VZCZCXYZ0067
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHDG #0732/01 0892259
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 302259Z MAR 07
FM AMEMBASSY SANTO DOMINGO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7832
INFO RUEHZA/WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHPU/AMEMBASSY PORT AU PRINCE PRIORITY 4543
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA PRIORITY 0343
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC PRIORITY

UNCLAS SANTO DOMINGO 000732 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR WHA, WHA/CAR, DRL, L/HRR:EAMORY, 
PRM/PIM/MIG:SDENTZEL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELAB PGOV PHUM PREF SMIG KWMN DR HA
SUBJECT: OPPONENTS MANEUVER TO STRIP DOMINICAN-HAITIAN 
ACTIVIST OF HER CITIZENSHIP 
 
REF: A. 06 SANTO DOMINGO 3282 
 
     ¶B. SANTO DOMINGO 0335 
     ¶C. SANTO DOMINGO 0444 
     ¶D. 2006 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY:  An investigation by staff at the Junta 
Central Electoral (JCE), or Central Elections Board, has 
recommended that the authorities strip the citizenship of 
Sonia Pierre, a prominent advocate for the rights of persons 
of Haitian descent. In quick reply, on March 30 JCE President 
Castanos Guzman stated publicly that only a judicial tribunal 
could take such a drastic step. Pierre was the winner of last 
year's Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Human Rights Award and was 
Embassy's nominee for the 2007 Secretary's Woman of Courage 
Award. Any judicial decision on Pierre's status would set a 
precedent for tens or hundreds of thousands of similar 
individuals. The Papal Nuncio, who is Dean of the Diplomatic 
Corps, told poloffs on March 30 that he would amplify his 
advocacy on behalf of Ms. Pierre and others in her 
predicament.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (SBU) During the evening hours of March 29, 
Haitian-Dominican activist Sonia Pierre received a phone call 
from journalist Fernando Aquino of the popular newspaper Hoy 
stating that her birth certificate had been revoked by an 
investigation launched by staff at the Junta Central 
Electoral (JCE), or Central Elections Board. The JCE 
generally exercises final authority, subject to no appeal, 
over all matters relating to elections and civil 
registration. The xenophobic splinter party of congressman 
Pelegrin Castillo had originally requested the investigation, 
and was almost certainly responsible for providing the 
results to all major news media. 
 
¶3. (U) Aquino's report was inaccurate.  In fact, no action 
against Pierre had been taken; the report and its 
recommendation were internal documents that the JCE judges 
had not yet seen.  The next morning as the news was hitting 
the streets the President of the Junta Central Electoral 
(JCE) Julio Cesar Castanos Guzman, told moderators of a 
highly popular radio program that the JCE lacks the legal 
authority to revoke Pierre's citizenship. Such a decision 
could only be reached by a judicial tribunal, and Pierre 
would have the right to defend herself in any such legal 
proceeding. He added that even if there had been fraud, 
Pierre herself would have in no way been responsible for it. 
 
----------------------------------- 
SONIA PIERRE, A HIGH-PROFILE TARGET 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (U) Sonia Pierre, now in her 40s, is one of the 
co-founders of the Movement for Dominican-Haitian Women 
(MUDHA), an organization that services to persons of Haitian 
descent in the Dominican Republic. Under Pierre's leadership, 
MUDHA has taken an active role advocating politically for the 
rights of this disadvantaged ethnic group. Pierre's work with 
MUDHA has distinguished her in the international human rights 
community, and she was selected as the sole recipient of the 
2006 Robert F. Kennedy Memorial's annual Human Rights Award. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Pierre's advocacy has made her extremely unpopular 
among many in the Dominican Republic. As noted extensively in 
Refs A, B, C, and D, persons of Haitian descent are subject 
to severe discrimination and mistreatment in the country. The 
"Haitian issue" is extremely sensitive for many nationalist 
Dominicans, and they resent foreign "interference" in 
Dominican migration and social policy. Pierre's activism and 
prominence in international human rights circles have served 
to solidify the impression shared by many that she is an 
enemy of the Dominican people. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Embassy's nomination of Pierre for the Secretary's 
Woman of Courage Award (Ref A) reported on the indications 
Embassy had received that the Dominican government was 
considering stripping her of her citizenship.  Those 
indications came from prominent anti-Haitian officials, who 
had gone public with accusations that Pierre was not eligible 
for her citizenship because her parents, Haitian migrant 
workers, were "in transit" at the time that she was born. 
They also included allegations from the Dominican 
government's intelligence agency (National Directorate of 
Intelligence, or DNI) that Pierre's children had been born in 
Haiti rather than in the Dominican Republic, as stated on 
their birth certificates -- a claim Pierre and her ex-husband 
 
