The Dominican government has rejected a recent ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (known by its Spanish acronym, CIDH) against it, arguing that the Dominican Republic is a sovereign nation responsible for its own immigration policies. CIDH issued a resolution on 13 March 2019 annulling Dominican Constitutional Court ruling TC256-14, which rejected the authority of the CIDH in its 2005 and 2014 rulings against the DR for violating the rights of Dominicans of Haitian descent to national citizenship and ordering reparation measures.
The latest CIDH ruling, published on 23 April 2019, says the Dominican Republic still must comply with its prior rulings in line with its obligations under the American Convention on Human Rights, which the DR is a party to.
Flavio Darío Espinal, the legal advisor to President Danilo Medina and a former Dominican ambassador to the United States and to the Organization of American States (OAS), asserted that ruling TC256-14 is definitive, citing Article 184 of the Constitution that states that the Constitutional Court’s decisions are final and irrevocable and constitute binding precedents for the branches of government and all state agencies.
Speaking in a press briefing at the Presidential Palace, Espinal stated:
“Contrary to what is stated by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the Dominican legal system does not generate statelessness. The Dominican state has provided itself with a normative base, both at the constitutional and legal level that responds to the different situations that may arise in the country regarding nationality. This has been recognized by other international organizations and agencies, as well as by different national and international players that follow up this issue.
“The Dominican government reiterates that regulation of how nationality is defined is a sovereign and inalienable attribute of the Dominican state, which objectively and impartially applies its constitutional and legal provisions on this matter.”
Read more in Spanish:
Corte IDH
Presidencia
El Nacional
El Caribe
Diario Libre
Tribunal Constitucional
30 April 2019