Human Rights delegation to seek suspension of controversial ruling

Santo Domingo.- A seven-member delegation of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) will come to the country on December 2 to ask the Dominican Government to suspend the enforcement of the program to regulate foreigners, as stipulated in the Constitutional Court’s controversial ruing on nationality.

Since the ruling was handed down, the IACHR stated its rejection, noting that it would retroactively strip the nationality of thousands of Dominicans of Haitian descent.

"This Constitutional Court ruling is going in the opposite direction to all of the IACHR’s pronouncements and violates the State’s international obligations in the field of human rights," the regional organization said in a statement issued October 8.

On 29 October Organization of American States (OAS) secretary general José Miguel Insulza announced the delegation’s visit to Dominican Republic to discuss the ruling which affects mostly Haitian offspring, but didn’t specify the date.

In his announcement, Insulza said the delegation seeks to discuss the ruling’s effects, "affecting the offspring of Haitian immigrants."

Despite the IACHR’s position, the Central Electoral Board’s (JCE) has begun work to enforce the ruling, which orders the regulation of the status of all foreigners in the country.