Above: Ravina Shamdasani (UN Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

The United Nations human rights office is urging the government of the Dominican Republic to “take all necessary measures to ensure that citizens of Haitian origin are not deprived of their right to nationality in light of a recent court ruling.”

The statement comes after a ruling by the country’s Constitutional Court that found that the children of undocumented migrants to the Dominican Republic who were born after 1929 cannot have Dominican nationality.

That ruling led Haiti to recall its Ambassador from Santo Domingo this week.

“We are extremely concerned that a ruling of the Dominican Republic Constitutional Court may deprive tens of thousands of people of nationality, virtually all of them of Haitian descent, and have a very negative impact on their other rights,” said Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Shamdasani said the ruling could have “disastrous” implications for those of Haitian descent living in the Dominican Republic, leaving them in a state of “constitutional limbo” and “potentially leaving tens of thousands of them stateless and without access to basic services for which identity documents are required.”

Until 2010, the prevailing rule in the Dominican Republic had been that those born in the country were entitled to citizenship.

A new constitution limited that rule only to those with one parent of Dominica blood or whose parents were legal residents.

“We urge the Dominican Government to take all necessary measures to ensure that Dominican citizens of Haitian origin are not deprived of their right to nationality in accordance with the country’s international human rights obligations,” Shamdasani said.