Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07SANTODOMINGO13
2007-01-03 20:56:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Santo Domingo
Cable title:
DOMINICANS EMBARRASSED, ANGRY ABOUT FAILURE TO
how-toVZCZCXYZ0005 RR RUEHWEB DE RUEHDG #0013 0032056 ZNY CCCCC ZZH R 032056Z JAN 07 FM AMEMBASSY SANTO DOMINGO TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7049 INFO RUEHZA/WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE RUEHPU/AMEMBASSY PORT AU PRINCE 4431 RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC RUMISTA/CDR USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL
C O N F I D E N T I A L SANTO DOMINGO 000013
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
SENSITIVE
DEPT FOR WHA/CAR, WHA/OAS, DRL; SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD,
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/03/2017
TAGS: DR PHUM OAS KTIA HA
SUBJECT: DOMINICANS EMBARRASSED, ANGRY ABOUT FAILURE TO
COMPLY WITH OAS HUMAN RIGHTS COURT
Classified By: Economic & Political Counselor Michael Meigs. Reason: 1
.4 (b) and (d).
(SBU) In November the InterAmerican Human Rights Court
slapped down a Dominican request for "interpretation" of its
September 2005 verdict obliging the country to compensate two
girls of Haitian ancestry and pay compensation to them. The
Dominican government has not yet moved to comply, although it
accepted the jurisdiction of the court in 1998.
(C) Dominican Foreign Minister Carlos Morales Tronocoso has
been very touchy of late on the subject of undocumented
Haitians resident in the Dominican Republic. He publicly
rebuked the U.S. ambassador for a November 22 mention of the
need for the country to issue birth certifications; on
December 9 he organized a confrontational briefing for U.S.
congressmen who had visited miserably poor Haitians living in
crowded, crumbling housing associated with bankrupt
government-owned sugar plantations; and in December he made
public a letter of recriminations he sent to the Robert F.
Kennedy Foundation for its human rights award to
Dominican-Haitian activist Sonia Pierre. A spokesman for the
RFK Foundation professed its (nave) astonishment that
Morales Troncoso had made his letter public.
(SBU) This defensive aggression by the Minister is related to
the September, 2005 verdict by the Inter-American Human
Rights Court (IAHRC) directing the Dominican government to
pay compensation to two Dominican-born girls and to apologize
publicly for its delay in documenting their births and for
leaving them in status equivalent to statelessness. Morales
Troncoso had publicly pledged two times to respect the
verdict of the IAHRC, the second of these pronouncements in
June, 2006 as the Dominicans were hosting the General
Assembly of the Organization of American States. Without
explanation, the one-year anniversary of the verdict passed
with no action.
(SBU) Local papers have covered Morales' blustering but none
except the on-line investigative journal Clave Digital
(www.clavedigital.com) has told Dominicans that their
government has just lost the case all over again. It turns
out that on January 5, 2006 the Ministry had filed with the
IAHRC a request for interpretation of the verdict, arguing
that one of the girls had no proof she was born in the
country and casting doubt on the parentage of the other. In
addition, the government argued that officials who had
proposed an "amicable settlement" when delivering citizenship
papers in 2002 were no longer bound to recognize those
papers, since the plaintiffs had continued the case.
(SBU) This was begging the question in grand scale, and the
Court would have none of it. In their unanimous decision of
November 23, the six judges refused the Dominican request,
replying that "a request for the interpretation of a sentence
should not be used as a means of questioning that sentence. .
. (and) cannot request the modification or cancellation of
the verdict." Court spokesman Arturo Monge told Associated
Press that the original verdict of 2005 would not be modified
in any respect. So the government still has to pay and still
has to apologize.
(C) This leaves the Dominican government embarrassed,
non-compliant with its obligations under the Inter-American
Convention on Human Rights, and with no further avenue of
appeal, since the IAHRC is the final authority. Meanwhile,
President Fernandez's project of debate on reforming the
Constitution goes forward, with every prospect of modifying
the articles granting citizenship to all born in the country
except for offspring of diplomats and of transients (a
category broadly defined by the Supreme Court in November
2005 to include anyone resident without permission). A
constitutional fix may eventually serve Dominican indignation
but since the Constitution directs that no disposition may be
retroactive, any change will still leave hundreds of
thousands of individuals undocumented, unacknowledged, and
functionally stateless.
