the child recognized in Article 19 of the Convention, with regard to those victims who were
children at the time of the expulsion.
B.2.2. Rights to freedom of movement and residence, to judicial guarantees and
to judicial protection
B.2.2.1. Collective expulsions of Haitian nationals (Article 22(9))
381. As indicated above, the Court has indicated that, to comply with the prohibition of
collective expulsions, proceedings that may result in the expulsion or deportation of an
alien must be individual in order to assess the personal circumstances of each person, and
this requires, at least, the identification of the person and the clarification of the particular
circumstances of his migratory situation. In addition, such proceedings must not
discriminate for reasons of nationality, color, race, sex, language, religion, political
opinion, social origin or any other condition, and must observe the basic guarantees
mentioned previously (supra paras. 356 to 358). 438
382. However, the facts of the case sub judice reveal that Lilia Jean Pierre, Janise Midi,
Marlene Mesidor and Markenson Jean, of Haitian nationality, were detained and expelled in
less than 48 hours together with their family members and other persons, without any
evidence that they had been submitted to an individualized evaluation of the kind
mentioned above prior to being expelled (supra paras. 201, 210 and 223). The State has
not provided any evidence proving that it had instituted formal proceedings to identify
these individuals, or to evaluate the particular circumstances of their migratory situation.
383. Furthermore, the statements of the presumed victims reveal that the expulsions
were carried out in a summary manner and as a group. 439 Thus, the Court recalls that the
members of the Medina family, including Lilia Jean Pierre, were taken to the border with
Haiti together with other persons (supra para. 201) Also, the bus that Marlene Mesidor
and the other members of the Jean family were forced to board in order to be expelled to
438
Cf. Case of Nadege Dorzema et al. v. Dominican Republic, para. 175, and Case of the Pacheco Tineo
Family v. Bolivia, para. 133. See also: Expert opinion of Pablo Ceriani Cernadas, In his statement he indicated
that the term racial profiling, “especially when one observes the use of profiles in negative terms, relates to the
program, practice, policy, specific measures by which law enforcement officials in general – in this case, we can
speak of security forces with competence in the area of immigration – establish, explicitly or implicitly, certain
criteria based on, it could be ethnic origin, or the language or nationality of origin of a person, to implement,
above all, measures of investigation and control, in this case control or verification of immigration offenses, to
provide a reasonable and objective justification to overcome those types of control mechanisms, and which
subsequently, have a whole series of negative impacts, not only on migrants, but also on society.” In addition, he
stated that “a measure of collective expulsion, prohibited not only by the American Convention on Human Rights,
but also by other regional and universal treaties such as the Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All
Migrant Workers, refers to the decision to expel a person that is not the result of due process in which, with the
appropriate guarantees, the different circumstances, especially the personal situation and the specific facts in
each case, have been evaluated thoroughly and in sufficient detail, in order to eventually reach a decision on a
sanction that could constitute an eventual expulsion. If these circumstances in terms of procedural guarantees
are not present – which also signify the substantive guarantees that are being discussed during those
proceedings – we would be speaking of what, in migratory terms, is usually referred to as automatic expulsion
mechanisms that, in many cases, may constitute what is called collective expulsions.” He added that “the number
of persons is irrelevant as regards collective expulsion; the important point is how the proceedings functioned,
how the decision was reached, and what were the procedural and substantive stages that resulted in the
expulsion order and the implementation of those measures (expert opinion of Pablo Ceriani Cernadas provided
during the public hearing).
439
According to the statements of the presumed victims, they were deprived of liberty or taken from their
homes without being given the opportunity to take some of their possessions with them, and without being able
to return to their place of origin for a long time. According to the presumed victims, they had their home
furnishings, personal effects, clothes, livestock, savings and cash or were owed wages, and in other cases, the
presumed victims were deprived of possessions they had taken with them by the authorities who detained them.
123
Seleccionar párrafo de destino3
Conectar a un párrafo
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Añadir a la tabla de contenidos