14 | Report on the Situation of Human Rights in the Dominican Republic
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the right to protection of the family and family life, the rights of the child, the right to
education, the right to health, the right to work, the right to private property, the
right to due process of law, the right to judicial protection, political rights, the right
to movement and residence, as well as the right to not be arbitrarily deprived of
their liberty, the right to not be expelled from the territory of which they are
nationals or the right to enter in said territory, the prohibition of collective
expulsions, among others.
In response to the effects generated by the judgment TC/0168/13, the
administration of President Danilo Medina promoted, with the support of many
political and social actors, the adoption of the Law 169-14, which was approved
unanimously by Congress and it entered into force on May 23, 2014. The Law 16914 divided people affected by judgment TC/0168/13 into two groups which were
called Group A and Group B. In connection with persons of Group A, the law
established the validation of the birth certificates and the restoration of nationality
to persons born on Dominican territory between June 16, 1929 and April 18, 2007,
whose births had been registered.
As for persons of Group B, the law established a special registration procedure in the
record books of births of foreigners, applicable to those born in the Dominican
Republic but who were never registered in the Dominican civil registry, enabling
them to subsequently apply to the regularization of their status as migrants, and,
after two years, authorizing them to apply for Dominican citizenship through regular
naturalization procedure. Moreover, people born between April 18, 2007 and
January 26, 2010 were not sheltered within the scope of the law.
According to information provided by the Dominican government, in late May 2015,
a figure higher than 53,000 persons belonging to Group A had their records
validated. Consequently, as expressed by the State itself, these people and their
descendants will have their Dominican nationality restored and their Dominican
identity documents must be issued pursuant to the provisions of Law 169-14. At
the date of approval of this report, the process of delivery of documents to these
people was only starting, but there were already complaints reported by some
people regarding barriers in the delivery of their documents by the authorities of the
Civil Registry. In this regard, the Commission considers that the State must ensure
that the delivery of identity documents to these people is done without any
discrimination and avoiding any kind of arbitrariness and administrative obstacles,
so that these people can exercise the multiple rights associated to the right to
nationality and juridical personality.
With respect to Group B, that is, the children of foreign parents in an irregular
migratory situation, who having been born in the Dominican territory were not
registered in the Dominican Civil Registry, the State has reported that 8,755 people
applied for registration in the book foreigners within 180 days they had to register,
which expired on 1 February 2015. The Commission notes that according to the
National Immigration Survey of 2012, it was estimated that over 53,000 people were
born in the Dominican Republic of foreign parents, and who were never registered
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