HERTELL
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
SENSITIVE
DEPT FOR WHA/CAR, WHA/OAS, DRL; SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD,
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/03/2017
TAGS: DR PHUM OAS KTIA HA
SUBJECT: DOMINICANS EMBARRASSED, ANGRY ABOUT FAILURE TO
COMPLY WITH OAS HUMAN RIGHTS COURT
Classified By: Economic & Political Counselor Michael Meigs. Reason: 1
.4 (b) and (d).
(SBU) In November the InterAmerican Human Rights Court
slapped down a Dominican request for "interpretation" of its
September 2005 verdict obliging the country to compensate two
girls of Haitian ancestry and pay compensation to them. The
Dominican government has not yet moved to comply, although it
accepted the jurisdiction of the court in 1998.
(C) Dominican Foreign Minister Carlos Morales Tronocoso has
been very touchy of late on the subject of undocumented
Haitians resident in the Dominican Republic. He publicly
rebuked the U.S. ambassador for a November 22 mention of the
need for the country to issue birth certifications; on
December 9 he organized a confrontational briefing for U.S.
congressmen who had visited miserably poor Haitians living in
crowded, crumbling housing associated with bankrupt
government-owned sugar plantations; and in December he made
public a letter of recriminations he sent to the Robert F.
Kennedy Foundation for its human rights award to
Dominican-Haitian activist Sonia Pierre. A spokesman for the
RFK Foundation professed its (nave) astonishment that
Morales Troncoso had made his letter public.
(SBU) This defensive aggression by the Minister is related to
the September, 2005 verdict by the Inter-American Human
Rights Court (IAHRC) directing the Dominican government to
pay compensation to two Dominican-born girls and to apologize
publicly for its delay in documenting their births and for
leaving them in status equivalent to statelessness. Morales
Troncoso had publicly pledged two times to respect the
verdict of the IAHRC, the second of these pronouncements in
June, 2006 as the Dominicans were hosting the General
Assembly of the Organization of American States. Without
explanation, the one-year anniversary of the verdict passed
with no action.
(SBU) Local papers have covered Morales' blustering but none
except the on-line investigative journal Clave Digital
(www.clavedigital.com) has told Dominicans that their
government has just lost the case all over again. It turns
out that on January 5, 2006 the Ministry had filed with the
IAHRC a request for interpretation of the verdict, arguing
that one of the girls had no proof she was born in the
country and casting doubt on the parentage of the other. In
addition, the government argued that officials who had
proposed an "amicable settlement" when delivering citizenship
papers in 2002 were no longer bound to recognize those
papers, since the plaintiffs had continued the case.
(SBU) This was begging the question in grand scale, and the
Court would have none of it. In their unanimous decision of
November 23, the six judges refused the Dominican request,
replying that "a request for the interpretation of a sentence
should not be used as a means of questioning that sentence. .
. (and) cannot request the modification or cancellation of
the verdict." Court spokesman Arturo Monge told Associated
Press that the original verdict of 2005 would not be modified
in any respect. So the government still has to pay and still
has to apologize.
(C) This leaves the Dominican government embarrassed,
non-compliant with its obligations under the Inter-American
Convention on Human Rights, and with no further avenue of
appeal, since the IAHRC is the final authority. Meanwhile,
President Fernandez's project of debate on reforming the
Constitution goes forward, with every prospect of modifying
the articles granting citizenship to all born in the country
except for offspring of diplomats and of transients (a
category broadly defined by the Supreme Court in November
2005 to include anyone resident without permission). A
constitutional fix may eventually serve Dominican indignation
but since the Constitution directs that no disposition may be
retroactive, any change will still leave hundreds of
thousands of individuals undocumented, unacknowledged, and
functionally stateless.
HERTELL