“ Mirrored the vulnerability and struggles that stateless individuals in the US face. This will help us show more data behind our advocacy work on why statelessness needs to be addressed.” Future Plans USL plan to publish its CESF research in a peer-reviewed journal, while sharing findings within its networks. With sustained funding, USL aims to establish a pathway to the right to a nationality for stateless people living in the United States. The team envisage continuing to liaise with the US Government to recognise statelessness, establish a statelessness determination procedure, and assist stateless people in the country, stating that “Our biggest strategies have been continued networking and using opportunities to talk with everyone we can about statelessness.” DOMINICAN@S POR DERECHO – SOCIAL INCLUSION FOR THE STRUCTURALLY EXCLUDED IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC Dominican@s por Derecho (DxD) is a platform of nine groups with a long history of service in the Dominican Republic in human rights, education, health, sustainable development, strategic research and litigation. Since Sentence 168-13 in 2013, which denationalised tens of thousands of Dominicans, mainly of Haitian descent, this platform helped Dominicans of Haitian descent advocate for social inclusion, community development and better working conditions as well as access to civil registration and the right to Dominican nationality. Action and Exceptional Awards (EUR 27,000) READ MORE ON COVID-19 The project aimed to document and map cases of those who had been IMPACTS IN THE DOMINICAN excluded from state relief, to better understand evolving needs and develop REPUBLIC HERE appropriate longer-term engagement strategies for the DxD Platform. This included pro-active follow-up to a Presidential Decree paving the way for the naturalisation of those born to irregular migrants in the Dominican Republic and never registered. The project sat within, and contributed to, a wider study on the impact of COVID-19 that involved mapping the impact of disruption to civil registries during the pandemic. Impact • The project assisted 130 families who had been excluded from state’s assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly with humanitarian aid, food support, first-hand information on COVID-19 and how to prevent the spread of infection. As the team observed, “The humanitarian aid was modest but enabled continued ongoing accompaniment of disadvantaged communities to better understand their needs.” • The DxD Platform carried out multiple advocacy and legal activities, including assisting to obtain identity documents. This was in response to project research which “indicated that access to civil registration was difficult before COVID-19, but the pandemic added an extra layer of difficulty to the issue.” • Amidst challenges, the DxD Platform engaged with international and regional mechanisms such as the Inter-American Human Rights Commission and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. The results emerging from these advocacy and legal actions provided the base for further advocacy work. • Due to lack of documents, precarious legal status, unemployment and impacts of COVID-19, stateless people were not eligible for state social protection. The team therefore helped set up nine small-scale enterprises “To demonstrate the capacities of the stateless […] demystifying the charge that “others” are a drain on state resources.” • The DxD Platform also successfully advocated for stateless people to access vaccines. Future Plans The DxD Platform aims to further engage in policy dialogue with the Dominican authorities. September 2023 will mark the 10th anniversary of the landmark ruling 168-13 which denationalised thousands of Dominicans, mainly of Haitian descent. With sustained funding, the Platform will aim to carry out multiple activities to raise awareness, engage different stakeholders and advocate for people’s right to a nationality, including within a sub-regional context. 33