1 CHECK FOR INSTITUTIONAL BLIND-SPOTS We invite states, UN actors, humanitarian groups and other stakeholders to engage in careful introspection, check for institutional blind-spots, and review and reform policies and practices to ensure that stateless people are prioritised, their particular contexts and needs are understood and addressed and they are not excluded or left behind through: • • • • 2 strengthening awareness of the issue at all levels; acknowledging historical failures; collecting and sharing information on statelessness and nationality rights deprivations; and resourcing the enhancement of capacities, collaborations and funding. INCLUDE, CONSULT & ENGAGE IN DIALOGUE We invite activists and NGOs to make their expertise available and those in positions of power, to have open consultation and meaningful and constructive dialogue with affected communities, and commit to including stateless people on equal terms by: • • • • 3 consulting with activists and affected communities; building trust and strengthening solidarity with stateless communities; meeting the needs and priorities of affected communities and ensuring their meaningful participation; and facilitating wider discourse within society and institutions on equality, inclusion and the right to nationality. BUILD BACK BETTER We invite all actors to learn the hard lessons that the pandemic has taught us and invest in fu, ensuring a lasting commitment to breaking down the pervasive injustice, indignity, inequality, deprivation and exclusion that stateless people face, focusing on: • • • • • • STATELESSNESS DOES NOT ONLY EXIST IN HISTORY BUT IS ONGOING, IN REAL TIME AND IN PRACTICALLY EVERY CORNER OF THE WORLD. EVEN THOUGH STATELESSNESS INTERSECTS WITH EVERY OTHER HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION, IT REMAINS LARGELY UNKNOWN AND MISUNDERSTOOD. THE LARGE STATELESSNESS KNOWLEDGE GAP, EVEN AMONG PROMINENT DEVELOPMENT, MIGRATION, HUMANITARIAN AND HUMAN RIGHTS ACTORS, IS A CHALLENGE AND BURDEN FOR STATELESS PEOPLE LIKE ME, GLOBALLY. WE ARE NOT JUST A COLLECTION OF STORIES. WE ARE OUR OWN ADVOCATES AND EXPERTS THROUGH OUR LIVED EXPERIENCES. THIS REPORT RECOGNISES STATELESS PEOPLE AS LEADERS WHO MUST SHAPE THE VISION AND MAKE DECISIONS ABOUT THE PRIORITIES THAT DIRECTLY AFFECT OUR LIVES, OUR FAMILIES AND OUR COMMUNITIES. THE ROADMAP OFFERS A WAY FORWARD FOR OUR ALLIES TO CHECK THEIR STATELESSNESS BLIND-SPOTS, CENTRE US IN THEIR ACTIONS AND BE ACCOUNTABLE US WHEN DELIVERING THEIR MANDATES. WE CANNOT END STATELESSNESS BY OURSELVES. TOGETHER WE MUST WORK TO ENVISION A WORLD WHERE NOBODY IS DEPRIVED OF NATIONALITY BASED ON THEIR RACE, ETHNICITY, SEX, GENDER, OR RELIGION. A WORLD WHERE EVERYONE’S HUMAN RIGHT TO NATIONALITY IS PROTECTED AND UPHELD, AND WHERE STATELESSNESS IS TRULY RELEGATED TO THE HISTORY BOOKS. KARINA AMBARTSOUMIAN-CLOUGH, FOUNDING MEMBER & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, UNITED STATELESS implementing reforms to address discriminatory laws, policies and practices; redressing the intergenerational disadvantage and legacy of statelessness; being accountable to stateless communities and activists; monitoring the performance and progress of states; ensuring access to justice and reparations for stateless people; and sustainably investing in inclusive societies. CESF Consortium, 'Together we Can: The COVID-19 Impact on Stateless People & A Roadmap for Change,' (2021), available at: . For more information about the CESF Consortium, see: . ISI Monthly Bulletins and other key resources can be viewed here: https://www.institutesi.org/resources. 4 See further Chapter on Right to Nationality, Documentation and Legal Status, Chapter on Right to Health and Chapter on Socio-Economic Rights in Part 2 of 'Together We Can: The COVID-19 Impact on Stateless People and Roadmap for Change,' (2021), available at: . 5 Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, ‘The World’s Stateless: Deprivation of Nationality’ (2020), available at: . 6 Beneco Enecia, Coordinator of the Dominican@s por Derecho civil society Platform. 1 2 3 7 8 9 SICA-COVID-19 Regional Observatory, Decrees and measures adopted by the Dominican Republic, (2021), available at: https://www.sica.int/coronavirus/observatorioSICACOVID19/medidas/republicadominicana. available at: http://www.oas.org/es/sap/dgpe/puica/docs/Respuesta-emergencia-RC-pandemia-COVID-19.pdf. 10 Ibid. 11 M. C. Fumagalli and B. Wooding, ‘Stranger than Fiction: Opportunities for a new narrative in Dominico-Haitian relations under Covid-19,’ Human Rights Centre Blog, (8 July 2020), available at: https://hrcessex.wordpress. . 12 J. Pandian, ‘Dominican Republic: a wall of division,’ Latin America Bureau, (20 April 2021), available at https://lab.org.uk/dominican-republic-a-wall-of-division/. 13 Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Case of Expelled Dominicans and Haitians v The Dominican Republic, (2014), available at: . 14 D. Shaw, ‘Dominican Wall of Anti-Haitianism Keeps Neocolonial Inequity Alive,’ Council on Hemispheric Affairs (29 March 2021), available at: https://www.coha.org/dominican-wall-of-anti-haitianism-keeps-neocolonial-inequity-alive/. 15 R.I. De León, ‘Tomorrow the curfew will be from 7:0 pm and there is no grace for circulation’ El Día, (30 December 2020), available at: https://eldia.com.do/manana-el-toque-de-queda-sera-a-partir-de-la-700-p-m-y-no-hay-gracia-para-circulacion/. 16 La Republica ‘Luis Abinader: “Dominican health cannot and does not support the number of Haitian (pregnant) women”’ La Republica (25 November 2020), available at: https://listindiario.com/la-republica/2020/11/25/645670/luis-abinader-la-salud-dominicana-no-puede-y-no-soporta-la-cantidad-de-parturientas-haitianas. 17 Agencia EFE ‘Excluded from vaccines, Haitians suffer a new stigma in the Dominican Republic’ Agencia EFE, (11 March 2021), available at: https://www.efe.com/efe/america/sociedad/excluidos-de-las-vacunas-los-haitianos-sufren-un-nuevo-estigma-en-republica-dominicana/20000013-4485548. 18 A pseudonym of one of the interviewees in the research. See B. Wooding and A. Petrozziello, ‘Research Brief: COVID-19 Impacts on Haitian migrants and their descendants on the southern border of the Dominican Republic’, (June 2021), available at: http://obmica.org/. 19 Dominican Republic Constitution, (2010), available at: . 20 Ministerio de Interior y Policía Republica Dominicana, ‘LEY General de Migración NO. 285-04: Reglamento de Aplicación Decreto No. 613-11’ available at: . 21 . 22 SENTENCIA TC/0168/13, available at: . 23 Dominican@s por Derecho, Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, and CEJIL, ‘Joint Submission to the Human Rights Council at the 32nd Session of the Universal Periodic Review: Dominican Republic, (12 July 2018), available at: . 24 Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, ‘Monthly Bulletin’, (September 2020), available at: https://www.institutesi.org/resources/monthly-bulletin-september-2020. 25 CESF Consortium, 'Together we Can: The COVID-19 Impact on Stateless People & A Roadmap for Change,' (2021), available at: . 19