Denationalization of Dominicans of Haitian descent:
Since the beginning of the International Law of Human Rights it has always given great
importance the right to have a name and a nationality, the right to legal personality, including
the very right to be registered at birth, and this is why they have It has been included in nearly
all treaties and conventions formulated by the United Nations. Respect and exercise of these
rights lead to guaranteed access to all other political and civil rights (like the right to vote,
equality before the law, family) and economic, social and cultural rights (such as health and
education), so for example as in my institution, the Movement of Dominican Haitian Women,
we say we are fighting for the right to be entitled.
Unfortunately, in Dominican Republic the enjoyment of the right to nationality is almost
impossible for people of Haitian descent. For decades there has been de facto discrimination
to access to identity documents, and since 2004, Dominicans of Haitian descent have faced
a hostile onslaught of legislative changes and administrative policies that have further
restricted the ability to exercise the right to nationality and identity that is guaranteed to us by
the Dominican Constitution.
Being discriminated because of our origin and our skin color, thousands of Dominicans of
Haitian descent have been rendered stateless, excluding us from the political, economic,
social and cultural life of our country. An amendment made in January 2010 to the
Constitution of the Republic threatens to make permanent this situation of discrimination and
statelessness.
All this has been quite documented by many international human rights organizations, for
example, in 2008, the Committee on the Rights of the Child showed much concern of the
fact that a large number of children of Haitian decedent are continually not being recorded,
and the "pink certificate" could be used as an excuse to discriminate against children and
deny them their right to a nationality.
Also in that same report, the Committee expressed concern that our children, ie the children
of Haitian immigrants and people of Haitian descent, have limited access to education, care
health and social services that all children who are in the territory of the Dominican Republic
and the world should have the same right in accordance with the Convention.
In the Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, the members of the
working group recommended that the Dominican Republic "adopt measures to ensure that
Dominicans of Haitian descent are not denied citizenship or access to civil registration
procedures and that they are not arbitrarily subject to retroactive cancellation of birth and
identity documents "and" apply policies and practices that are consistent and
non-discriminatory citizenship ".
Despite all the pronouncements made by international organizations and national
organizations, the Dominican State through a series of legislative measures such as the
Migration Act 2004 and the Constitution of 2010, judicial measures such as the judgment of
the Supreme Court of 2005 and administrative measures as the Circular No.17 and No.12