58 | Report on the Situation of Human Rights in the Dominican Republic country was ruled by the dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo who, by promoting a European and Hispanic identity, made racism an official policy, which he did by fueling anti-Haitian sentiments and encouraging violence against Haitians. 111 109. The Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance and the Independent Expert on minority issues have observed that: Anti-Haitian feelings can already be traced back to the Santo Domingo revolt of August 1791, which profoundly shook the slavery system, and the independence of Haiti from France in 1804, which created an extreme and enduring fear and the cultural and political demonization of Haitians in the whole hemisphere. Following Haitian independence, the Spanish ruling elites in Santo Domingo continued to foster the Hispanic identity that had been promoted against the western part of the island by presenting the colony as white, Catholic and of Hispanic roots vis-à-vis Haiti, presented as black, voodoo practitioners and with an African culture with French influence. 112 110. The anti-Haitian sentiments and existing tension over the flow of Haitian migrants into the Dominican Republic can be traced to many historical, political, social and cultural factors and components. Dominican historian Frank Moya Pons writes that starting in 1930, during the Trujillo dictatorship, the State was less interested in highlighting any political differences with Haiti and more interested in emphasizing the racial differences between the two countries. He explains that during the Trujillo Era, the State made racism a distinctive feature of its self-definition. 113 Other historians and sociologists point out that other intellectuals and politicians in the Trujillo government, like Joaquín Balaguer 114 and Manuel Arturo Peña Batlle, would use anti-Haitianism and a Hispanic notion of the Dominican heritage and self as an official narrative in the mid twentieth century, a way to distinguish Dominicans from Haitians on the basis of racial, biological and cultural attributes. 111. Since 1929, the Constitutions of the Dominican Republic have, with very few exceptions, consistently conferred nationality on the basis of the principle of jus soli. Despite this fact, the official discourse surrounding the acquisition of nationality on the basis of jus soli, especially in the case of children born of Haitians in an irregular 111 112 113 114 UN, Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, Doudou Diène, and the independent expert on minority issues, Gay McDougall, Addendum, Mission to Dominican Republic, A/HRC/7/19/Add.5, A/HRC/7/23/Add.3, March 18, 2008, par. 91; SAGAS, Ernesto. "A Case of Mistaken Identity: Antihaitianismo in Dominican Culture". Webster University. 1993. UN, Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, Doudou Diène, and the independent expert on minority issues, Gay McDougall, Addendum, Mission to Dominican Republic, A/HRC/7/19/Add.5, A/HRC/7/23/Add.3, March 18, 2008, par. 91. See, inter alia, MOYA PONS, Frank, Antihaitianismo histórico y antihaitianismo de Estado. Lecturas: historia y memoria. Diario Libre, December 5, 2009; MOYA PONS, Frank, Dominican national identity and return migration. University of Florida at Gainesville, Center for Latin American Studies, Occasional Paper 1, 1981; MOYA PONS, Frank, The Dominican Republic: A National History. Hispaniola Books, New York, 1995. Joaquín Balaguer’s theories and arguments are laid out in his books La realidad Dominicana (1943) and La isla al revés: Haití y el destino dominicano (1983). Organization of American States | OAS