In December 2012, BCRW co-sponsored a Human Rights Day panel, honoring the life and legacy of Dominican human rights activist Sonia Pierre (1963-2011). As the child of sugar cane workers from Haiti, Pierre began organizing at age 13 to obtain equal rights for the countries largest minority. She founded the United Movement of Dominico-Haitian Women (MUDHA), an organization which promotes the social welfare of poor and disenfranchised communities in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, through community based organizing around health education, disaster relief, small business development, and legal advocacy. Sonia’s life and work were emblematic of the challenges faced by Dominicans of Haitian descent. She is credited with bringing cases of discrimination and violence to international human rights courts, such as the case of Jean y Bosico (2005), in which the Dominican Government was sanctioned for keeping children of Haitian descent out of school. (IACHR, 2005). While it did pay damages to the young women cited in the case, the government refused to concede to other recommendations. In 2004, it became legal to interpret the status of migrant workers as in transit, therefore invalidating their legal residency and the citizenship of their children. In 2007, a law allowed for officials to seize documents that were previously considered valid when applicants went to obtain the national ID card. Hundreds had their citizenship called into question under this new interpretation of the law. In 2010, a new Dominican Constitution was passed, providing citizenship only to those who have at least one Dominican citizen parent. This fundamental change marked a shift from defining citizenship by location at birth jus solis, to citizenship by blood jus sanguis.
In 2013, the trajectory of Dominican laws targeting people of Haitian descent from citizenship reached a new low point with the passing of Sentencia 168/13, which retroactively stripped the citizenship of anyone born in the DR to undocumented parents since 1929, the date of the most active treaty marking the Dominican-Haitian border. An international uproar ensued, with Amnesty International, the United Nations, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and CARICOM denouncing the ruling. The ruling also became a rallying point for both Dominican and Haitian diaspora groups that had been following this issue. Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees, Fanm Aysiyen Nan Miyami, and a coalition of Dominican activists called Domimnicanos Por Derechos emerged as vocal critics, holding teach-ins and connecting the policy to the problem of historical anti-Haitianism.
- Blake, Jillian Nicole, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Race-Based Statelessness in the Americas (June 14, 2014). Georgetown Journal of Law and Modern Critical Race Perspectives, Forthcoming. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2450631
- Building a Dangerous Precedent in the Americas (paper by American University Law School students): http://www.wcl.american.edu/hrbrief/21/1margerin.pdf
- Open Society Institute – comment on new law passed to remedy La Sentencia 168/13: http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/press-releases/dominican-republics-new-naturalization-law-falls-short
- Left Behind, How Statelessness in the Dominican Republic Limits Children’s Access to Education: http://www.entreculturas.org/files/documentos/Left-Behind_HRI_Report-2014_English_Final.pdf
