On September 23 the Dominican Republic constitutional court made a controversial sad ruling that retroactively denies Dominican nationality/citizenship to anyone born as far back as 1929 who does not have at least one parent of Dominican blood, under a constitutional clause declaring them to be illegally or in transit. This was done many believe to mainly target people of Haitian heritage which make up the largest migrant population in the Dominican Republic. Imagine this takes away the citizenship of over 250 000 born Dominicans of Haitian heritage and also another 460 000 immigrants of other nationalities such as Jamaicans etc making them stateless and having no country to call home even though never lived anywhere else. In its decision, the court ordered a meticulous review of the civil registry back to 1929 and gave the Electoral Board one year to draw up a list of people to be excluded from citizenship. Well this action has prompted backlash as expected with former Antiguan PM Lester Bird calling it racist and Vincentian Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves called to have their application to CARICOM delayed and has written to the Venezuelan President asking him to suspend Santo Domingo from the Petro Caribe energy arrangement which sells Oil to member state at a much cheaper rate. This treat has prompted Dominican Republic to send a high level delegation to Caracas. A network of human rights activists are drafting a letter to US Secretary of State John Kerry and working to petition the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the U.N. Human Rights Committee based on alleged violations of international law. bit.ly/1aqpHj5
Posted on: Tue, 19 Nov 2013 19:46:18 +0000
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