Introduction
Injustice can sometimes make the whole nation sink into despair and abandon attempts to fight even for basic rights. However, the Dominican people stood up to struggle for their right to citizenship, which may sound relatively strange in the 21st century. Thus, racialization and anti-blackness became dimensions that determined citizenship and changed society in the Dominican Republic.
Discussion
The history of Dominican statelessness takes its roots in the 19th century. For a long time, Haitian workers represented the majority of the sugar mill workforce. Beginning in 1865, children born in the country obtained birthright citizenship (Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights et al., 2017). Despite this benefit, many young Dominicans of Haitian origin encountered discrimination because of their skin color, migrant family members, or socio-economic class. Furthermore, Haitian families often faced hardships with receiving identity documents confirming Dominican citizenship. Thus, the perceived ‘lower’ status of Haitians by the Dominican authorities, as well as natives, served as a foundation for adopting laws that violate human rights.
The situation in the Dominican Republic shows how deteriorating decisions made by a small group of people can be. The case touched on is Judgment 168-13, issued by the Constitutional Court in 2013, which institutionalized discriminative practices against Dominicans of Haitian origin (Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights et al., 2017). It was one of the most shameful and unprecedented events in terms of the deprivation of human rights. As a result, about 134 thousand people residing in the country became stateless (Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights et al., 2017).
Conclusion
Despite the international safeguards against statelessness, it did not impede the Dominican authorities from saying that people of Haitian descent are not stateless and can have Haitian citizenship, which was not provided by Haitian laws.
References
Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, American Jewish World Service, Centro de Desarrollo Sostenible, and The United Nations Democracy Fund. (2017). Dreams deferred: the struggle of Dominicans of Haitian descent to get their nationality back. Web.