Dominican Republic | Good News For Humankind

A Dominican flag flying against a blue sky for an article about anti-gay military laws being struck down

Dominican Republic’s top court strikes down anti-gay military and police laws

By Peter Schulte / November 25, 2025 / Good News For Humankind

The Dominican Republic’s Constitutional Court has struck down anti-gay military laws, ruling that criminalizing same-sex conduct among police officers and soldiers violates constitutional protections for privacy, nondiscrimination, and personal freedom. The landmark decision, made public November 18, 2025, is the most significant LGBTQ+ rights ruling in the country’s history. LGBTQ+ service members can now serve without fear that their private lives could trigger prosecution or imprisonment. Driven by strategic litigation and civil society advocacy, the ruling establishes a broad constitutional floor against anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination and offers advocates a legal foundation for future equality efforts across the Caribbean region.

Dominican Republic forested landscape, for article on Plan Yaque land restoration

The Dominican Republic reforests a fifth of the country in 10 years

By / February 29, 2024 / Good News For Humankind

The Dominican Republic restored 18% of its territory in a single decade — not through sweeping mandates, but through conversations with farmers, one at a time. Plan Yaque, a coalition of 30 NGOs and government agencies, launched in 2009 with a simple premise: help landowners see trees as a path to water security and steadier farm income. Project leaders traveled farm by farm, and as restored hillsides began holding water and reviving streams, neighbors became the project’s most persuasive advocates. The result is one of the largest land recoveries in the Western Hemisphere this century — and a reminder that some of the most durable environmental wins come from trust, not enforcement.

Coal pollution, for article on Germany coal use

The U.S. and six other nations commit to unabated coal phase-out

By Peter Schulte / December 2, 2023 / Good news links

At the COP28 Climate Summit in Dubai, the U.S., Czech Republic, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, Iceland, Kosovo and Norway in formally joining the alliance, which was launched in 2017 by the U.K. and Canada. The new members have committed to not developing new unabated coal power plants and phasing out existing unabated coal plants.

Dominican flag, for article on Dominican constitution

Dominican Republic adopts its first constitution after declaring independence

By Peter Schulte / November 6, 1844 / Archive of Human Genius

The Dominican Republic ratified its first constitution on November 6, 1844, capping a year in which a secret society called La Trinitaria helped end 22 years of Haitian rule. Led by Juan Pablo Duarte, the young republic set down, however imperfectly, a framework for self-governance it had never before held on its own terms.

Estatutos de la Regia, y Pontificia Universidad de Santo Thomas de Aquino, for article on first university in the Americas

Pope Paul III founds the first university in the Americas in Santo Domingo

By Peter Schulte / January 1, 1538 / Archive of Human Genius

The Americas’ first university was chartered on October 28, 1538, when Pope Paul III elevated a Dominican seminary in Santo Domingo to full university status. Modeled after Spain’s University of Alcalá, it trained clergy, lawyers, and the Creole thinkers who would shape the hemisphere. Its successor still teaches today.

image for article on Santo Domingo founding

Bartholomew Columbus founds Santo Domingo, the oldest European city in the Americas

By Peter Schulte / January 1, 1496 / Archive of Human Genius

Santo Domingo took root in 1496 on the banks of the Ozama River, when Bartholomew Columbus oversaw the founding of what became the oldest continuously inhabited European city in the Americas. Its harbor later launched expeditions to Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Mexico — though the same centuries brought the near-collapse of the Taíno and the Americas’ earliest recorded slave revolt.

image for article on Hispaniola settlement

Early Indigenous peoples settle the island of Hispaniola in multiple waves

By Peter Schulte / January 18, 0001 / Archive of Human Genius

Hispaniola was home to thriving human communities for at least 5,000 years before Columbus arrived in 1492. Its first peoples came in waves, some trekking from Central America, others canoeing up from Amazonia through the Orinoco Valley. Over millennia, they blended into the Taíno, a civilization millions strong when European ships appeared.

Haiti coastline, for article on Classic Taíno settlement

Classic Taíno people build a flourishing culture on Hispaniola

By Peter Schulte / January 13, 0001 / Archive of Human Genius

Classic Taíno civilization flourished on Hispaniola by around 1200 C.E., the result of Arawakan-speaking peoples who had journeyed north from South America’s Orinoco basin over many centuries. Five hereditary chiefdoms divided the island, each centered on village plazas where ball games, ceremonies, and community life unfolded. Their words — hurricane, canoe, hammock — still travel with us.