No automatic citizenship

The Dominican Republic facing international criticism over a ruling by its Constitutional Court that could render, stateless, thousands of persons of Haitian descent, has said it does not grant citizenship to every person born in the Spanish speaking country. Anibal De Castro,  the Dominican Republic Ambassador to the United Sates, responding to an article published in the Trinidad Express newspaper, wrote that unlike the United States, his country “does not grant citizenship to all those born within its jurisdiction. “In fact, the United States is one of the few nations that maintains this practice. In most countries, it is the norm that citizenship be obtained by origin or conferred under certain conditions. Since 1929, the Constitution of the Dominican Republic has established that the children of people in transit, a temporary legal status, are not eligible for Dominican citizenship,” he wrote in response to the article entitled “The Dirty Business of Cleansing” by columnist Dr Sheila Rampersad. “The article you published does not mention that this principle was confirmed in 2005 by our Supreme Court and subsequently ratified in a constitutional reform in 2010. The Constitutional Court confirms previous interpretations of other courts and pursues its implementation with the relevant authorities, in order to establish a coherent immigration policy. “ The Caribbean Community (CARICOM, as well as the Washington-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), have criticized the ruling made on September 23, with the IACHR saying that it “retroactively modifies legislation that was in effect from 1929 to 2010, and thus would strip Dominican citizenship from tens of thousands of people born in the Dominican Republic”. CARICOM Secretary General Irwin La Rocque said the ruling “raises a serious question about the status of the numerous… Dominican Republic nationals of Haitian extract” while St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves in a letter to President Danilo Medina said the court’s decision was “unacceptable in any civilized community”.

Courtesy: www.cananewsonline.com