The legal advisor to President Danilo Medina, Flavio Darío Espinal told Diario Libre that the position of the President of the Republic is to defend Naturalization Law 169-14. The law established procedures to legalize as Dominicans persons who had subsequently confronted difficulties for having irregularly obtained the Dominican nationality.
The law was passed during the first Medina administration after a local consensus was reached as an answer to local and international pressures following the Constitutional Court judgment 168-13 that confirmed a 2005 Supreme Court ruling on who is a Dominican bringing to the open irregularities in the civil registry over the years.
Responding to an editorial in Diario Libre that asked for the position of President Medina, Espinal told Diario Libre: “As a government, the President of the Republic defends the law and has no intention whatsoever to promote any change in the Dominican legal system, nor in matters of nationality, nor in terms of immigration regulation. The Dominican legal system includes the Migration Law, the constitutional provisions on nationality, Ruling 168-13 and Law 169-14, “he said.
Espinal emphasized: “I repeat, there is not the slightest intention to modify this legislation, we have defended and will continue to defend it in international forums. “
He recalled the defense of the law in forums at the Organization of American States, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Development Plan, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and before governments with which the country has bilateral relations.
Espinal described Law 169-14 as fair and balanced, politically viable and in line with the Constitution and other Dominican legal norms.
He made the observations after rumors that the government would back a recourse to declare in violation of the Constitution Law 169-14 that covers naturalization and establishes a special process for persons born in Dominican territory and improperly placed in the Dominican Civil Registry. The recourse would also seek to derogate the Constitutional Ruling 168-13.
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Diario Libre
Diario Libre
El Nacional
5 April 2018
