A/HRC/7/19/Add.5 A/HRC/7/23/Add.3 Page 18 illegality of the parents who are acting in representation of their minor children, who are in fact those that may be negatively affected or may benefit from the outcome of the recurso de amparo (amparo proceedings); 2) The court considers inappropriate to qualify as “in transit” the parents of the minors, on the grounds that Dominican legislation establishes that persons “in transit” are those persons entering the Dominican Republic with the principal purpose of continuing on to another destination outside the country, setting a period of ten days that applies for the qualification of “in transit”, which is not the case of petitioners who are permanently in the country; 3) the court establishes that the principle of effective nationality must be recalled, which notes that nationality is characterized by the real and effective bond of the minors with the Dominican State, on the basis of permanent link, place of living, including education”. The Central Electoral Board appealed the decision, but the Supreme Court has not yet pronounced itself on the case. 1. Migration Law No. 285-04 61. In August 2004, the Dominican Senate approved Migration Law No. 285-04, which inter alia introduced substantive and procedural changes to the regime for registering the births of children born on Dominican territory. Law No. 285-04 is being implemented de facto, notwithstanding that its accompanying regulations have not yet been approved by the President. 62. Law No. 258-04 creates the categories of “resident migrants” and “non-resident migrants.” The latter category includes those temporary workers residing in the Dominican Republic and those who are illegal. Under this law, the category of “non-resident” is conflated with the concept of “in transit” status, thus all non-resident migrants and undocumented migrants are considered to be “in transit” and their children born on Dominican soil are denied citizenship. Further the assumption is being made that if you have no documents and appear to be or have a name that is Haitian, you are an illegal migrant. While the Government reports that a large percentage of all Dominicans have no identification documents, in practice, this presumption of illegality is applied only to people with dark skins and Haitian features. 63. Civil society groups claim that Law 258-04 is discriminatory in both purpose and effect. They claim that it is unconstitutional in that it contravenes article 11 of the Dominican Constitution. 8 In effect the law means that children born to parents of Haitian heritage who have no legal documents are not granted Dominican citizenship or nationality, despite being born in the Dominican Republic, their parents being born there or the fact that their parents may, in some cases, have been settled in the Dominican Republic for decades. Thus, the undocumented status of Haitians is inherited by their children. 64. NGOs equally note that the new Migration Law is being applied retroactively to those born in the Dominican Republic prior to the adoption of the law, which will affect the status of many thousands of those of Haitian descent. They state that the actions of the Government and the Central Electoral Board in implementing the law are in direct contravention of the ruling of 8 Also Law 659 on Acts of Civil Status, which dates from July 17, 1944, and provides that all children should be registered before an official of the civil registry office of the place where the child was born.