5
Wenceslao Guerrero-Pou, assistant;
Teresita Torres García, assistant;
Claudia Blonda, assistant; and
Oscar Iván Peña, assistant.
for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights:
Juan Méndez, delegate;
Bertha Santoscoy, attorney;
Roxanna Altholz, advisor;
Katie Fleet, advisor;
Cathie Powell, advisor;
Arturo Carrillo, advisor; and
Luguely Cunillera, advisor.
Witnesses produced by the Inter-American Commission:
Father Pedro Ruquoy; and
Solange Pierre
11.
The allegations of the Commission presented in the above-mentioned public
hearing, which are summarized below:
a)
the Commission acknowledges that each State's immigration policy is
its own sovereign decision; however, said policy has limits.
Thus, in
agreement with the American Convention, this policy can not infringe the
rights of nationals to leave and enter the country and to take residence
anywhere in the country; this policy should recognize legal foreign nationals'
right not to be deported, except by a decision based on the law, and should
prohibit collective expulsion of foreign nationals, with or without legal status.
Similarly, the immigration policy should ensure an individual decision for each
case with due process guarantees; it should respect the right to life, to
physical and psychical integrity, to family, and the children's right to enjoy
special protection measures. Lastly, implementation of said policy cannot
result in cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatments or in discriminations by
reason of race, color, religion, or sex;
b)
the Commission issued precautionary measures on November 21,
1999, and so far there has been no change in Dominican authorities' practice
of deporting and expelling Haitian and Haitian-origin Dominican persons. This
arbitrary, summary, and unguaranteed practice continues to be aimed against
individuals with "black" skin color. Just for being black they are suspected of
being Haitians, and for being Haitians they are presumed to be illegal and are
expelled. Said practice causes enormous damage to Haitian and Haitianorigin Dominican persons, who live under the constant fear of being deported
or expelled;
c)
this petition is made on behalf of a particular group, albeit nameless,
because State practice does not make it possible to differentiate among
individual group members, because these people do not speak out individually
by reason of the fear they live in, and because the inter-American system for
human rights would not be able to process the individual complaints filed by
each member;