For Immediate Release March 30th, 2007
Contact: Marselha Gonçalves Margerin, 202-463-7575, ext 224
Dominican Republic Threatens to Revoke RFK Laureate Sonia Pierre’s
Citizenship
Washington, DC--The Dominican Republic is threatening to revoke the
birth certificate of Dominican human rights defender Sonia Pierre,
2006 RFK Human Rights Award winner. Despite being a Dominican citizen
born in Batey Lecharia, Dominican Republic, the Administrative Chamber
of the Dominican Republic’s Electoral Board (JCE) now threatens to
strip her of her human right to nationality without due process.
Members of the JCE have requested the annulment of Sonia’s birth
certificate based on questions about the legal status of her parents
and the validity of their identification documents. A JCE decision to
annul her birth certificate would place Sonia and her children in
imminent danger of expulsion.
“We believe Sonia Pierre has been targeted for investigation because
of her work on behalf of human rights in the Dominico-Haitian
community,” said Monika Kalra Varma, director Robert F. Kennedy
Memorial Center for Human Rights. “The implication of such action on
the rights of the tens of thousands of Dominicans of Haitian descent
who reside in the Dominican Republic could be devastating.”
“The final authority for these decisions rests not with the JCE board
but the courts,” said Varma. “She is a Dominican citizen and is
entitled to an impartial and transparent judicial process.”
Recent articles in the Dominican press about these actions have
printed private personal information about her residence and her
family members.
“We are concerned that the irresponsible release of such information
is a continuing threat to Sonia and her family’s personal security,”
Varma noted.
As the leader of the Movement for Dominico-Haitian Women (MUDHA), a
Dominican-based human rights organization, Sonia has led a combined
national and international effort to eliminate discriminatory policies
and practices in the Dominican Republic. In 2005 she presented the
case of Dominican children of Haitian descent who were denied legal
documentation of their nationality, which resulted in a binding ruling
by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The Court ordered the
Dominican Republic to end discrimination against ethnic Haitians in
its birth registration system but Dominican officials have not fully
complied with the order. Recently, the government has made several
unsubstantiated claims that Sonia and her children fraudulently
obtained their identity documents but the actions by the JCE mark the
first formal action in the process to revoke her citizenship.
The Robert F. Kennedy Memorial is a non-profit human rights
organization not affiliated with any government.
Source: Robert F. Kennedy Memorial (http://www.rfkmemorial.org)
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