Bogotá.- The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH) on Mon. called for talks between Dominican Republic’s civil society and the Government to resolve disputes sparked by Haitian immigration.
“You have to persevere, you have to participate. We will continue to persevere in the dialogue, “said IACHR commissioner Luis Ernesto Vargas in a public hearing to evaluate compliance with decisions of the Inter-American Human Rights System in the Dominican Republic.
Both the representatives of the social organizations of the country and the Dominican Government agreed to open some “dialogue tables” to address the problem, an initiative that was praised by the president of the audience, Esmeralda Arosemena de Troitiño.
A spokesman for those affected by the country’s immigration laws, Beneco Enecia, hailed “the initiative of the Dominican state in proposing the possibility of creating these dialogue tables.”
“It will require a great political will of all actors in the country to promote changes in migratory legislation, also from civil society,” warned Gideon Santos, representing the Dominican state at the hearing.
The dispute emerged from the massive influx of Haitians to the Dominican Republic and fueled by a controversial Dominican Constitutional Court ruling in 2013, which set the guidelines to obtain legal immigration status.
An Amnesty International report published last week said that the ruling “arbitrarily and retroactively” deprived a large number of people of Dominican nationality.