OPPONENTS MANEUVER TO STRIP DOMINICAN-HAITIAN

UNCLAS SANTO DOMINGO 000732 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT FOR WHA, WHA/CAR, DRL, L/HRR:EAMORY, PRM/PIM/MIG:SDENTZEL E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ELAB PGOV PHUM PREF SMIG KWMN DR HA SUBJECT: OPPONENTS MANEUVER TO STRIP DOMINICAN-HAITIAN ACTIVIST OF HER CITIZENSHIP REF: A. 06 SANTO DOMINGO 3282 ¶B. SANTO DOMINGO 0335 ¶C. SANTO DOMINGO 0444 ¶D. 2006 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: An investigation by staff at the Junta Central Electoral (JCE),or Central Elections Board, has recommended that the authorities strip the citizenship of Sonia Pierre, a prominent advocate for the rights of persons of Haitian descent. In quick reply, on March 30 JCE President Castanos Guzman stated publicly that only a judicial tribunal could take such a drastic step. Pierre was the winner of last year's Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Human Rights Award and was Embassy's nominee for the 2007 Secretary's Woman of Courage Award. Any judicial decision on Pierre's status would set a precedent for tens or hundreds of thousands of similar individuals. The Papal Nuncio, who is Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, told poloffs on March 30 that he would amplify his advocacy on behalf of Ms. Pierre and others in her predicament. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (SBU) During the evening hours of March 29, Haitian-Dominican activist Sonia Pierre received a phone call from journalist Fernando Aquino of the popular newspaper Hoy stating that her birth certificate had been revoked by an investigation launched by staff at the Junta Central Electoral (JCE),or Central Elections Board. The JCE generally exercises final authority, subject to no appeal, over all matters relating to elections and civil registration. The xenophobic splinter party of congressman Pelegrin Castillo had originally requested the investigation, and was almost certainly responsible for providing the results to all major news media. ¶3. (U) Aquino's report was inaccurate. In fact, no action against Pierre had been taken; the report and its recommendation were internal documents that the JCE judges had not yet seen. The next morning as the news was hitting the streets the President of the Junta Central Electoral (JCE) Julio Cesar Castanos Guzman, told moderators of a highly popular radio program that the JCE lacks the legal authority to revoke Pierre's citizenship. Such a decision could only be reached by a judicial tribunal, and Pierre would have the right to defend herself in any such legal proceeding. He added that even if there had been fraud, Pierre herself would have in no way been responsible for it. -------------- SONIA PIERRE, A HIGH-PROFILE TARGET -------------- ¶4. (U) Sonia Pierre, now in her 40s, is one of the co-founders of the Movement for Dominican-Haitian Women (MUDHA),an organization that services to persons of Haitian descent in the Dominican Republic. Under Pierre's leadership, MUDHA has taken an active role advocating politically for the rights of this disadvantaged ethnic group. Pierre's work with MUDHA has distinguished her in the international human rights community, and she was selected as the sole recipient of the 2006 Robert F. Kennedy Memorial's annual Human Rights Award. ¶5. (SBU) Pierre's advocacy has made her extremely unpopular among many in the Dominican Republic. As noted extensively in Refs A, B, C, and D, persons of Haitian descent are subject to severe discrimination and mistreatment in the country. The "Haitian issue" is extremely sensitive for many nationalist Dominicans, and they resent foreign "interference" in Dominican migration and social policy. Pierre's activism and prominence in international human rights circles have served to solidify the impression shared by many that she is an enemy of the Dominican people. ¶6. (SBU) Embassy's nomination of Pierre for the Secretary's Woman of Courage Award (Ref A) reported on the indications Embassy had received that the Dominican government was considering stripping her of her citizenship. Those indications came from prominent anti-Haitian officials, who had gone public with accusations that Pierre was not eligible for her citizenship because her parents, Haitian migrant workers, were "in transit" at the time that she was born. They also included allegations from the Dominican government's intelligence agency (National Directorate of Intelligence, or DNI) that Pierre's children had been born in Haiti rather than in the Dominican Republic, as stated on their birth certificates -- a claim Pierre and her ex-husband have vigorously disputed. The allegations targeting Pierre have appeared to many, including this Embassy, as political retribution for her advocacy. -------------- THE LEGAL BASIS -------------- ¶7. (U) The "in transit" reference in para 5 refers to the Dominican constitution, which guarantees Dominican citizenship to all children born in Dominican territory except those born to diplomats or to persons who are "in transit." For years the Dominican government declined to define the "in transit" exception. As a matter of policy, it issued birth certificates to all Dominican-born children, although administrative hurdles were erected to prevent many children born to Haitians from being registered. Those exclusions were enshrined into law after a contentious migration reform passed in 2004 classified as "in transit" all persons who lacked Dominican residency or citizenship. This effectively rendered children born to non-resident foreigners ineligible to acquire Dominican nationality through birth. The Supreme Court upheld the 2004 law in a controversial decision the following year. ¶8. (SBU) Dominican legal experts have opined that it would be unconstitutional to apply the 2004 law retroactively in such a manner as to strip children born prior to 2004 of their citizenship. Embassy has received reports of birth certificate revocations targeting children born prior to 2004, but who never obtained valid national id documents, or "cedulas." One could argue, however, that the Dominican authorities never recognized these children's claims to Dominican nationality, because they had never issued them with valid national identity documents. Pierre's case is unique in that she has long held a valid Dominican identity card ("cedula") and passport. There is no disputing the fact that the Dominican government has recognized her as a citizen of the Dominican