By Courtney Cox
The Dominican Republic and Haiti have shared the island of Hispaniola
for centuries. Historically, their relationship is a hostile and complex one.
During the early twentieth century (under the U.S. occupation of the Dominican
Republic), many Haitians seeking opportunity journeyed across the border to the
Dominican Republic as migrant workers on sugarcane plantations. The working
conditions they experienced were degrading: they often lived in run-down
company homes without plumbing or electricity, food was sparse, and medical
services were practically non-existent. Most Dominicans refused to work under
the awful conditions, crystallizing a national attitude of inherent Haitian inferiority.
No
one perpetuated this national attitude more than tyrant Rafael
Leónidas Trujillo Molina who controlled the Dominican Republic from 1930
to 1961. Although he had Haitian ancestors, he promoted an antihaitiansimo ideology. His racist
policies culminated in his 1937 order for the extermination of all peoples of
Haitian descent in the Northwest. Given the mélange
races in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, one may wonder, what methods did
officers use to identify Haitians? After all, ninety percent of Dominicans have
African lineage. To solve this dilemma, officers were instructed to have
people suspected of being Haitian to pronounce the word perejil (parsley). Improper pronunciation of the ‘r’ sound in perejil
resulted in immediate execution. Twenty to thirty thousand Haitians were
assassinated during the massacre.
The Dominican Republic’s rapport with the IACHR has been a
turbulent one. IACHR is one of the principal organs of the Organization of
American States charged with the promotion and protection of human rights in
the hemisphere. The Dominican Republic ratified the American Convention on
Human Rights, and in 1999, it submitted to the jurisdiction of the IACHR. Despite
being bound by its obligations, the country has systemically violated
international law. The same year of the country’s submission to the Court’s
jurisdiction, the Inter-American Commission exposed the disturbing conditions
of migrant workers in a report. The report indicated that Haitians have been victims of “a whole array of
abuses by the authorities, from assassinations, abusive treatment, massive
expulsions, exploitation, deplorable living conditions, and the failure to
recognize their labor rights.”
The reports of
mass expulsions in the Commission’s report derive from Dominican President Balaguer’s
Decree 233 forwarded in 1991. Under the decree, undocumented Haitians under the
age of sixteen and over the age of sixty present in the Dominican Republic were
to be deported. Although
less cold-blooded, the decree was reminiscent of Trujillo’s 1937 decree because
many of those deported were actually Dominican
citizens simply perceived to be Haitian (a perception often based solely on
skin hues). Even worse was the state’s implementation of deportations across
the river. The deportation procedures were devoid of due process. According to
the Commission’s report, the deportees were often detained with meager or no
food rations, and even beaten in some cases. In other cases, Dominican
authorities would detain migrant workers, destroy their identification, and
force them to return to Haiti.
The Commission’s
initial condemnation of Dominican treatment of migrant workers did not end in
1999. The country’s failure to ameliorate its policies and migrant worker
conditions led to the Commission’s issuance of several denouncing reports, and
ultimately led to cases before the Court. More recently, in September
2013, a Dominican court held that illegal migrant workers’ children born in the
Dominican Republic were denied automatic citizenship, leaving innocent children
stateless. The Dominican court’s holding also applies retroactively to children descended from undocumented Haitian
parents. The impact of this ruling is endless: Haitian migrant parents
“cannot register the births of their children, vote, access health care
coverage, or open bank accounts.” Also, the court’s ruling severely limits
children’s access to
education. The
IACHR found that the court’s holding was discriminatory towards Dominicans of
Haitian descent, and gave the country six months to invalidate the court’s
ruling.
Additionally,
in the Case of Dominican and Haitian People Expelled v.
the Dominican Republic, the IACHR held that the state’s discriminatory policies violated several rights under the American Convention on Human Rights including the
right to a nationality, a fair trial, equal protection
before the law, and the guarantee of non-discrimination. For the
Dominican Republic, this holding was the straw that broke the camels’ back.
In September 2014, the Dominican
Republic withdrew from the jurisdiction of the Court. Fooling no one, the
Dominican Constitutional Court justified the withdrawal on constitutional
grounds, claiming that the senate never issued a resolution to ratify the
submission to the jurisdiction of the IACHR.
It is not hard to read between the lines in this case. The
Dominican Republic’s refusal to modify its policies based on the Inter-American
Commission and Court’s findings, and its ultimate withdrawal from the Court’s
jurisdiction proves that the state is obstinately unwilling to eliminate
discriminatory practices. The United
Nations Population Fund claims that the Dominican citizenship reform denying
illegal migrant workers’ children citizenship could strip as many as 200,000
people of their nationality. Without the oversight of an effective regional
system, the human rights of migrant workers and their descendants is sadly bleak.
The Dominican Republic’s acts evince alarming historical continuity.
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