Chapter 3 Right to Equality and Non-Discrimination of Dominicans of Haitian Descent | 137 RIGHT TO EQUALITY AND NON-DISCRIMINATION OF DOMINICANS OF HAITIAN DESCENT A. General considerations 332. Racism and racial and ethnic discrimination have historical roots in slavery and European colonialism in the Americas. In the case of the Dominican Republic, the Inter-American Commission has been involved in following up on the diverse manifestations of racism and discrimination against persons of African descent in the Americas since the early 1990s, especially Haitian migrants and Dominicans of Haitian descent, through actions carried out by both individuals and State officials. 333. Over the years, the Commission has received extensive information on situations in which officials of the Central Electoral Board, the Civil Registry, the Office of the Director General of Immigration, and State security forces have been directly involved in the commission of discriminatory acts based on racial criteria against persons of Haitian origin. As already established in the present report, these persons are usually persons of African descent and dark-skinned. In this context, building a national origin is interconnected with race, ethnic origin, and skin color. At present, the extreme vulnerability of persons of Haitian origin in the Dominican Republic is one of the main human rights concerns in the region. In the InterAmerican Commission’s view, discrimination against persons of Haitian origin in the Dominican Republic is the principal reason behind the violation of numerous human rights of these persons. 334. According to the results of the 2006 Latin American Public Opinion Poll, conducted by the Latin American Public Opinion Project of Vanderbilt University and used by the National Statistics Office of the Dominican Republic, 315 67.6 percent of the population considered itself mulatto or Indian, 18.3 percent black, and 13.6 percent white. 316 In a similar vein, at a hearing before the IACHR, the State’s representatives also said “that 73 percent of the population in the Dominican Republic is mulatto 315 316 The 2002 and 2010 population censuses in the Dominican Republic did not include the ethnic-racial variable. The National Statistics Office said that this would have to be corrected in the future to close the gap with other Latin American and Caribbean countries as well as to address the difficulties involved in the building of societies characterized by a historical denial of their ethnic-racial diversity. See: Dominican Republic, National Statistics Office, La variable étnico racial en los censos de población en la República Dominicana [The ethnic racial variable in population censuses in the Dominican Republic]. 2012, p. 22. See, Dominican Republic, National Statistics Office, La variable étnico racial en los censos de población en la República Dominicana, 2012, p. 20. Inter-American Commission on Human Rights | IACHR