statelessness. No one had been held accountable for the attack by the end of the year. SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS In December, Congress approved a new version of the Criminal Code, after many years of discussion.5 The reform maintained the criminalization of abortion while providing for one restrictive exception, whereby abortion would be decriminalized where the pregnancy posed a risk to the life of a pregnant woman or girl but only after “all attempts had been made to save both the lives of the woman and the foetus”. Women’s rights groups raised concerns that the exception would make it impossible in practice for women and girls whose lives were at risk to access abortion services. 5. Dominican Republic: President Medina must stop a regressive reform for women’s rights (News story, 15 December) ECUADOR Republic of Ecuador Head of state and government: Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado Critics of the authorities, including human rights defenders, faced prosecution, harassment and intimidation; the rights to freedom of expression and of association were restricted. The right to free, prior and informed consent relating to development projects which adversely affected livelihoods, was denied to Indigenous Peoples. VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS BACKGROUND According to official statistics, the first six months of the year saw a 2% increase in the number of killings of women and girls, compared with the same period in 2015. By May the number of complaints received by the authorities for acts of sexual violence had increased by nearly 10% compared with the same period in 2015. Parliament had yet to adopt a comprehensive law to prevent and address violence against women that had been approved by the Senate in 2012. RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE The UN Human Rights Committee expressed concerns about violations of the ICCPR including: the repeated use by police of force against peaceful demonstrations; legal provisions which threatened the rights to freedom of association and assembly; delays to legislative reform to allow adequate consultation with Indigenous Peoples and Nationalities and other communities. It recommended that increased efforts be made to end discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people, and that violence against women and sexual violence in schools be addressed. Civil society organizations continued to report hate crimes against LGBTI people, particularly murders of transgender women. FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION AND ASSOCIATION 1. “Where are we going to live?”: Migration and statelessness in the Dominican Republic and Haiti (AMR 36/4105/2016) 2. “Without paper, I am no one”: Stateless people in the Dominican Republic (AMR 27/2755/2015) 3. Dominican Republic’s absurd laws shatter star boxer’s promising career (News story, 4 February); Dominican Republic: 50,000 people demand solution to crisis of “ghost citizens“ (Press release, 20 September) 4. Dominican Republic: Defender combatting statelessness attacked: Genaro Rincon (AMR 27/4901/2016) 144 In April, Indigenous Peoples’ leaders appeared before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and condemned restrictions on their right to freedom of association. In September, the authorities dissolved the National Union of Teachers (UNE), on grounds that it had not registered its executive board with the authorities. In December, the Interior Ministry filed a complaint against the Ecological Action Amnesty International Report 2016/17