News
Dominican Republic delegation advises that Haitians will not be stripped of citizenship
The delegation, via Alternate Representative Mayerlyn Cordero Diaz, made this statement on Wednesday during a debate on the issue by the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS).
“The Government of the Dominican Republic reaffirms that no person holding Dominican nationality will be stripped of it,” Cordero Diaz said at the meeting where the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), a principal and autonomous organ of the OAS, presented a report on its preliminary observations.
Cordero also indicated that Dominican Republic President Danilo Medina will submit to the country’s congress a law to address the situation of 24,392 people “who were not declared with proper documentation.” Furthermore, Rosa María Ortiz, IACHR second vice chair and Country Rapporteur for the Dominican Republic, said her delegation will shortly present to the OAS its final report on its visit to the Dominican Republic.
Last year, the Dominican Republic Constitutional Court ruled last that Dominicans of Haitian parentage, who were born in the Dominican Republic, would be stripped of Dominican citizenship. However, in an change of face, Cordero said “regardless of the immigration status in the country, the Dominican government has always provided basic human rights guaranteed to all people who are in the territory of the Dominican Republic, including access to public services such as health and education as well as labor rights and access to justice.”
He called on the international community to “allow us to prioritize dialogue, because the issues involved are of a bilateral nature.”
Source: Caribbean360