YALE HUMAN RIGHTS & DEVELOPMENT L.J. 2017] The Risk of Statelessness VOL. XIX 51 persons of Haitian descent are stateless because the law of statelessness requires a grant of nationality in the place of birth if a child would otherwise be stateless, and largely prohibits deprivation of nationality that leaves a person stateless.16 Perhaps because of the political and legal importance of the statelessness classification, each side of the nationality debate in the Dominican Republic takes a position that flatly contradicts the other.17 Specifically, the nationality rights movement argues that statelessness is widespread in Hispaniola, while Dominican authorities deny its existence.18 The two sides of this debate were articulated in the 2005 exchange between the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (Inter-American Court) and the Dominican Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ). That year, the Inter-American Court decided The Girls Yean and Bosico v. Domincan Republic, in which it found that the child of a Dominican mother and a Haitian father who had been denied a Dominican birth certificate had been left stateless.19 The SCJ reviewed the statelessness question just a few months later and found there to be no problem because the children of Haitians born in the Dominican Republic derived Haitian nationality from their parents under the Haitian Constitution.20 The contrary positions of these two tribunals have characterized the debate for nearly a decade.21 This debate evolved after the Constitutional Court of the Dominican Republic issued a decision that nullified Dominican nationality for more than 130,000 persons of Haitian descent in 2013.22 The Constitutional Court reiterated the reasoning of the SCJ from years earlier, finding that its 16. Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, arts. 1, 8, opened for signature Aug. 30, 1961, 989 U.N.T.S. 175 [hereinafter 1961 Convention]. 17. See generally Stacie Kosinski, State of Uncertainty: Citizenship, Statelessness, and Discrimination in the Dominican Republic, 32 B.C. INT’L & COMP L. REV. 377, 378-82 (2009) (outlining the conflicting principles upon which nationality can be based). 18. See Case of Expelled Dominicans and Haitians v. Dominican Republic, Preliminary Objections, Merits, Reparations and Costs, Judgment, Inter-Am. Ct. H.R. (ser. C) No. 282, ¶¶ 240, 247 (Aug. 28, 2014) (outlining both parties’ arguments). 19. Case of the Girls Yean and Bosico v. Dominican Republic, Preliminary Objections, Merits, Reparations and Costs, Judgment, Inter-Am. Ct. H.R. (ser. C) No. 130, ¶ 166 (Sept. 8, 2005). 20. Suprema Corte de Justicia [SCJ] [Supreme Court of Justice], 14 diciembre 2005, BOLETÍN JUDICIAL [B.J.] No. 1141, pp. 8-9 (Dom. Rep.), http://ojd.org.do/Jurisprudencia/Constitucional/B.J.-num.-1141-diciembre-2005.pdf [https://perma.cc/UF7J-A97K]. 21. For a general discussion of nationality in the Dominican Republic and the relationship between the Dominican Republic and the Inter-American Court, see Marselha Gonçalves Margerin, Monika Kalra Varma & Salvador Sarmiento, Building a Dangerous Precedent in the Americas: Revoking Fundamental Rights of Dominicans, 21 HUM. RTS. BRIEF 9 (2014). 22. Tribunal Constitucional de la República Dominicana [TCRD] [Constitutional Court of the Dominican Republic], 25 septiembre 2013, Sentencia TC/0168/13 [Judgment TC/0168/13], http://tribunalconstitucional.gob.do/sites/default/files/documentosSentencia%20TC%20016 8-13%20-%20C.pdf [https://perma.cc/2YGQ-NUFD]. The UNHCR estimates that there are 133,770 stateless people in the Dominican Republic. While the initial estimate of stateless persons was in the order of 210,000, UNHCR subsequently announced a downward revision of that estimate based on more precise data analysis. See UNHCR, UNHCR Mid-Year Trends 2015, at 14 (2015), http://unhcr.org/en-us/56701b969.pdf [https://perma.cc/M52G-7Z24]. Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3111529