Human Rights Commission flusters Dominican Republic

Santo Domingo.- Dominican Republic on Monday stated concern in Washington with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights’ (IACHR) repeated calls for hearings on the issue of Haitians in its territory.

Dominican Foreign Ministry envoy Radhys Abreu complained that despite a visit by an IACHR delegation just three months ago, at the invitation of the Government, it had the opportunity to deal directly with stakeholders in the issues addressed yesterday.

"The honorable Commission has among its tasks, to render a report to the country, so that the State can formulate the pertinent observations," Abreu said, and noted that Dominican Republic is respectful of its international commitments, as evidenced by its presence at yesterday’s hearing.

She said in compliance with the Constitutional Court ruling on nationality, the government sought to determine its impact on the population registered in the country’s registry.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry delegation also included Ambassador in the U.S. Pedro Vergés and Embassy chief of staff Mayerlin Cordero.

Descendants of Haitian workers

For their part, the descendants of Haitian workers stated that despite that hundreds came to the Dominican Republic to work in cane plantations, more than 75,000 workers of the State Sugar Council (CEA) cannot get a pension for lack of identity documents, a situation which also affects their offspring.

They said it’s important that the ruling acknowledged their presence since 1929, since it "would recognise the acquired rights of offspring born in the Dominican Republic."

They asked the Government to exclude from the regularization plan all of the immigrants’ offspring born in Dominican territory prior to 2010.