90 | Report on the Situation of Human Rights in the Dominican Republic have a little problem. Well, for me it’s a little problem but for you it’s a big problem. Your parents are aliens according to what is written here, and when they registered you they used an employment card as identification.” I said to her, “What are you talking about?” I myself was unaware that when they went to register my birth they used an employment card, but that’s what appeared on the document, and it’s in the computer. The judge tells me that I can register my son if I go to La Romana to find the certification of my mother’s identification card and they give me a number, they tell me the file it’s in, what record, and everything. I go and I write and I don’t find anything. Supposedly my mother had an old identification card that she believed was not a legal one. However she never tried to change the card or get a new one. So I went home to investigate. I went to my father, who was closer, to see what he could do, if he could find a birth certificate. When he went they told him no, they didn’t want to give it to him. I’ve waited a year by now. I completed my university education and have a degree in education. When I went to present my documents to the Central Electoral Board, all that was missing was the birth certificate. When I went to request it, they told me they couldn’t give it to me, for the same reason the judge gave me. And so began my terrible ordeal. 208 202. Affected persons who testified before the Commission stated that the various measures taken by the authorities to strip them of their nationality have taken a toll on every aspect of their lives, with the result that every day they endure violations of multiple human rights, particularly their civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights. Frequently the affected persons said that because they are no longer recognized as Dominican citizens, they are unable to register their children. If the children are in school, the many obstacles placed in their way make it difficult for them to stay in school and continue their studies, not to speak of the difficulty they have being admitted to a university, finding work, getting access to health services, marrying, entering into contracts, buying property, traveling within and outside the country, and so forth. 203. The Commission observes that the immediate effect of arbitrarily depriving persons of Haitian descent of their Dominican nationality let to a situation in which individuals who ought to have been considered Dominicans were regarded instead as foreigners or migrants, which resulted in the loss of their political rights. Those who, having been stripped of their nationality, became stateless persons have suffered egregious human rights violations. The Commission is deeply troubled by the fact that the persons so affected have become even more vulnerable to human rights violations and abuses in both the public and private spheres. In this regard, the Commission is compelled to remind the Dominican State of its obligation to respect the human rights and freedoms recognized in the American Convention and in other Inter-American and universal human rights instruments, with respect to all persons subject to its jurisdiction, regardless of their nationality or their situation of statelessness. 208 One woman’s testimony to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Santo Domingo, December 2, 2013. Organization of American States | OAS