Chapter 3 Right to Equality and Non-Discrimination of Dominicans of Haitian Descent | 141 ties, language, religion, political or philosophical opinion, or social or personal condition. In consequence: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. The Republic condemns any privilege and situation that tends to undermine the equality of Dominicans, amongst whom there should be no differences other than those resulting from their talents or their virtues; No entity of the Republic may confer titles of nobility or hereditary distinctions; The State must promote legal and administrative conditions to make equality real and effective and must adopt measures to prevent and combat discrimination, marginalization, vulnerability, and exclusion; Women and men are equal before the law. Any act is prohibited whose purpose or effect diminishes or annuls the recognition, enjoyment, or exercise in conditions of equality of the fundamental rights of women and men. Necessary measures shall be promoted to guarantee the eradication of gender inequality and discrimination; The State must promote and guarantee the balanced participation of women and men in candidacies for popularly elected posts at management and decision-making levels in the public sphere, in the administration of justice, and in State oversight bodies. 345. In addition to the foregoing, various legal provisions elaborate on this right as well as on the principle of nondiscrimination. In this connection, Article 336 324 of the Criminal Code establishes that: Art. 336.- Discrimination comprises any distinction made among physical persons because of their origin, occupation, age, sex, family circumstances, health status, disabilities, customs, political opinions, trade union activities, occupation, or actual or assumed membership or non-membership in a specific ethnic group, nation, race, or religion. Discrimination also comprises any distinction made among legal entities because of their origin, age, sex, family circumstances, health status, disabilities, customs, political opinions, or trade union activities, or the actual or assumed membership or non-membership of the members or any of the members of the legal entity in a specific ethnic group, nation, race, or religion. Art. 336-1.- The discrimination defined in the preceding article committed against a physical person or legal entity is punishable by a two-year prison term and a fine of 50,000 pesos, when it consists of: 1.- the refusal to provide a good or service; 2.- obstruction of the normal exercise of any economic activity; 3.- the refusal to hire, punish, or dismiss a person; 4.- subordination of the provision of a good or service to a condition based on one of the elements set 324 The Criminal Code in force was amended by Law 24-97, which included the provisions on discrimination. Inter-American Commission on Human Rights | IACHR