HOT Summer Seminar “Civil Rights in the Dominican Republic”
New York, July 7, 2009

As part of its 2009 Academic Summer Program, the internship program InteRDom, an initiative of Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (GFDD) and Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo (FUNGLODE), will present the two-day seminar “Civil Rights in the Dominican Republic.” This event will take place Wednesday, July 15, and Wednesday July 22, 2009 at FUNGLODE headquarters in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and will be coordinated in partnership with the Escuela Nacional de Judicatura.

The objective of the seminar is to examine civil rights in the Dominican Republic. In the first session, Instructor, Henry Molina, Director of Escuela Nacional de Judicatura and Coordinator of the E-justice Program will provide seminar participants with an orientation on fundamental rights – what they consist of, how they are employed and how they are interpreted. Discourse will assess their legal importance, as well as national and international enforcement mechanisms.

In an interview with InteRDom, Molina distinguished between human rights and civil rights. “Natural or human rights are universal and are not contingent upon law. They are afforded to individuals on the basis of their humanity. Civil rights, however, are recognized by states within national boundaries. Civil rights are the recognition of human rights by constitutions and national laws. The terminology, fundamental rights, is also often used to refer to human rights.”

About the instructor:

Henry Molina presently sirves as the Director of the Escuela Nacional de la Judicatura in the Dominican Republic and the Coordinator of the E-justice Project of the Ibero-American Judicial Summit. He is also a Professor of Constitutional Law at Universidad Iberoamericana (UNIBE).

About InteRDom:

InteRDom, the premier internship and academic study program in the Dominican Republic, offers students the opportunity to gain professional experience by interning with Dominican organizations and businesses related to their field of study, while taking courses at local universities. InteRDom was launched in 2005, and has since provided internship and academic study opportunities to students from 30 international universities.
Summer seminars are open to the public and represent an excellent opportunity for cultural exchange, gathering students from the Dominican Republic, the United States and Haiti.
Persons interested in attending the summer seminars should send an email to: intern@interdominternships.org.