OBMICA Editorial September 2022

Nine years ago, the State massively denationalized thousands of Dominicans of Haitian descent through Ruling 168-13, which established that people born in the Dominican Republic to foreign parents without "regular migration status" had never had a right to Dominican nationality. It therefore ordered the Central Electoral Board to review the civil registry and remove the registration of all people born in an irregular situation, retroactively denationalizing Dominicans of Haitian descent born between 1929 and 2007.

Recognizing protests by human rights defenders at the national and international levels, the State passed Law 169 in 2014, which, although it attempted to provide some type of identity document to denationalized people, has not been effective. On the one hand, this law created second-class citizens by requiring people who once had a Dominican birth certificate to obtain new birth certificates whose validity could be affected if the law ceases to exist. On the other hand, those who were deprived of nationality but did not have a birth certificate were required to go through a process of declaring themselves foreigners and then naturalizing. To this day, none of the people in this second group has obtained Dominican nationality.

In September 2022, the platform made up of civil society organizations known as Dominican@s por Derecho managed to reposition the arbitrary deprivation of nationality on the public agenda as a citizenship issue and a popular struggle for social justice. By broadening the conversation about denationalization, the socio-economic impact on the lives of thousands of people, their families, and their communities has been highlighted. The spokespersons have been young people, who are community and social leaders. Thus, the civic struggle to realize the right to nationality is perceived as an expression of resilience and resistance on the part of people whose rights and opportunities have been paralyzed because of their migration-related origins.

Light has been shed on Dominicans of Haitian descent who contribute and who deserve support with a view to closing the chapter of discrimination and social exclusion in the Dominican Republic. The 2022 slogan is "Dominican@s from top to bottom": despite the exclusionary policy of the Dominican state, the people affected will continue their struggle for the restoration of their Dominican nationality. On the following page of this bulletin are the bulk of the platform's statement and the photo of the peaceful vigil before the Dominican Congress.

 

Bridget Wooding

Director, OBMICA