Conservative leader: NGOs linked to Haiti press regional court on birth certificates

Santo Domingo.- A senior leader of the conservative pro-government FNP on Wednesday affirmed that powerful sectors linked to Haiti’s Government and international NGOs pressure the Civil Court at Monte Plata (east) which hears the case of the birth certificate of Juliana Deguis, to obtain a ruling which in his view would challenge the Constitutional Court’s authority on nationality.

Vinicio Castillo Seman said "powerful sectors” and NGOs linked to Port-au-Prince “pressure the jurisdiction of Monte Plata to commit the absurdity of contempt against the Constitutional Court’s supreme authority as to whether Deguis’ birth certificate is valid or not.”

As to Deguis’ nationality the political leader said the Monte Plata court is constitutionally obliged to comply with Constitutional Court ruling 168-13, so any decision to the contrary would be devoid of all legality. “The ‘plan’ is to use a friendly ruling for Deguis from Monte Plata to reinforce international accusations against the Dominican Republic and at the propaganda level.”

Castillo added that the objective of those groups –which he didn’t identify- is to convince president Danilo Medina to submit a bill which accepts birth and nationality certificates which defy the “irrevocable” ruling, which denies Dominican nationality to offspring of parents living illegally in the country from 1929 to 2010.