In this chapter, we will explore the timeline of events in the build-up to the 2013 Sentencia that retroactively stripped the plaintiff Juliana Deguis Pierre of her Dominican nationality (Figure 3). The ruling led to the implementation of a nationwide audit to identify tens of thousands of other foreign-descended populations born since 1929 whose legal identity was now in dispute. We will examine the tug of war that took place between the Dominican state and migrant rights organisations who had mobilised in an effort to combat statelessness. As these campaigns gained traction, Dominican and international NGOs joined forces to demand the restitution of rights to affected populations, turning to the Inter-American system for support. In response, the authorities introduced stricter administrative barriers, ordering that civil registry officials challenge and investigate individuals they believed to be of Haitian descent. From the mid-2000s, the authorities introduced new legal, institutional, procedural, constitutional and administrative reforms which aimed to block persons of Haitian ancestry from acquiring evidentiary proof of their national status. Through a radical overhaul of the Dominican civil registry (Central Electoral Board, JCE), the government developed a new legal definition of the Dominican nationality that ultimately removed birthright citizenship from Haitian-descended populations with a view to blocking them from the body politic altogether. This chapter concludes by examining some of the reactions of NGOs and affected populations who once thought they were citizens yet were later informed they should never have been recognised as Dominicans in the first place.

The Inter-American System, NGOs and the Fight against Statelessness

During a heated election campaign in 1996, the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) aligned with the xenophobic and ferociously anti-Haitian National Progressive Force (FNP). Together they opposed the election of José Francisco Peña Gómez, a Black man born to Haitian parents. This political gamble may have secured Leonel Fernández the presidency (1996–2000, 2004–8, 2008–12), but he was heavily criticised in international circles for his close ties to the FNP. Bilingual Fernández, who grew up in New York, positioned himself as a modern leader eager to distance the country from its dictatorial past by embracing neoliberal reforms, economic expansion and technological advances.