Dominican Republic rejects human rights report


Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: Less than a minute

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) - The Dominican Republic on Saturday rejected a human rights report that accuses the government of discrimination following a court ruling that could strip the citizenship of thousands of people born to migrants living there illegally.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights said the Caribbean country was deciding people's nationalities based on private arbitration.

Commission President Jose de Jesus Orozco said the organization received nearly 4,000 testimonies and complaints from people affected by a court ruling that states those born in the Dominican Republic since 1929 to foreigners living illegally in the country are not automatically granted citizenship.

The administration of Danilo Medina criticized the report in a statement and said the finding was a "subjective, partial and unilateral version" of the issue. Officials also defended the court ruling.

"The government is acting in accordance with our constitution, and as such, it will follow the court's ruling," the statement said.

Human rights groups have said an estimated 200,000 people could lose their citizenship, the majority of those of Haitian descent. The government insists that only some 24,000 would be affected.

(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Most recent World stories

Related topics

World
EZEQUIEL ABIU LOPEZ

    STAY IN THE KNOW

    Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    KSL Weather Forecast