NGO calls JCE memo illegal

[NewsWhore]

Civic group Citizen Participation (PC) has labeled the Central Electoral Board (JCE) decision to issue a memorandum (No. 017) that attempts to limit access to birth certificates in a retroactive manner as illegal. According to the group, nobody can deny citizenship to people who were accepted as Dominicans before the publication of the new Migration Law 285-04 or before the Supreme Court decision of 14 December 2005 that countermands a sentence from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, also in 2005. That sentence rejected the category of "transients" for people who resided permanently in the Dominican Republic. The sentence also said that the children of these individuals could not be blamed for their parents' illegal status. Citizen Participation told reporters from Hoy newspaper that "Memo 017 attempts to retroactively apply Migration Law 285-04, and this goes against the constitution." The memorandum says that the JCE has been called into question on the issue of birth certificates that were granted to people whose parents have not proved their legal status in the country, and it instruct the local officials not to sign or emit copies of these certificates. The JCE's position contradicts the Dominican government's stance, based on Supreme Court of Justice rulings that determined that Dominican citizenship would only be awarded to people born to foreign parents with permanent residence status in the Dominican Republic. Furthermore, the JCE has recently revealed the existence of numerous mafias that sold Dominican cedulas and birth certificates at a low cost.

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