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Haitian descent, onerous requirements for late registration of births, or denial or revocation of
cédulas belonging to people born in the Dominican Republic, constitute acts which deny
constitutionally granted citizenship to persons belonging to this minority group, along with their
children, thus rendering them stateless Other administrative measures currently employed in the
Dominican Republic to deny or challenge on a discriminatory basis the status of others of
Haitian descent also violates their rights and leaves them in legal limbo.
111. The independent expert, while recognizing the Government’s achievements in offering
education to all children up to the sixth grade, considers that Dominicans of Haitian descent are
being denied equal treatment and discriminated against in regard to their access to higher
education and university, since they are unable to obtain the required cédula. Dominicans of
Haitian descent who are unable to obtain documents are also effectively excluded from skilled
labour markets and relegated to irregular jobs in such fields as agriculture, construction or
domestic service.
112. Having visited the border area around Dajabón and bateyes in the San Pedro de Macoris
region, the independent expert found that Haitians in long-term settled communities as well as
Dominicans of Haitian descent live and work in fear and conditions of vulnerability, extreme
poverty and super-exploitation of their labour. While they are being administratively denied
documentation, all their other rights are subject to arbitrary rejection and abuse by low-level
officials, police and military who have power, operate with limited instructions and have little
accountability. In these environments the situations faced by minority women are of particular
concern. Since they are denied the opportunity to work, their status as non-working dependents
creates significantly greater vulnerability.
113. The Government’s exercise of deportation and expulsion procedures is considered by the
independent expert not to conform to fundamental rights of due process, as mandated under
international law and the domestic law of the Dominican Republic, particularly with respect to
the right to a fair hearing and to appeal a decision of deportation to a court of law. Information
provided strongly supports allegations that there have been summary expulsions where people
are arbitrarily stopped on the roadside based on little more than their skin colour and, if they fail
to present unquestionable documents, they are loaded onto a truck and dropped on the other side
of the border. Reportedly, these kinds of indiscriminate sweeps have caught in their nets black
Dominican citizens as well as Haitian migrants.
VI. JOINT RECOMMEDATIONS OF THE SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON
CONTEMPORARY FORMS OF RACISM, RACIAL DISCRIMINATION,
XENOPHOBIA AND RELATED INTOLERANCE AND THE INDEPENDENT EXPERT
ON MINORITY ISSUES
114. The Special Rapporteur and the independent expert submit a number of joint
recommendations on issues relating to political and legal, intellectual, cultural and ethical
strategies to be implemented to tackle the existence of racism and racial discrimination and
protect and promote the rights of minorities in the Dominican Republic.