Community Houses of Justice
The Community Houses of Justice were founded by the Participación Ciudadana (lit. Citizen Participation) civil society organization, as a community space for the protection of justice and respect for fundamental rights, and also as a space for community participation and deliberation in the proclamation of the rights of citizens in public participation policies. According to Article 8 of the Dominican Constitution, all citizens enjoy the protection of the State to develop their personal rights in a dignified and equitable manner. As the government of the Dominican Republic continues to struggle to guarantee access to some of these rights, Community Houses are seen as a means to educate citizens, build a stronger and more democratic society and continue to develop a sense of rights for the communities. 8 Houses have been established throughout the country.
Institutional design
Formalization: is the innovation embedded in the constitution or legislation, in an administrative act, or not formalized at all?
Frequency: how often does the innovation take place: only once, sporadically, or is it permanent or regular?
Mode of Selection of Participants: is the innovation open to all participants, access is restricted to some kind of condition, or both methods apply?
Type of participants: those who participate are individual citizens, civil society organizations, private stakeholders or a combination of those?
Decisiveness: does the innovation takes binding, non-binding or no decision at all?
Co-governance: is there involvement of the government in the process or not?
- Formalization
- not backed by constitution nor legislation, nor by any governmental policy or program
- Frequency
- regular
- Mode of selection of participants
- open
- Type of participants
- citizens civil society
- Decisiveness
- democratic innovation yields a binding decision
- Co-Governance
- no
Means
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Ends
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