have vigorously disputed. The allegations targeting Pierre 
have appeared to many, including this Embassy, as political 
retribution for her advocacy. 
 
----------------- 
THE LEGAL BASIS 
----------------- 
 
¶7. (U) The "in transit" reference in para 5 refers to the 
Dominican constitution, which guarantees Dominican 
citizenship to all children born in Dominican territory 
except those born to diplomats or to persons who are "in 
transit." For years the Dominican government declined to 
define the "in transit" exception. As a matter of policy, it 
issued birth certificates to all Dominican-born children, 
although administrative hurdles were erected to prevent many 
children born to Haitians from being registered. Those 
exclusions were enshrined into law after a contentious 
migration reform passed in 2004 classified as "in transit" 
all persons who lacked Dominican residency or citizenship. 
This effectively rendered children born to non-resident 
foreigners ineligible to acquire Dominican nationality 
through birth. The Supreme Court upheld the 2004 law in a 
controversial decision the following year. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Dominican legal experts have opined that it would be 
unconstitutional to apply the 2004 law retroactively in such 
a manner as to strip children born prior to 2004 of their 
citizenship. Embassy has received reports of birth 
certificate revocations targeting children born prior to 
2004, but who never obtained valid national id documents, or 
"cedulas." One could argue, however, that the Dominican 
authorities never recognized these children's claims to 
Dominican nationality, because they had never issued them 
with valid national identity documents. Pierre's case is 
unique in that she has long held a valid Dominican identity 
card ("cedula") and passport. There is no disputing the fact 
that the Dominican government has recognized her as a citizen 
of the Dominican Republic. 
 
¶9. (U) The investigation's results, published this morning in 
a popular newspaper, are complex but inconclusive. According 
to the report, key data about Pierre's mother, such as her 
cedula number, was not included on her birth certificate. 
(Cedula numbers are given only to legal Dominican residents, 
and persons in Pierre's parents' predicament -- migrant sugar 
cane workers -- were seldom given residency permits.) Second, 
the report states that Pierre's father is listed on Pierre's 
birth certificate as a Dominican citizen. However, the record 
corresponding to his cedula application states that he was 
born in Haiti. As a result of this discrepancy, investigators 
concluded that Pierre's father's "nationality is not 
Dominican, as stated on the birth certificate, but is 
Haitian, as stated in the record corresponding to his 
cedula." (Embassy's Fraud Prevention Unit (FPU) reports that 
old civil registry records commonly contain glaring omissions 
and errors.) 
 
¶10. (SBU) Poloff spoke with Mariano Rodriguez, one of nine 
judges who head the JCE, during the morning of March 30 to 
inquire about the news reports. Rodriguez stated that he had 
not yet read the report of the investigation, but stated that 
the news article appeared to be an accurate reflection of 
what investigators may have concluded. He also stated that if 
the news account was correct, Pierre would be subject to 
revocation of her Dominican citizenship, because her parents 
were foreigners who lacked Dominican residency at the time 
Pierre was born. 
 
 
-------------------------- 
HYPOTHESES ABOUT STATELESSNESS 
-------------------------- 
 
¶11. (SBU) If via judicial action Pierre were to be stripped 
of her citizenship, this action would render her effectively 
stateless. Although in 2005 the Dominican Supreme Court cited 
provisions of the Haitian constitution granting nationality 
via blood ties, the DCM at the Haitian Embassy tells us the 
Haitian authorities may recognize as citizens only those 
children who are registered within a year of birth. In 
theory, a process exists whereby persons 18 years of age or 
older who have not yet been registered as Haitian may travel 
to Haiti and petition for the right to be recognized as 
Haitians. However, according to the DCM, this process is not 
 
functional. Another problem is the Haitian constitution's 
proscription that "(d)ual Haitian and foreign nationality is 
in no cases permitted." As long as Pierre continues to assert 
her claim Dominican nationality, which she has indicated she 
will do, she would appear to be ineligible for Haitian 
nationality. 
 
