| Summary: | "In 2013, a Dominican high court ruling retroactively removed citizenship from tens of thousands of Dominicans, mostly of Haitian descent. Those affected became permanently unable to perform basic civil functions such as register children at birth, enroll in school and university, participate in the formal economy, and travel in the country without risk of deportation. In 204, President Danilo Medina's administration attempted to mitigate the ruling with a naturalization law aimed at recognizing the citizenship claims of thise affected by the 2013 decision. Despite a promising legal framework, the law has been fraught with desihn and implementation flaws that have thwarted the re-nationalization process. As a result, tens of thousands of Dominicans are still deprived of citizenship, and deportations are set to begin in the summer of 2015. This report details the laudable intent but practical failures of the 2014 Naturalization Law. It documents arbitrary deportations and questionable legal procedures carried out by various government entities in contravention of the law's stated goals. These practices continue to arbitrarily deprive individuals of their right to Dominican nationality. Based on this research, Human Rights Watch calls on the Dominican government to halt official deportations of denationalized Dominicans set to start in the summer of 2015. It urges the government to work with civil society, the Haitian government, and other international stakeholders to guarantee individuals are not arbitrarily, and permanently, deprived of their Dominican nationality"--page [4] of cover.
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