Who We Are

Dominican@s x Derecho is a group of organizations and people who defend the rights of Dominicans of foreign descent impacted by the ruling 168-13 dictated by the Constitutional Tribunal (TC) of the Dominican Republic.

Since 2007, the Dominican state has denied, through the Central Electoral Board, the renewal of identity documents of thousands of people for this reason. Since September 23rd of 2013, the TC dictated a sentence that orders the revokal of Dominican nationality to those born in the country whose parents were undocumented at the time of their declaration. The measure will apply to all those born in the country from 1929 to the present. In other words, the state will revoke the nationality of four generations of people who during eight decades were registered as Dominican nationals under the protection of the Constitution, and it’s current laws.

The sentence, which violates at least fifteen articles of the Dominican constitution and that appeals to racial criteria to revoke nationality, will affect thousands of Dominicans of the most diverse origins, particularly those of Haitian descent, who can essentially be deemed stateless, violating the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR).

Countless lawyers, political, social, and religious leaders, as well as national and international organizations of human rights have rejected the nature and content of the sentence. Furthermore, multilateral organizations such as the United Nations, United Nations High Commission for Refugees, UNICEF, and regional bodies of the protection of rights like the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, have also publicly voiced their concern regarding the relapse in the guarantee to the right to nationality and the consequences that the sentence can have on the lives of people affected.

For these reasons, Dominicanos x Derecho emerged. We began and grew here, we were presented and recognized by the Dominican state. We will not allow for the stripping of our nationality and we will defend our rights!