Above: the meeting in Caracas (Photo: OPDR)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Haiti and the Dominican Republic have begun talks on the controversial citizenship ruling by the Dominican Republic’s Constitutional Court regarding Dominicans of Haitian descent.

Haiti Foreign Minister Pierre Richard Casimir and Dominican Republic Minister of the Presidency Gustavo Montalvo signed an agreement following a meeting in Caracas setting out the way forward for a potential resolution.

The two governments announced that they had signed an agreement on three points that “prioritize dialogue” ahead of any potential resolution on those affected by the ruling.

The two countries said the agreement had been facilitated by the government of Venezuela.

Haiti and the Dominican Republic agreed that “dialogue will be the only way to solve any situation” regarding Dominicans of Haitian descent.

The two sides reaffirmed their “willingness to move forward on all measures necessary to ensure legal certainty and the full enjoyment and respect for the rights of people of Haitian descent born in the Dominican Republic,” and said that they had agreed to hold a further meeting to reach “satisfactory agreements” on the issue.

The ruling could strip citizenship for hundreds of thousands of Dominicans born to Haitian parents since 1929.