Court rules on school for all

[NewsWhore]

The Dominican courts have taken a stand on the issue of schooling for children that do not have birth certificates. Three youngsters who do not have birth certificates were ordered to school by magistrate William Encarnacion Mejia of the Civil Chamber of the Court for Children and Young People in Santo Domingo. The judge issued his sentence, revoking a decision by a school principal who had denied the children access to the school due to lack of proper documentation. The children have not received their birth certificates because their mother is an illegal alien who does not have her own identification papers. The magistrate said that articles of the Dominican Constitution, the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights had been violated. The case involved the Republic of Panama School in eastern Santo Domingo, and the sentence handed down by the judge ordered the principal of the school, Sixta Aquino Jimenez, and/or any other official of the school to re-register the children at once. The Dominican Code for Minors states in Article 45 that in no way can children be denied education due to a lack of documents. Given the large number of children that do not have birth certificates, the usual practice has been for these to be admitted to elementary school. This is a first time a court has ruled on the matter.

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