WESTERN ORGANIZATIONS RESPOND TO CITIZENSHIP INJUSTICES

THE UNHCR RESPONDS

In the wake of the new citizenship policy ruling in the Dominican Republic, the UN Refugee Agency published a statement voicing their opinion against the actions of the Dominican government. They recognize the devastation that would occur to the 200,000 stateless individuals if they are to be deported back into their impoverished nation. The UNHCR is concerned with the human rights violations as well as the fact that many of these individuals that may be deported could very well be considered stateless in their home country as well, leaving them nowhere to turn.
It is important that these injustices be met with action to help these oppressed individuals. In this moment we should also raise the question of how to define the population of Haitians that have either fled from economic or political persecution or were born in the DR from parents that had fled for asylum. These are all questions that should be met by the UNHCR also if they seek to fight these deportations more effectively. To read more on defining the Haitian Dominicans, click the Read More button to read my blog post on "How can we define the Haitians living in the Dominican Republic?".

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL SEEMS ENRAGED

Amnesty International has voiced their opinion on the Human Rights violations in the Dominican Republic for many years now. In 2014, they published a news article, “Dominican Republic: Reaction to Court ruling shows shocking disregard for international law”, on the recent ruling from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) in regards to the illegal deportations of Haitian migrants and any Dominican of Haitian descent as well as the refusal to grant citizenship to those that rightfully have a Dominican nationality. This court was created after World War II to ensure the safety of Human Rights among all countries. The DR is among the 25 American nations that either ratified the convention or are in compliance with the treaty. The convention in 2013 found many human rights violations in the DR against Dominican Haitians that were attempting to receive their right to an ID card. However, in this Amnesty International article they recognize the stubbornness by the Dominican government in ignoring the violations and the the IACHR’s order to change their 2013 constitutional change on citizenship rights in the DR. Amnesty International was hopeful that the Dominican government would change their ways soon, however in a more recent article from AI and the recent political movement in the country we can see the issue has escalated in the last three years.
They also published the article "Dominican Republic leaving thousands in limbo in Haiti" in June, 2016 to explain the terrible deportations that continue to occur in the last few months. At the time of this article, they claimed more than 100,000 people had been deported. These tens of thousands that have been deported also include unaccompanied children that have no family or solution once pushed into Haiti. They report that more than 60,000 have voluntarily moved into Haiti because of the fear of violence and deportation. This article highlights a tragedy on this island for the Haitians. There are many discrepancies among the politics of who is legally allowed to remain in the DR and who is actually being deported. Amnesty International claims 15% that have already been deported were born in the Dominican Republic who "could be entitled to Dominican Nationality" because they are children born from Haitian migrants. Later in the article, however, they reference the constitutional decision to deny children citizenship who were born by Haitian immigrants, which in the words of Amnesty International is an "arbitrary and discriminatory deprivation of nationality". The government claims they will give the residents time to provide their identification, yet there have been many accounts of people picked up from the streets and brought straight to the border without the time to show their papers. Others are taken in the night from their families and left to find their way back into their rightful country. Amnesty International in the end states their hope that the Dominican government will reverse these unlawful deportations and reinstate the rightful Dominican citizenship to the thousands that were stripped of those rights.