US State Dept says Domestic & Sexual Violence are the most significant human right abuses in Dominica

In its 2015 edition of the “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices,” released last Wednesday, the US State Department report concluded that domestic and sexual violence against women and children, proved to be the most significant human rights abuses in Dominica
Highlighting issues of rape and sexual violence, the report stated that the law “criminalized rape, but not spousal rape.” And that “Sexual violence and domestic violence cases were common, and the government recognized this as a problem.”
In terms of discrimination, the report went on to say that “other human rights problems included laws that discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) persons, and discrimination against persons with disabilities.”
Statistics from the Child Abuse Prevention Unit state that a total of 1,095 cases of child abuse were reported in Dominica from 2010 to 2015. In 2015, a total of 189 cases of child abuse was reported and out of that 189, 128 of these were sexual related matters. Seventy-three cases out of this 189, were children ranging from the ages of 0 to 10.