The recent ruling by the Constitutional Court of the Dominican Republic is very disturbing on so many levels. The Caribbean Community needs to make much more noise, I feel, about this – in defense of one of its members that will suffer disproportionately from literally being robbed of their citizenship – Dominicans of Haitian descent. I concur with this heartfelt article from our friends in Grenada. And by the way, this is a great blog to follow.
:: By Angelique V. Nixon, Ph.D ::
“No one can be hood-winked as to the reason and the purpose for this kind of discriminatory legislation. Within the region we have an obligation to speak and we cannot allow such inequities to go without our strongest condemnations.” – P.J. Patterson
Caribbean people across the region and its diaspora have been responding with righteous (and necessary) outrage over the recent ruling by the Constitutional Court of the Dominican Republic that essentially strips away the birthright citizenship of Dominicans of Haitian ancestry. While the ruling puts into question and possibly revokes automatic citizenship of anyone born to non-citizens since 1929, it overwhelmingly targets people of Haitian descent, who have been living in the DR for generations — estimated to be over 200,000 people or over 80% of those born to non-citizens/migrants. The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the governments of Jamaica, Guyana…
View original post 2,809 more words
Petchary's Blog 