REFLECTION
SOLIDARITY: A POWER WEAPON AGAINST INJUSTICE
Juan
Manuel Camacho
In September 2013,
the Constitutional Tribunal of the Dominican Republic passed the law 168/13, which snatched away citizenship from people who had been registered as Dominicans for eight decades (since 1929), but whose parents and/or grandparents
were “irregular migrants” in the Dominican Republic. The law above all directly affects thousands of people of Haitian descent who until now were
under the protection of the Constitution and of the laws in place at the moment
of their birth. It is estimated that this law has affected about 2.3% of
Dominicans and its implementation means the loss of citizenship (they became
country-less). For many of them this law has a retroactive consequence based on
the “alleged crime” of their parents and/or grandparents who came to and lived
in this country. For these Dominicans, who are for the most part young, this law makes them criminals
just for the fact of being born on this side of the island.
The law has not only
hurt thousands of Dominicans, but is feeding the rest of the population with an
anti-Haitian ideology that is deeply rooted in complex historical and social events. This
ideology has been latent, but now is made explicit and legal, therefore creating
more discomfort and social conflict. Self-proclaimed “nationalistic” sectors
have taken to the streets to support the law of the Constitutional Tribunal, denying the injustice that this decision entails. Once again, what looms in the
background is the resentment towards the Haitian people and their presence in the
Dominican Republic. This injustice should be strongly condemned. It is a grave injustice
that is being committed to this group of Dominicans of Haitian descent, in that they are all Dominicans born and raised in the Dominican Republic. Their
parents and/or grandparents were the ones who crossed the border, not them.