Republic. ¶9. (U) The investigation's results, published this morning in a popular newspaper, are complex but inconclusive. According to the report, key data about Pierre's mother, such as her cedula number, was not included on her birth certificate. (Cedula numbers are given only to legal Dominican residents, and persons in Pierre's parents' predicament -- migrant sugar cane workers -- were seldom given residency permits.) Second, the report states that Pierre's father is listed on Pierre's birth certificate as a Dominican citizen. However, the record corresponding to his cedula application states that he was born in Haiti. As a result of this discrepancy, investigators concluded that Pierre's father's "nationality is not Dominican, as stated on the birth certificate, but is Haitian, as stated in the record corresponding to his cedula." (Embassy's Fraud Prevention Unit (FPU) reports that old civil registry records commonly contain glaring omissions and errors.) ¶10. (SBU) Poloff spoke with Mariano Rodriguez, one of nine judges who head the JCE, during the morning of March 30 to inquire about the news reports. Rodriguez stated that he had not yet read the report of the investigation, but stated that the news article appeared to be an accurate reflection of what investigators may have concluded. He also stated that if the news account was correct, Pierre would be subject to revocation of her Dominican citizenship, because her parents were foreigners who lacked Dominican residency at the time Pierre was born. -------------- HYPOTHESES ABOUT STATELESSNESS -------------- ¶11. (SBU) If via judicial action Pierre were to be stripped of her citizenship, this action would render her effectively stateless. Although in 2005 the Dominican Supreme Court cited provisions of the Haitian constitution granting nationality via blood ties, the DCM at the Haitian Embassy tells us the Haitian authorities may recognize as citizens only those children who are registered within a year of birth. In theory, a process exists whereby persons 18 years of age or older who have not yet been registered as Haitian may travel to Haiti and petition for the right to be recognized as Haitians. However, according to the DCM, this process is not functional. Another problem is the Haitian constitution's proscription that "(d)ual Haitian and foreign nationality is in no cases permitted." As long as Pierre continues to assert her claim Dominican nationality, which she has indicated she will do, she would appear to be ineligible for Haitian nationality. ¶12. (SBU) If the basis of Pierre's citizenship were to be determined to be fraudulent, then her children would be stripped of their Dominican nationality as well. The case that they would be rendered stateless is even stronger. Even if Pierre did acquire Haitian nationality, her children would not be eligible to acquire it through her, because the Haitian constitution guarantees Haitian nationality only to the children of "native-born" Haitian parents. Since both Pierre and the father of her children are persons of Haitian descent born in the Dominican Republic, they do not appear to meet the "native-born" requirement for transmitting Haitian nationality to their children. ¶13. (SBU) Far more important to Pierre and to the many thousands of essentially stateless Dominican-born persons of Haitian descent is the fact that they have no ties to Haiti and no desire to immigrate there. In many cases, they do not even speak Creole. -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶14. (SBU) Pierre appears to have been purposely and specifically targeted by the xenophobic splinter party "Fuerza Nacional Progresista" of congressman Pellegrin Castillo. The attack is real but also symbolic. If the FNP were to pursue its aims successfully through the courts, the verdict would set a precedent in an area of citizenship law that for now remains undefined. There are no reliable figures on the number of Haitians and Dominican-Haitians in the Dominican Republic; estimates range from 400,000 to well over a million. Although a large part of this community is undocumented, many, like Pierre, were born in the Dominican Republic and were able to obtain Dominican birth certificates and cedulas. They attend Dominican schools and universities and work alongside Dominicans throughout the economy. Their ranks include such prominent Dominicans as Sammy Sosa, a famous major league baseball player, and the late Jose Francisco Pena Gomez, charismatic leader of a major political party whose memory is revered among Dominicans. ¶15. (SBU) If the policy of retroactive revocations were to take hold, this entire community would be at risk of losing their Dominican nationality. They would become effectively stateless. Lacking cedulas, they would become ineligible for jobs in the formal economy, ineligible to own property, ineligible to hold bank accounts, ineligible for education or medical benefits. ¶16. (SBU) Without alternative means to support themselves, this community would be even more vulnerable to the schemes of traffickers, like the many thousands of already stateless persons who reside along the Dominican border with Haiti. They would also be vulnerable to other forms of exploitation. -------------- EMBASSY ADVOCACY -------------- ¶17. (SBU) In February during a courtesy call, the Ambassador raised the investigation into Pierre's citizenship with the President of the JCE. The Ambassador clearly stated our concerns with the impression that the case was one of political retribution. ¶18. (SBU) On March 30, Embassy political officers met with Monsignor Timothy Broglio, Papal Nuncio to the Dominican Republic and Dean of the Diplomatic Corps. Broglio has worked effectively with Embassy officers on past issues with ramifications for the Haitian community, such as in our advocacy on behalf of a birth registration system for the children of non-resident foreigners. Broglio said that he would "work the corridors" advocating on behalf of Pierre and others in her predicament. He also said he would speak at the Bishops Conference, which brings together senior Catholic leaders from across the country, in an effort to encourage them to raise the issue in their Holy Week and Easter homilies. The Catholic Church wields strong influence in this majority Catholic country. ¶19. (U) Drafted by Alexander T. Bryan. ¶20. (U) This report and extensive other material can be consulted on our SIPRNET site, http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/santodomingo/ HERTELL