This week we celebrate 2 important events: March 8, International Women’s Day, and March 9, National Public Ministry Day. What an honor for me to be able to write about these two important roles as a woman and former member of the public ministry!
International Women’s Day commemorates every March 8, the struggle of women for their participation in society and their full development as a person, on an equal footing with men. The first commemoration took place in 1911, and since then countries commemorate it, mainly to vindicate the fight for effective equal rights for women in different fields.
The day of the Public Ministry in the Dominican Republic was adopted through a session of the Superior Council of the Public Ministry in 2021, in which it declared March 9 as Public Ministry’s Day in honor of the patrician and who was the first prosecutor before the Court of Appeals of Santo Domingo, Francisco del Rosario Sánchez.
It´s undeniable the overcoming women have presented over the years: the fight for equality and her position as an entrepreneur, intelligent, capable, strong, brave, warrior, housewife, mother, wife, daughter, businesswoman and pillar of the family, have characterized her. I recognize you valuable woman and I congratulate you for all the battles that you must fight every day, and despite that, you wipe your tears, raise your head and bravely go out with your head held high and a smiling face, without the world to imagine even the smallest part of the pain, suffering and battles that you are facing. What courage you have, woman!
Let’s start by recognizing our value, the one we have for the simple fact of being a human and the joy of being a woman. No matter how broken or hurt we are, how many battles we are facing, we are valuable by our nature and not by the value that anyone else can give us; like I once read in a book, if you get 100 dirty and squeezed bucks, would you take it? Of course you do, because its value is not in its physical appearance but in the amount it brings with it, it’s the same with you, woman!
How nice it is when we recognize ourselves as such, we support and respect each other, based on the knowledge that we are valuable and not compete with each other, that we fight every day to be better and go ahead for ourselves, our family, our children. That over the years we have been able to achieve the position we enjoy today because we have fought for it, that we are women leaders in our communities and within our family, achieving this position also in our professional life.
The woman, in key leadership roles, has shown to be competent to carry out the functions that demand the position, standing out for the transparency, commitment and honesty, which is naturally acknowledged that she will carry it out.
In our country we can notice the position of women in private and public spaces. Many companies today are led by women, we have public officials in important leadership roles, our vice president is a woman and the attorney is also a woman. And being the week of commemoration of women and the public ministry, how are women perceived within the body of the public ministry, the entity that persecutes crime in the State?
Some users that I had the opportunity to interview stated that women, as public prosecutors, are less corruptible and more committed to their responsibilities and assignments. They distinguish them as more organized, detailed, meticulous, empathetic, careful and objective, as well as committed to their work; They highlight that the female prosecutor focuses on results, manages safely and seeks more training.
In this context, when several women who currently exercise this role in the public ministry were asked the same question, they valued the opportunity that this role offers them to honestly serve to improve the justice system, to the users who come to it, and to a country who is thirsty of justice. Among the challenges they face, they stated that the greatest of all is precisely exercising this role, since sometimes society sees the prosecutor as a person of power, authority and strength, which commonly get along with a male role but which little by little over the time this perception has been diminishing.
In general, women have managed to stand out in any role they play; Her presence in important positions today suggests this statement. The statistics also show it: there are more women who obtain a university degree, those who compete for management positions, those who are venturing into positions that were previously dominated by the presence of men, such as being a member of the public ministry.
Today, most of the departments that make up the different prosecutor’s offices in the country are led by women, they have reached a level of leadership within that institution that has never been seen before, which reflects their development, commitment and growth within this institution.
Being a woman and a prosecutor carries out many risks and for this you have to be brave. None of the interviewed showed any kind of fear or insecurity based on exercising this role; Their commitment to combat and face crime before the courts is real or as they are often called “women in pants”, especially in this new command composition of the Attorney General’s Office.
In the end, what I liked the most about what was highlighted by the prosecutors with whom I spoke, was valuing the space that the prosecutor’s office has given them to meet valuable women within a work team in which they all fight for the common well-being.
Congratulations prosecutor woman! Thank you for going out to protect society, for defending victims and for seeking to convict the one who commits a crime. Thank you for your commitment and commendable work; today more than ever society bets on you.
Sonia Hernández is a criminal lawyer, former prosecutor of the Santo Domingo Province. She has a master’s degree in Fundamental Rights from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and a specialization in Criminal Procedure Law from the Uiversidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo (UASD). She is currently a practicing lawyer and Director of Strengthening the Public Justice System for the International Justice Mission, Dominican Republic (IJM).
