Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject Law - Public Law / Constitutional Law / Basic Rights, grade: noch zu erwarten, Tilburg University, language: English, abstract: Nationality can be seen as the rights to have rights and is protected by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. However do various scenarios exist which might leave a person stateless. Being without a nationality comes with an increased vulnerability to violations of various personal rights. In the Dominican Republic thousands of Dominicans of Haitian descent were recently stripped off their nationality. This report will explain and assess the situation, shine a light on the struggles those individuals have to face and evaluate possible solutions that could be undertaken in order to address the problem. In order to fully understand the nature of the statelessness issue of the Dominican Republic it is necessary to turn back to the year of 2004 in which the country started to gradually change its citizenship laws. In the 1940s the need for cheap labour called many Haitians to the Dominican Republic where the immigrants enjoyed the benefits of a constitutional right to Dominican citizenship to everyone born inside the country irrespectively of the migration status of the parents. Originally this jus soli citizenship knew only two exceptions: Diplomats and children born to parents “in transit” – a term legally defined as “being within the country for ten days or less”. But in 2004 the new Migration Law 285/04 de facto revoked the promise of birthright citizenship for Dominicans of Haitian descent by broaden the definition of “in transit” to henceforward also include nonresidents – including all migrant workers who had been working and living in the country for years, leaving them unable to register their Dominican‐born children as Dominican citizens henceforth.

A 2013 Constitutional Court judgment (Judgment 168-13) has made statelessness a matter of law for several generations of Dominicans of foreign descent. In May 2014, a government-backed law (Law 169-14) was introduced in an effort to mitigate the harsh effects of this judgment. However, this has proved insufficient as a response to the crisis. The law does not provide for Dominican nationality to be automatically restored to the two groups of affected people identified. Moreover, it failed to address a wide variety of complex situations created by years of discriminatory policies and practices. This report shows that several groups of people, mostly of Haitian descent, living in the country remain stateless. People who are stateless in the Dominican Republic and lack identity documents are denied a range of human rights and prevented from participating fully in society. Contrary to international law, statelessness is often passed from parent to child resulting in a continuing cycle of alienation and marginalization down the generations. Amnesty International calls on the Dominican authorities to acknowledge the scale of the problem of statelessness and to take all necessary measures to ensure that those affected are able to fully enjoy their human rights, including their right to a nationality and to freedom from discrimination on grounds of origin or their parents' migration status.

This book identifies the rights of stateless people and outlines the major legal obstacles preventing the eradication of statelessness.

Introduction -- Africa -- Americas -- Asia and the Pacific -- Europe -- Middle East and North Africa (MENA) -- Introduction -- The right of every child to a nationality -- Migration, displacement and childhood statelessness -- The sustainable development agenda and childhood statelessness -- Safeguards against childhood statelessness -- Litigation and legal assistance to address childhood statelessness -- Mobilising to address childhood statelessness

This Handbook focuses on the complexity surrounding the interaction between trade, labour mobility and development, taking into consideration social, economic and human rights implications, and identifies mechanisms for lawful movements across borders and their practical implementation.

Provides critical evidenced based assessements and tools with which to investigate the role of rights abrogation in the health of populations.

The best country-by-country assessment of human rights. The human rights records of more than ninety countries and territories are put into perspective in Human Rights Watch's signature yearly report. Reflecting extensive investigative work undertaken by Human Rights Watch staff, in close partnership with domestic human rights activists, the annual World Report is an invaluable resource for journalists, diplomats, and citizens, and is a must-read for anyone interested in the fight to protect human rights in every corner of the globe.