Legal Status Under Dominican Law of Dominicans of Haitian Descent

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The Dominican Constitution confers Dominican nationality on "all persons born in the territory of the Republic."⁴² Based on the principle of jus soli and the Dominican Constitution, the Inter-American Commission, echoing the conclusions of eminent Dominican jurists, has concluded that non-transient persons born in the Dominican Republic are Dominican nationals.⁴³

The Dominican government treats Dominicans of Haitian descent born in the Dominican Republic according to an interpretation of the norms denying them the right to claim Dominican nationality. Article 11 of the Dominican Constitution makes an exception to the jus soli rule on nationality for those individuals born in the country to persons "in transit."⁴⁴ Most jurists understand the "in transit" exception to be based on elements of temporality, and on the lack of intent to make the Dominican Republic one’s permanent domicile.⁴⁵ The Dominican authorities, in contrast, define all Haitians and their descendants as being "in transit," no matter how long they have resided in the country, and thus justify the measures in place to keep them permanently undocumented.⁴⁶ As a result, the government neither recognizes the Dominican nationality of these persons nor, in the vast majority of cases, grants them the legal documentation to which they are entitled.⁴⁷

Most observers, including many Dominicans, agree that it is not a viable interpretation of the Dominican Constitution’s norms to consider persons who have resided for years, decades or even generations in the Dominican Republic, and who have developed innumerable contacts and personal ties there, to be "in transit."⁴⁸ The United Nations Human Rights Committee recently expressed concern over what it calls "the [Dominican government’s] abuse of the legal notion of ‘transient aliens’."⁴⁹ Nevertheless, it is precisely this abuse of the legal notion of "in transit", and the corresponding obstacles that Dominican officials place in the way Haitians and their descendants seeking legalize their status, that maintains 95% of the affected population of 700,000 Dominicans of Haitian descent and Haitians without official documentation.⁵⁰

Based on its interpretation of Article 11 of the Constitution, the Dominican government continues systematically to deny Dominicans of Haitian descent their rights to legal status by requiring that their parents submit documentation which is neither asked of Dominican parents nor indicated in Dominican law.⁵¹ Dominican civil registries routinely refuse to register and issue birth certificates to Dominicans of Haitian descent because of their race and Haitian ancestry.⁵² Dominican authorities have pursued a policy to deter registration, which includes requirements not expected of others outside the classes of people discussed in this addendum.⁵³  As a result, a self-perpetuating vicious cycle of "permanent illegality" persists, which the Dominican authorities exploit to continue to expel and deport undocumented (and some documented) Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent on a massive scale.⁵⁴

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