guarantees should be applied in the most favorable manner for those affected.43 The 2010 Constitution also recognizes that all people are equal before the law and are entitled to the same protections and treatments from institutions and authorities in the enjoyment of their rights. Furthermore, it recognizes that the State must “adopt measures to prevent and combat discrimination, marginalization, vulnerability and exclusion.”44 As such, the 2010 Constitution guarantees Dominican nationality to those born on Dominican territory prior to 2010, obligates the State to respect the treaties that guarantee the right to a nationality to which it is a party, and compels the State to take actions to protect and fulfill that right in a non-discriminatory manner. 17. Nevertheless, on September 23, 2013, the Constitutional Court issued ruling TC/0168/13 (“La Sentencia”), which retroactively deprived those born in the Dominican Republic of their Dominican citizenship if their parents were irregular migrants at the time of their birth, even though they had been recognized as citizens according to the laws in effect between 1929 and 2010.45 TC/0168/13 is estimated to have affected 133,770 people46 born in the Dominican Republic and has had a disproportionate impact on persons of Haitian descent.47 Many of those impacted had been registered in the Dominican Civil Registry (“Registro Civil”), had received official birth certificates and identity cards (“cédulas de identidad”), and had lived in the Dominican Republic all their lives, with some families residing in the Dominican Republic for as many as four generations. The Dominican Republic was the only country of nationality and of habitual residence for most of the affected people. The Court ruling violated the Dominican Constitution, as well as numerous norms and protections guaranteed by international law. While 133,770 is the statistic most widely agreed upon for the number of people affected, this number is only an estimate. According to the 2012 National Immigrant Survey, 209,912 people were identified as descendants of Haitian immigrants48, and would thus be vulnerable to statelessness following TC/0168/13. 18. The Dominican government maintains that those affected by TC/0168/13 are not stateless because these individuals still have the right to a nationality, namely that of Haiti, due to their Haitian ancestry. However, an inability to prove Haitian nationality due to their parent’s lack of government-issued documents ensures that there are no guarantees to Haitian nationality for those affected. Rather, the determination of statelessness is dependent on one’s existing nationality (or lack thereof) rather than the nationality that one might later acquire, and an individual in the process of acquiring a nationality cannot be said to be a national of the country in 43 Id. 44 Id. Article 39. 45 Centro para la Observación Migratoria y el Desarrollo Social en el Caribe. “Estado del arte de la migraciones que atañen a la República Dominicana: 2014” OBMICA. Editora Búho: República Dominicana. Septiembre 2015. 46 Executive Committee of the High Commissioner’s Programme. Overview of the UNHCR’s Operations in the Americas. UNHCR Standing Committee: 65th Meeting (23 February 2016). http://www.unhcr.org/56cd75a59.pdf. 47 “La Sentencia del Tribunal Constitucional Genera Rechazo en RD.” OBMICA. http://www.obmica.org/index.php/actualidad/23-derecho-a-nacionalidad/18-la-sentencia-del-tribunal-constitucional-generarechazo-en-rd. 48 Unión Europea, UNFPA y Oficina Nacional de Estadística. ENI 2012: Primera Encuesta Nacional de Inmigrantes de la República Dominicana. Santo Domingo, República Dominicana (Abril de 2013). http://media.onu.org.do/ONU_DO_web/596/sala_prensa_publicaciones/docs/0565341001372885891.pdf. 8