Chapter 2 The Right to Nationality and Judgment TC/0168/13 of the Constitutional Court | 123
the Haitian State in which they have referred to those affected by judgment
TC/0168/13 and rendered stateless.
291. After judgment TC/0168/13 was issued the TC / 0168/13, the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs of Haiti issued a statement fixing the position of the Government of Haiti in
relation to that judgment and stating that it "could render stateless a considerable
number of Dominicans Haitian descent ", while noting that the judgement went
against the decision of the Inter-American Court in the case of Yean and Bosico vs.
Dominican Republic of 2005.290 Subsequently, the Ministry of Haitians living abroad
issued a statement in which they deplored the decision of the Dominican
government to comply with judgment TC/0168/13, saying that compliance of it
would affect the interests of more than 210,000 Dominicans of Haitian descent
placing them in a situation of statelessness. 291
292. Also, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Haiti, Mr. Lener Renauld, in his intervention
before the Permanent Council of the OAS on July 8, 2015, said that Haiti would not
receive any person other than a Haitian migrants in an irregular situation referring
to the eventual resumption of deportations from the Dominican Republic, and that
there was "a great risk that Haiti receives thousands of denationalized persons."
293. The Commission considers that the fact that the Haitian authorities refer to those
affected by the judgment of the Constitutional Court as stateless persons is a form of
recognition by the Haitian authorities that the members of this population are not
considered Haitian nationals in accordance with applicable law in Haiti. The Haitian
authorities have indicated that they do not consider those affected by the judgment
to be Haitian nationals.
294.
In light of the arbitrary deprivation of nationality resulting from judgment
TC/0168/13 and for the reasons explained above regarding the acquisition of
Haitian nationality, the Commission concludes that anyone who held Dominican
nationality exclusively prior to said judgment and was not considered a national by
any other State would be left stateless, under its law, according to the definition in
Article 1.1 of the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons.
3.
The right to identity of persons of Haitian descent
295. The IACHR noted during its on-site visit that the birth certificate issued by the Civil
Registry Office, as an entity of the Central Electoral Board, is the official legal
document attesting to a person’s name and identity and is therefore necessary to
secure a legal identity, which includes both nationality and juridical personality. The
Commission also heard testimony from several people who indicated that the
identity document was essential in the Dominican Republic in order to gain access to
290
291
Republic of Haiti, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Official position of the Government of Haiti on Judgment
TC/0168/13 adopted by the Dominican Constitutional Tribunal. October 2, 2013.
Republic of Haiti, Ministère des Haïtiens vivant à l'Etranger, Position officielle du Ministère des Haïtiens vivant
à l'Etranger. October 24, 2013. [Available only in French].
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights | IACHR
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