THE RISK OF STATELESSNESS 68 YALE HUMAN RIGHTS & DEVELOPMENT L.J. 2017 [Vol. 19 American Court decision, there was little question that it was responding to the regional tribunal in both the form and substance of its analysis. First, it issued its decision only months after the Inter-American ruling, and after very public pronouncements of high-level Dominican officials denouncing the regional tribunal.138 Second, the SCJ followed the framework that the Inter-American Court had set forth in The Girls Yean and Bosico, analyzing possible limitations on the interpretation of the nationality provision of the Dominican Constitution set by state obligations not to discriminate and to reduce statelessness.139 The SCJ purported to apply the American Convention on Human Rights and other key human rights instruments,140 and provided a specific analysis of the obligations of the Dominican Republic under the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.141 This exchange between the Inter-American Court and the SCJ elevated the issue of statelessness in the debate about nationality in the Dominican Republic. The political and legal significance of statelessness was made evident by the reasoning of each court, and each side of the nationality debate began to view the statelessness question as important to its ability to prevail. Both national and international actors took this cue and began to refine their positions as to the statelessness of persons born in the Dominican Republic to Haitian parents. Meanwhile, the situation deteriorated in the Dominican Republic. Once the 2004 law had been sustained as constitutional, the Central Electoral Board (Junta Central Electoral, “JCE”), which was the entity responsible for birth registration and national identification documents in the Dominican Republic, began to apply its nationality framework retroactively.142 In 2007, an internal memo of the JCE known as “Circular 017” directed civil registry offices to review birth certificates before issuing copies of identity documents.143 The JCE then issued “Resolution 12,” which provided that 138. See David C. Baluarte, Inter-American Justice Comes to the Dominican Republic: An Island Shakes as Human Rights and Sovereignty Clash, 13 HUM. RTS. BRIEF 25, 28 (2006) (discussing multiple officials’ reactions to the Inter-American Court’s decision in The Girls Yean and Bosico). 139. See supra notes 134-35 and accompanying text. 140. See SCJ, 14 diciembre 2005, B.J. No. 1141, p. 3 (Dom. Rep.) (listing human rights instruments the SCJ took into account); id. at 5 (listing relevant portions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights). 141. Id. at 8-9. The Dominican Republic signed the 1961 Convention in 1961. See Status of the 1961 Convention, supra note 85. 142. See SAIS Int’l Human Rights Clinic, Justice Derailed: The Uncertain Fate of Haitian Migrants and Dominicans of Haitian Descent in the Dominican Republic, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIV. SCH. OF ADVANCED INT’L STUD. 22 (2015), https://www.saisjhu.edu/sites/default/files/Final-Report-Justice-Derailed-The-Uncertain-Fate-2015-v1.pdf [https://perma.cc/ZZ6H-HQPT]. 143. Junta Central Electoral [JCE] [Central Elections Board], Circular No. 017 del 29 de marzo de 2007, que consigna el estricto cumplimiento a la Ley No. 659 sobre Actos del Estado Civil y sus modificaciones al firmar las Actas de Nacimiento o cualquier documento [Circular No. 017 of Mar. 29, 2007, pronouncing strict compliance with Act No. 659 governing Civil Status Acts and its amendments when signing Birth Certificates or any document] (Mar. 29, 2007) (Dom. Rep.); see also 2015 IACHR Report on the Dominican Republic, supra note 111, ¶ 166 (discussing the issuance and effects of Circular No. 017); Open Soc’y Justice Initiative, Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3111529