Message to the Dominican Republic: ‘Embrace the hyphen’


November 3, 2011

At Georgetown Law Center, David Robinson, U.S. State Department Acting Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, tells conference participants about U.S. concerns around denationalization in the Dominican Republic. Photo: Courtesy of U.S. Department of State/Deborah Sisbarro

At Georgetown Law Center, David Robinson, U.S. State Department Acting Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, tells conference participants about U.S. concerns around denationalization in the Dominican Republic. Photo: Courtesy of U.S. Department of State/Deborah Sisbarro

A special report on the October 26 Conference on Statelessness and the Right to Nationality in the Dominican Republic held at Georgetown Law Center, submitted by advocacy organizations who co-sponsored the event and a week of advocacy in Washington supporting the rights of Dominicans of Haitian descent.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Reflecting on the history of the United States, U.S. State Department Acting Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration David Robinson noted at the conference that Americans of different backgrounds often retain their cultural heritage and are proud to be Dominican-Americans, African-Americans or Chinese Americans, and he urged the Dominican Republic to “embrace the hyphen.” He called on the Dominican Republic to accept that Dominicans of Haitian descent are nationals of the country.

A witness, arbitrarily stripped of her Dominican nationality, reported to the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights her fight to restore her birthright. This was all part of a successful week of advocacy activities carried out in Washington D.C. by a coalition of international and Dominican organizations, focused on upholding the rights of Dominicans of Haitian descent.

Up until January 2010 every child born on Dominican territory was a Dominican citizen. Since then the law has changed. But now some Dominican citizens born decades ago are finding their status being questioned. As the testimony before the Inter-American Commission pointed out, those under investigation are unable to finish school, enter university, get married or find formal employment, putting them into the shadows of a legal limbo.

A centerpiece of the advocacy week was a conference which assessed the impacts of losing nationality and took forward discussions with key stakeholders including the U.S. State Department, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, civil society organizations and academics.

The civil society organizations emphasized the importance of due process in investigations. The coalition has noted that one necessary but fragile step has recently been taken – with the issuing of a government memo which says that people whose birth certificates have been suspended while they are under investigation can now recover them.

But further steps are essential to overcome the current serious problems being created by denationalization of Dominican citizens in these circumstances.

The civil society organizations declared that as a democratic state, it is important that the Dominican government develops good dialogue and good channels of communications with Dominican civil society organizations so that their concerns are heard and considered. They called on the President of the Dominican Republic to:

  • recognize that all people born on Dominican territory before January 26, 2010 are Dominican citizens;
  • stop the retroactive application of new nationality rules;
  • ensure that any investigations of identity documents are conducted with due process; and
  • protect all Dominican citizens without discrimination.

They pressed for these key recommendations in a series of meetings with U.S. government officials and officials of the Inter-American Human Rights system. Receptive to their concerns, the U.S. Congress also held two briefings on the subject.

The concerned civil society organizations committed themselves to continuing to work towards a satisfactory solution that would end the human rights abuse of arbitrary denial or deprivation of nationality. Dominicans of Haitian descent who participated in the advocacy week expressed the hope that the voices of their community would be heard and that they would be recognized as citizens who love their country and make a contribution to it.

CCDH (Centro Cultural Dominico Haitiano)
Christian Aid
Church World Service
La FEI (Fundacion Etnica Integral)
GARR (Groupe d’Appui aux Rapatries et Refugies)
MOSCTHA (Movimiento Socio Cultural de Trabajadores Haitianas)
MUDHA (Movimiento de Mujeres Dominico-Haitianas)
Progressio
Redh Jacques Viau
Refugees International
The Robert F Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights

Archived video of the daylong conference is available at: http://www.law.georgetown.edu/webcast/eventDetail.cfm?eventID=1559

In Spanish: http://www.churchworldservice.org/embracesp