New attacks against members of the Reconocido movement

On 26 February 2025, State agents physically attacked woman human rights defender Epifania St. Chals Lichardo during an illegal break-in at her home, located in the municipality and province of El Seibo. The attacks occurred within a context of exponential increases in arbitrary detentions through racial profiling, mass deportations and attacks against human rights defenders, particularly those working to protect migrants and people of Haitian descent in the Dominican Republic.

Epifania St. Chals Lichardo is the coordinator and co-founder of Reconocido (Red Común Nacional Organizada de Ciudadanos/as Domininicanos/as), a movement that campaigns for citizenship rights and equality for all Dominicans of Haitian descent, mobilises and empowers marginalised communities, and accompanies people who require legal support to access their documents.

In the early morning of 26 February 2025, the defender was with her minor daughters and mother in her house located in the city of El Seibo, when eight agents from the national police, the Directorate General for Migration and the army entered her house without presenting a judicial order and holding long guns, under the pretext of searching for undocumented foreign nationals. When Epifania St. Chals started to record the State agents that were in her house, one of them violently took her phone and deleted the videos. The defender reported that during this, the State agent held her by the neck and threatened to suffocate her, all in front of her daughters and mother.

This is not the first time that members of the Reconocido movement have been subjected to attacks, threats and raids. Front Line Defenders has also received concerning information about raids against human rights defenders, often occurring in the early hours of the morning and without any judicial order, in which agents force defenders to erase any evidence of their actions in order to prevent them from reporting the facts. Increased violence has been identified against those who lead social organisations and work with the migrant population and those of Haitian descent. The situation is of increased concern when such violence has been directed towards women human rights defenders.

Front Line Defenders recalls that members of the Reconocido movement are beneficiaries of precautionary measures granted by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). The organisation strongly condemns the recent attack against woman human rights defender Epifania St. Chals Lichardo, her family and other members of the Reconocido movement.

Front Line Defenders reiterates its concern over the context of violence that human rights defenders face, which has been significantly exacerbated since the latest migratory measures and statements made by the President, with the aim of deporting ten thousand Haitians per week. Such objectives ignore the international commitments which the Dominican Republic has assumed regarding the rights of migrants and Dominicans of Haitian descent, and its duty to ensure that human rights defenders can work without fear of reprisals.

Front Line Defenders calls on the authorities of the Dominican Republic to:

1. Carry out an immediate, exhaustive and impartial investigation on the illegal raid and aggression against woman human rights defenders Epifania St. Chals Lichardo, in order to identify those responsible, bring them before a competent and impartial tribunal and apply the sanctions provided for by Dominican law;

2. Ensure the physical and psychological health and wellbeing of human rights defender Epifania St. Chals Lichardo and her family;

3. Comply with the precautionary measures granted by the IACHR to the Reconocido movement and its members;

4. Ensure that all human rights defenders in Dominican Republic are able to conduct their legitimate human rights defence work in all circumstances without fear of retaliation and free from restrictions.