation.

Article 6.

Those who participate as complicit in the commission of the crime of illegal traffic of migrants and trafficking in persons will be subject to the same penalty imposed on those who are the author or authors of the act.

Article 7.

The following are considered aggravating circumstances of the crime of illicit traffic in migrants or trafficking in persons:

A) When the death of the person or persons involved or objects of the illegal traffic of migrants or trafficking in persons occurs, Or when the victim is affected by temporary or permanent physical or psychic damage;

B) When one or more of the perpetrators of the infraction is a public official (s), elected or not, of the central, decentralized, autonomous, or member of the Armed Forces or of the National Police;

C) In the case of a criminal group that can be defined as national or transnational organized crime, due to the participation in the illegal traffic of migrants or trafficking in persons;

D) When there are a plurality of aggrieved as a result of the incriminated facts;

E) If these behaviors are carried out in people who suffer psychological immaturity, or mental disorder, temporary or permanent mental alienation, or are under 18 years of age;

F) When the responsible is spouse or cohabiting or relative to the third degree of consanguinity, first of affinity;

G) When the subject or subjects recidivate in the conduct of trafficking in persons and illegal trafficking of migrants;

H) Any person who creates, alters, produces or falsifies travel documents or identity, furnishes or facilitates the possession of such documents, or who, through said documents, or any other, promotes or obtains for illicit purposes a visa another person.

PARAGRAPH I. – For the aggravating factors indicated in the previous article, a penalty of five (5) years is established, in addition to the main penalty for the crimes described in this law.

PARAGRAPH II.- For the calculation of the fines set forth in this law, the minimum wage established by the competent authority in labor matters shall be used as the basis, at the date that the infraction is committed.

Dominican Republic Trafficking in Persons Law – Spanish (PDF)

Art. 146. – There is no marriage when there is no consent

Art. 148. – The son who is not twenty-five years old, and the daughter who has not reached the twenty-one, they cannot marry without the consent of their parents.

Art. 149. – If one of the two spouses has died, or is unable to express their will, the consent of the other is enough.

Art. 150. – If the parents have died, or are unable to express their will, the they will replace the grandparents; and if there is disagreement between grandfather and grandmother of the same line the consent of the grandfather will suffice. If there is dissent between the two lines, the tie produces The consent.

Art. 151. – Family children who have reached the highest age defined in article 148, They are obliged before marrying, to request by formal and respectful act the advice of their parents, or that of their grandparents when they have died or cannot express their will.

Art. 152. – From the highest age established in article 148, up to the age of thirty years in sons and twenty-five in daughters, the respectful act prescribed by the preceding article, on which consent had not been given, it will be reproduced two more times, from month to month and one month after the third request, the marriage can be celebrated.

Art. 153. – After thirty years of age, the marriage may be celebrated one month after the request respectful advice to which consent has not been followed.

Art. 154.  – The respectful request will be notified to the one or those of the descendants designated in article 151 by two notaries or by a notary and two witnesses, and in the file that to the effect must be formed, mention of the answer will be made.

Art. 155. – In the absence of the ascendant, to whom the respectful request must be made, it will go on to the celebration of the marriage, displaying the declaratory sentence of the absence; and in defect of said judgment, of which the information has been provided, or if there is nop racticed, an act of notoriety by the Justice of the Peace of the place where the ascendant has had your last known address. The minutes will contain the testimony of four witnesses called from office by that official.

Art. 156. – The Civil Status Officials who have proceeded to the celebration of marriages of sons or daughters of the family, minors respectively of twenty-five and twenty-one years of age, without mentioning the consent of the parents, grandparents or family in the marriage certificate.

In the corresponding cases, they will be, at the request of the interested parties or the prosecutor court of first instance of the place where the marriage took place, sentenced to the fine set in article 192 in addition to a prison, which will not last less than six months.

Art. 157. – When in the prescribed cases the petitions have not preceded the marriage respectful advice, the Civil Status Officer who has held it will be sentenced to the same fine and imprisonment for at least one month.

Art. 158. – The provisions contained in articles 148 and 149 and those of articles 151 to 155, regarding the respectful request that must be made to parents in the cases provided in these articles are applicable to legally recognized natural children.

Art. 159. – The natural child who has not been recognized, and the one who, after having been recognized, has lost his parents, or if they cannot express their will, he will not be able to marry before passing 25 years without previously obtaining the consent of a guardian appointed ad hoc.

Art. 160. – If the parents or grandparents do not exist or there is an impossibility of expressing their will, sons or daughters under the age of twenty-one cannot marry without consent of the family council

Art. 172. – The already married person has the right to oppose the celebration of a marriage with one of the contracting parties.

Art. 173. – The father, and failing that the mother, and in the absence of both the grandparents and grandmothers, may oppose the marriage of their children and descendants, even if they are twenty-five years old compliments.

