ISI Presents the Reality of Statelessness in the Dominican Republic in Its Paperless People Podcast Series

The Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI) launched in October 2018 a podcast series called Paperless People. It focuses on testimonies from people in different continents of the world where statelessness affects significant groups of persons.

The series examines how legal identity and statelessness interact through experiences in three countries: Serbia, India, and the Dominican Republic. OBMICA supported the Institute in producing the piece in which listeners can hear the testimonies of Yamilef Lois and Isidro Berique, two young Dominicans of Haitian descent affected by Constitutional Court ruling 168/13 and by its consequences in their respective lives.

"Imagine not having a recognized identity, not belonging, being excluded. Even the basic things of life - getting a job, seeing a doctor, going to school, owning a house - are blocked for you. It is a life of uncertainty in which you find yourself in a precarious legal limbo," says the publicity for the audio series, which includes five pieces. In addition to the episodes narrating cases in India (in the Assam region) and of the Roma population in Serbia, there are segments that place these testimonies in dialogue with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly the one that addresses legal identity as a universal right.

The Paperless People pieces are in English and can be heard here, and the piece on the Dominican Republic can be heard at this link.

This is a new collaboration between OBMICA and the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI). OBMICA prepared a chapter on the Dominican reality for The World's Stateless, a report published by ISI in 2017 that recounts the reality of millions of children in situations of statelessness around the world.