Chapter 2 The Right to Nationality and Judgment TC/0168/13 of the Constitutional Court | 113 to their situation, whether they be Dominicans or foreigners in a regular or irregular migratory situation. 261 261. The size of the affected population and the disproportionate impact that TC/0168/13 is having on persons born in the Dominican Republic of Haitian descent, are evident in the Constitutional Court’s own commentary in the judgment, where it wrote that “[i]n the Dominican Republic, many foreigners want to obtain Dominican nationality; most of these are undocumented Haitian nationals.” 262 Because this judgment redefines the acquisition of Dominican nationality on the basis of jus soli, the Commission observes that the Constitutional Court was clearly in error when it alluded to the many foreigners aspiring to Dominican nationality, since the only avenue available to these people to obtain nationality is naturalization. 262. The Constitutional Court then cited the figures from the First National Survey of Immigrants (hereinafter “ENI- 2012”) conducted in 2012 by the Dominican State through its National Office of Statistics (Oficina Nacional de Estadística – ONE), with the support of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the European Union (EU). ENI-2012 estimated the total immigrant population at 524,632 persons, in other words, 5.4% of the country’s total population, estimated at 9,716,940 at the time of the survey. Of the total immigrant population, 458,233 had been born in Haiti, representing 87.3% of the immigrant population, while 66,399 persons were natives of other countries, representing 12.7% of the total. 263 According to the Constitutional Court, “[t]hese figures demonstrate the overwhelming prevalence of Haitian immigrants in the total immigrant population in the Dominican Republic.” 264 263. Furthermore, according to ENI-2012, the population born in the Dominican Republic to foreign-born parents was 244,151, representing 2.5% of the total population. Of the total number of descendants of immigrants, 209,912 were descendants of Haitian immigrants and the other 34,239 were descendants of immigrants from other countries. The population of Haitian origin in the Dominican Republic was said to be composed of 458,233 Haitian immigrants and 209,912 descendants of Haitian immigrants, for a total of 668,144 persons. 265 264. It is worth noting here that the while the core legal issue in the judgment was the acquisition of Dominican nationality based on the principle of jus soli, the discriminatory effect that the judgment has on persons of Haitian origin is obvious in 261 262 263 264 265 Dominican Republic, Discurso de Danilo Medina, Presidente de la República Dominicana, en el marco de la XLV Cumbre del Sistema de Integración Latinoamericano (SICA) [Address delivered by Danilo Medina, President of the Dominican Republic, at the XLV Summit of the Latin American Integration System (SICA)]. Guatemala, June 26, 2015. Dominican Republic, Constitutional Court, Judgment TC/0168/13. September 23, 2013, p. 22. Dominican Republic, National Office of Statistics, Primera Encuesta Nacional de Inmigrantes en la República Dominicana ENI-2012: Informe General [First National Survey of Immigrants in the Dominican Republic ENI2012: General Report]. Santo Domingo, 2013, p. 60. See also, Dominican Republic, Constitutional Court, Judgment TC/0168/13. September 23, 2013 p. 23. Dominican Republic, Constitutional Court, Judgment TC/0168/13. September 23, 2013, p. 22. Dominican Republic, National Office of Statistics, Primera Encuesta Nacional de Inmigrantes en la República Dominicana ENI-2012: Informe General [First National Survey of Immigrants in the Dominican Republic ENI2012: General Report]. Santo Domingo, 2013, p. 73. Inter-American Commission on Human Rights | IACHR