Art. 174. – In the absence of ancestors, siblings, uncles or first cousins, cannot object but in the following two cases:

1st: When the consent of the family council prescribed in the Article 160.

2nd: When the opposition merges into the insanity of the future husband: this opposition the court may dismiss it without a trial; will never be received except by contracting the opponent the obligation to provoke the interdiction and to obtain a sentence within the period set by the court.

Art. 175. – In the cases provided for in the preceding article, the guardian or curator may not as long as that the guardianship or conservatorship lasts to oppose while it is not authorized by a family council that you can summon.

Art. 180. – Marriage performed without the free consent of both spouses or of one of them, can only be challenged by the contracting parties or by that of them whose consent was not free. When there has been error in the person, the marriage may only be challenged by the spouse who suffered the error.

Art. 181. – In the case of the preceding article, the application for nullity is not admissible, if the spouses have lived a continuous common life during the six months after the moment in which the spouse has recovered his full freedom of action or in which he has recognized the error.

Art. 182. – Marriage contracted without the consent of the parents, ascendants, or of the family council, in cases where it is necessary, cannot be challenged except by the people whose consent was essential, or by that of the spouses who had need for consent.

Art. 183. – The action for annulment cannot be tried either by the spouses or by those whose consent was necessary, provided that they had previously and in an express or tacit way, approved the marriage, or when they have allowed a year to pass without making a claim some, despite having knowledge of the marriage. Nor can it be attempted by the spouse, when a year has passed after reaching the age of majority in which no longer consent is required.

Art. 185. – However, the marriage contracted by spouses who do not have both or the one of them the required age, may not be challenged.

1st: When 6 months have passed after reaching the age.

2nd: When the woman who was not of age has conceived before the end of six months.

Art. 186. – Parents, ascendants and family who have consented to the marriage contracted in the conditions to which the previous article refers, may not request the nullity.

Art. 55.-

1) Marriage is a civil institution, originating from the contract celebrated between a man and a woman who have given free consent to marry, and that they are capable, by law, to verify this act.

2) There is no marriage when there is no consent.

Art. 56.-

1) Those over twenty-one years of age who have legal capacity, may marry freely without having to collect the parental consent.

2) Minors under the age of twenty-one may not marry without the consent of your parents or surviving parent.

3) If the parents have died, or are unable to express their will, the grandparents will replace them; and if there is dissent between the grandfather and grandmother of the same line, the consent of the Grandpa. If there is dissent between the two lines, the tie produces the consent.

If there are no parents or grandparents, or there is the impossibility of express their will, minors under twenty-one may not marry without the consent of the family council.

4) The consent must be given in writing, by authentic act or under private signature, duly legalized unless the persons who must give it attend the marriage and record their consent in the minutes.

5) The man before the age of eighteen and the woman before if they turn fifteen, they cannot marry; but the judge of First Instance may, for understandable reasons, grant the dispensation old.

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7) Civil officials in charge of solemnizing marriages, who have proceeded to the celebration of marriage of sons or daughters of family, minors, without the act or certificate of marriage mentions the consent of the parents, grandparents or of the family council in the corresponding cases, will be, at the request of the interested parties or the prosecutor, made to the Court of First

Instance of the place where the marriage was celebrated, sentenced to a fine of not less than $ 200.00 (two hundred pesos) or greater than $ 600.00 (six hundred pesos).

8) All the provisions regarding legitimate children are applicable to legally recognized natural children.

9) The unrecognized natural child, or the one who has already been recognized, has lost to his parents, he will not be able to marry before the age of twenty-one without obtaining previously the consent of an ad-hoc appointed guardian, by the Mayor of the Common where the interested party resides

Art. 60.-

1) They have the right to oppose the celebration of marriage:

a) the husband or wife of one of the contracting parties:

b) the father, and failing that the mother, in the absence of both, the grandparents and grandmothers of one of the spouses, when this is minor 21 years old;

c) in the absence of ancestors, siblings and uncles cannot object but in the following two cases:

FIRST: When the consent of the Family Council, prescribed by the second section of the paragraph 3rd. of article 56 of this law.

SECOND: When the opposition melts, in the state of insanity of the future husband, this opposition may be dismissed by the Court without form of judgment; will never be received except by contracting the opponent obligation to provoke the interdiction and to obtain a sentence in the deadline set by the Court;

d) In the cases provided for in the preceding paragraph, the tutor or the conservator may not, as long as the guardianship or conservatorship lasts, make opposition as long as it is not authorized by a Family Council that will be able to summon.

2) Any act of opposition must state the quality by virtue of the which has the opponent the right to formulate it; will express the choice address, the place where the marriage is to take place, and, unless that is made at the request of an ascendant, must contain the reasons for the opposition; all this, under pain of nullity and suspension of the Ministerial Officer who had signed the act of opposition.

The Court of First Instance shall pronounce its judgment on the lawsuit.

If there is an appeal, it will be decided within ten days of site.

If the opposition is rejected, the opponents, except the ascendants, may be sentenced to compensation for damages and damages.

