78 | Report on the Situation of Human Rights in the Dominican Republic Offices, the following were issued in the past: Birth Certificates irregularly issued with foreign parents who had not proven their residency or legal status in the Dominican Republic; 3. When any irregularity appears in the above-mentioned Civil Registry Certificates, Civil Registry Officers must refrain from issuing and signing copies, and must immediately forward the file to the Administrative Chamber, which shall proceed according to the law.” 167. Subsequently, on December 10, 2007, the Plenary of the JCE issued Resolution No. 12/2007 which establishes the procedure for provisionally suspending the issuance of civil registry certificates that are flawed or drawn up irregularly. The same resolution authorizes all civil servants to provisionally suspend the issuance of flawed or irregular civil registry certificates and that they are only issued for strictly judicial purposes in proceedings to render such certificates null and void. 173 Under Resolution No. 12, any birth certificates issued at any time in the past to foreign parents who used a document that was not a national alien identification document to register their child were deemed defective. Also, any person whose parents, at the time of his or her birth, did not have a residency permit and documentation proving their residency, had his or her birth certificate provisionally suspended; in practice, this meant that the person was no longer considered a Dominican national 168. The Commission observes that these procedures were enacted to regulate the practice of registry officials in refusing to issue birth certificates for persons born in Dominican territory to foreign-born parents in an irregular migratory situation, especially those of Haitian descent. The enforcement of these administrative measures made the situation worse, since they authorized both the suspension and retroactive cancellation of identification documents belonging to Dominicans of Haitian descent, whose Dominican nationality had never before been questioned by the Dominican State. 3. Constitutional Court judgment TC/0168/13 169. By a vote of 11 in favor, with 2 justices dissenting, on September 23, 2013 the Dominican Republic’s Constitutional Court delivered judgment TC/0168/13 in which it decided the appeal filed by Mrs. Juliana Deguis Pierre seeking review of the July 10, 2012 judgment, No. 473/2012, delivered by the Civil, Commercial and Labour Chamber of the Court of First Instance of the Monte Plata Judicial District. The case concerned Mrs. Juliana Deguis Pierre, the daughter of Haitian farm workers, who was born on April 1, 1984 in Yamasá, Monte Plata, Dominican Republic. Her father registered her birth with the Yamasá Registry Office in 1984, which issued her Dominican birth certificate. 170. In 2008, Juliana Deguis presented her original birth certificate at the Yamasá Municipal Documentation Center to apply for her identity and voter registration card. The Central Electoral Board’s Documentation Center is alleged to have immediately retained Mrs. Deguis’ original birth certificate and to have denied her 173 Resolution No. 12/2007 of December 10, 2007, issued by the Plenary of the Central Electoral Board, Article 1. Organization of American States | OAS