By

The Global Campaign to Decriminalise Poverty and Status

Throughout the globe, governments use petty offenses, such as vagrancy and loitering laws, to exert social control over poor and marginalized communities. Moreover, people experiencing homelessness regularly face the threat of criminal sanctions for fulfilling basic needs. These petty offenses enable the policing of public spaces to reinforce social hierarchies and rigid gender norms. Many of these laws are in place in the Caribbean, inherited as part of the colonial legacy that permeates its systems today.

This report provides a baseline assessment of the criminalization of homelessness in the Dominican

Republic, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico. The analysis thus focuses on three Caribbean localities with diverse

histories connected to Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States (U.S.). The report addresses both laws criminalizing vagrancy and loitering, as well as life-sustaining activities. It further examines the laws on the books, their implementation in practice, and their various impacts on people in each country.

Miami: Human Rights Clinic, University of Miami School of Law, 2024. 60p.

By M.  Luzes , E. Pilatowsky,  and  J. Ruiz

Over the past 20 years, migration in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) has been characterized by an increase in intraregional migration flows. Within  this  regional  migration  scenario  there  is a  misconception,  rooted  in  the  social  imaginary, that the majority of people who migrate within the continent are men. Nevertheless, women have accounted for practically half of migration flows in Latin America and the Caribbean since 1960, and their  participation  in  the  current  interregional mobility dynamics is around 50%. Even so, studies that   focus   on   understanding   the   experiences of   discrimination   women   face,   derived   from particular  stigmas  —  different  to  those  faced  by male migrants — are scarce. This   document   seeks   to   understand   these particular  experiences  from  an  intersectional perspective, exploring the perception of women migrants,  their  experiences  in  Latin  American and    Caribbean    countries,    and    how    these impact  integration  indicators. Female  migrants experience  unique  challenges,  different  to  those of  male  migrants  and  local  women,  confronting multiple  forms  of  discrimination  based  on  their gender,  country  of  origin,  migration  status,  and other   interrelated   identities.   The   aim   of   this work  is  to  delve  deeper  into  the  knowledge  that reinforces the need to address the specific barriers that  women  migrants  come  up  against  in  their integration processes, marked by prejudices and stigmas that influence the narratives about them. 

Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank (“IDB” ), 2024. 42p