Art. 61.–

1) Marriage performed without the free consent of both spouses or one of them, can only be challenged by the contracting parties or by one of them whose consent has not been free.

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3) In the case of the preceding paragraphs, the claim is not admissible of nullity, if the spouses have lived a continuous common life during the six months after the spouse had regained his full freedom of action or that there was recognized the error.

4) Marriage contracted without the consent of the parents, ascendants or the guardian or the Family Council, in cases where this is necessary, it cannot be contested except by the persons whose consent was indispensable, or by that of the spouses who had need of consent.

5) An action for annulment cannot be brought either by the spouses or by those whose consent was required, provided they had previously and in an express or tacit manner, approved the marriage, or who would have allowed a year to pass without any claim, despite having knowledge of the marriage.

Nor can it be attempted by the spouse, when he has stopped a year elapses after reaching adulthood, in which no longer consent is required.

6) Marriage contracted in contravention of the prescriptions contained in article 55, paragraph 3 and in article 56, paragraphs 2 and 6th, it can be challenged by the same spouses or by all those who have an interest in it. The Public Ministry can challenge in the cases of paragraph 3 of article 55 and of paragraphs 5 and 6 of article 56.

7) However, the marriage contracted by spouses who do not have the required age, cannot be challenged:

FIRST: When six months have passed after having reached the age;

SECOND: When the woman who was not of age has conceived before the end of the six months.

8) Parents, ancestors and relatives who have consented to the marriage contracted under the conditions referred to in the preceding paragraph refers, they will not be able to request the nullity.

9) In all cases in which pursuant to the preceding paragraphs of this article you can try the annulment action for all that they have an interest in them, it cannot, however, be so by the collateral relatives or children born from another marriage contracted by the surviving spouse, except in the case of having a current interest.

10) The spouse to whose detriment a second has been contracted marriage, you can ask for annulment, even in life of the spouse who was attached to him.

11) If the new spouses oppose the nullity of the first marriage, the validity or nullity of this must be previously judged.

12) The Prosecutor in all cases to which the paragraphs 2, 5 and 6 of article 56 and paragraph 6 of this article must request the nullity of the marriage, while the spouses are alive and request separation.

12) Any marriage that has not been celebrated publicly before one of the appointed officials, can be challenged by the same spouses, parents, ascendants and those who have current interest, as well as by the Public Ministry.

14) No one can claim the title of husband or enjoy the effects civil marriage, if you do not present a certificate, stating, that said marriage is registered in the registry destined to such an end.

15) Possession of state will not dispense the so-called wives, that respectively invoke it, of the obligation to present the certificate of marriage mentioned in the previous paragraph. When there is possession state, and the marriage certificate has been presented, not may the spouses file a claim for the nullity of that act.

16) If even in the case of paragraphs 14 and 15 above, there are children born of two people who have lived publicly as husbands, and have dead, the legitimacy of the children cannot be questioned, with the only pretext of defective presentation of the act of celebration of the marriage, provided that this legitimacy is proven by a possession of the state other than contradicted by the birth certificate.

17) When the proof of a legal celebration of marriage is acquired by the result of a criminal procedure, the transcription of the sentence in the Civil Status records ensures the marriage, from the day of its celebration all civil effects, the same with relationship to the spouses than to the children born of this marriage.

18) If the spouses or one of them has died without discovering the fraud, criminal action may be attempted by the Prosecutor and all persons who have an interest in declaring the marriage valid.

19) If the Public Official has died prior to the discovery of the fraud, the civil action will be tried against their heirs by the Prosecutor, in presence of interested parties and in view of their complaint.

20) The marriage declared null, however, produces civil effects the same with respect to the spouse as to the children, when contracted in good faith.

Paragraph.- If only one of the spouses has proceeded from good faith, marriage produces, only in its favor and that of the children, civil effects

Art. 62.-

1) The official who has authorized marriage according to prescriptions of this law that I will cease to comply with the provisions on the registration of marriage certificates and proofs, will be judged correctionally by the Court of First Instance, and if guilty, he will be fined one hundred pesos ($ 100.00), or imprisonment one to three months.

2) The falsehoods essential to these acts, committed by the official who has authorized a marriage, shall be punished as falsehoods in public documents, as prescribed by the Articles 145, 146, 147 and 148 of the Common Penal Code.

3) Whoever authorizes or celebrates a marriage, not being an official authorized by law, will be considered guilty of crime and punished depending on their participation, with a penalty of one to two years in prison correctional.

4) The contracting party who, knowing that in his person there is one or several of the causes of impediment to the celebration of the marriage manages to deceive the official who must authorize the marriage, will be punished in the following way:

a) If the marriage has not been carried out, the attempt will be punished with a penalty of one to two years in correctional prison;

b) if the marriage has been celebrated, with work penalties public from five to ten years;

c) These penalties will not apply to the spouse who is found innocent in the crime.