¶12. (SBU) If the basis of Pierre's citizenship were to be 
determined to be fraudulent, then her children would be 
stripped of their Dominican nationality as well. The case 
that they would be rendered stateless is even stronger. Even 
if Pierre did acquire Haitian nationality, her children would 
not be eligible to acquire it through her, because the 
Haitian constitution guarantees Haitian nationality only to 
the children of "native-born" Haitian parents. Since both 
Pierre and the father of her children are persons of Haitian 
descent born in the Dominican Republic, they do not appear to 
meet the "native-born" requirement for transmitting Haitian 
nationality to their children. 
 
¶13. (SBU) Far more important to Pierre and to the many 
thousands of essentially stateless Dominican-born persons of 
Haitian descent is the fact that they have no ties to Haiti 
and no desire to immigrate there. In many cases, they do not 
even speak Creole. 
 
 
------- 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶14. (SBU) Pierre appears to have been purposely and 
specifically targeted by the xenophobic splinter party 
"Fuerza Nacional Progresista" of congressman Pellegrin 
Castillo.  The attack is real but also symbolic.  If the FNP 
were to pursue its aims successfully through the courts, the 
verdict would set a precedent in an area of citizenship law 
that for now remains undefined.  There are no reliable 
figures on the number of Haitians and Dominican-Haitians in 
the Dominican Republic; estimates range from 400,000 to well 
over a million. Although a large part of this community is 
undocumented, many, like Pierre, were born in the Dominican 
Republic and were able to obtain Dominican birth certificates 
and cedulas. They attend Dominican schools and universities 
and work alongside Dominicans throughout the economy. Their 
ranks include such prominent Dominicans as Sammy Sosa, a 
famous major league baseball player, and the late Jose 
Francisco Pena Gomez, charismatic leader of a major political 
party whose memory is revered among Dominicans. 
 
¶15. (SBU) If the policy of retroactive revocations were to 
take hold, this entire community would be at risk of losing 
their Dominican nationality. They would become effectively 
stateless. Lacking cedulas, they would become ineligible for 
jobs in the formal economy, ineligible to own property, 
ineligible to hold bank accounts, ineligible for education or 
medical benefits. 
 
¶16. (SBU) Without alternative means to support themselves, 
this community would be even more vulnerable to the schemes 
of traffickers, like the many thousands of already stateless 
persons who reside along the Dominican border with Haiti. 
They would also be vulnerable to other forms of exploitation. 
 
 
---------------- 
EMBASSY ADVOCACY 
---------------- 
 
¶17. (SBU) In February during a courtesy call, the Ambassador 
raised the investigation into Pierre's citizenship with the 
President of the JCE. The Ambassador clearly stated our 
concerns with the impression that the case was one of 
political retribution. 
 
¶18. (SBU) On March 30, Embassy political officers met with 
Monsignor Timothy Broglio, Papal Nuncio to the Dominican 
Republic and Dean of the Diplomatic Corps. Broglio has worked 
effectively with Embassy officers on past issues with 
ramifications for the Haitian community, such as in our 
advocacy on behalf of a birth registration system for the 
children of non-resident foreigners. Broglio said that he 
would "work the corridors" advocating on behalf of Pierre and 
others in her predicament. He also said he would speak at the 
Bishops Conference, which brings together senior Catholic 
 
leaders from across the country, in an effort to encourage 
them to raise the issue in their Holy Week and Easter 
homilies. The Catholic Church wields strong influence in this 
majority Catholic country. 
 
¶19. (U) Drafted by Alexander T. Bryan. 
 
¶20. (U) This report and extensive other material can be 
consulted on our SIPRNET site, 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/santodomingo/  
HERTELL