Dominican Ambassador in Washington, Anibal de Castro has published his response addressed to Kerry Kennedy and Santiago Canton of the Robert Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights in Washington following an article published in Spanish newspaper El Pais.
Ambassador Castro expresses his concern over what he calls the “campaign of misinformation and fear-mongering waged by RFK Partners to the detriment of the Dominican Republic and its people”. The ambassador writes: “This negative crusade is being pursued with a vehemence akin to animosity, insistently disregarding the realities on the ground and the constructive and far-reaching measures put in place the Dominican Government to reduce the vulnerability of undocumented migrants in the country.”
The ambassador responds to the argument that the DR is disregarding its international obligations by contravening the decisions of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on the issue of acquisition of citizenship, claims the DR should ignore the 2013 Constitutional Court on citizenship eligibility, and allegations that actions taken by Dominicans that affect the immigrant population are motivated by racism.
Ambassador De Castro explains once again that Haitian immigrants are not stateless because Art. 11.2 of the Haitian Constitution of 1983 explicitly states that all those born of Haitian parents are Haitian citizens.
De Castro argues that the case of the Haitians is not unique in the world. He says that no one has argued that Dominicans are stateless when they are denied citizenship of their place of birth in several countries around the world.
“Your repeated accusations that the Dominican Republic is leaving the descendants of Haitians stateless by not granting them Dominican citizenship are not only false, but inflammatory; these other countries are not at the receiving end of international bullying aimed at forcing them to disrupt the rule of law in deference to external political pressure,” he writes.
Regarding accusations of racism, De Castro writes:
“In fact, Dominicans and Haitians live side by side with surprisingly little friction, considering the significant scale of the immigration into the Dominican Republic in the last few decades. Despite the pressures this has put on Dominican public services…. There is no groundswell of opposition to the solidarity consistently expressed through these actions…. Beyond the open door principle of public service providers, there are innumerable facilities and prerogatives available to immigrants, not least in terms of easy access to the health system and the labor courts.
“Please consider this letter an open invitation for you to exchange obsession for cooperation, shortsightedness for a wider vision of the realities of Hispaniola, and to join forces with us in the relentless work of constructing a true democracy for Dominicans and for anyone living under our hospitality. This is a mission that I am sure Robert F. Kennedy would have wholeheartedly endorsed.”
http://dr1.com/premium/news/2014/Anibal_de_Castro_a_RFK_20Nov2014.pdf