53
6.
An alien lawfully in the territory of a State Party to this Convention may be expelled from it
only pursuant to a decision reached in accordance with law.
9.
The collective expulsion of aliens is prohibited.
252.
The right to residence, the rule prohibiting the exile of nationals from their own State and
the prohibition of the collective expulsion of aliens are established in the Universal Declaration of Human
225
226
Rights, in the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man,
in the International Covenant
227
228
on Civil and Political Rights,
in Protocol 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights,
the
229
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and elsewhere.
253.
The Commission has maintained that collective expulsions are manifestly contrary to
230
international law.
The Rapporteurship on the Rights of Migrant Workers and Their Families has written
that although the international instruments do not contain a specific definition of ‘collective expulsion’, it
argues that expulsions become collective when the decision to expel is not based on individual cases but
on group considerations, even if the group in question is not large. Therefore, given the prohibition
established in Article 22(9) of the Convention, States have an obligation to examine, justify and decide
each expulsion or deportation on an individual, case-by-case basis.
254.
The Commission has also held that collective expulsions involve multiple violations of the
human rights of immigrant persons. The summary manner in which collective expulsions are conducted
is such that Dominican nationals, residents or persons in need of international protection –many of whom
are children- also end up being expelled. Given these circumstances, the Commission observes that the
practice of large-scale expulsions is not just a violation of the prohibition against collective expulsions of
aliens (Article 22(9) of the American Convention), but could also be violations of the following: i) the right
of every person who is lawfully in the territory of a State to move about in it and to reside in it subject to
the provisions of the law (Article 22(1) of the American Convention); ii) the right of every person not to be
expelled from the territory of the state of which he is a national or be deprived of the right to enter it
(Article 22(5) of the American Convention); iii) the right of aliens who are lawfully within the territory of a
state to be expelled from it only pursuant to a decision reached in accordance with the law (Article 22(6)
231
of the American Convention);
iv) the right to seek and receive asylum and the principle and right of
non-refoulement (articles 22(7) and 22(8) of the Convention); v) the right to due process (Article 8(1); vi)
232
the right of access to judicial remedies and guarantees (Article 25);
vii) the right to a family life and
233
protection of the family (Article 17) ; viii) the right to a private life (Article 11(2)), and ix) the rights of the
child (Article 19).
255.
The International Law Commission wrote that collective expulsions occur in the absence
of a procedure to identify the distinctive, specific reasons for expulsion on a case by case basis, so that
225
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, articles 9, 13.1 and 13.2.
226
American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, Article VIII.
227
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, articles 12 and 13.
228
European Convention on Human Rights. Protocol 4, articles 2, 3 and 4.
229
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, articles 5 and 12.
230
IACHR, Annual Report of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, 2000: Second Progress Report of the
Special Rapporteurship on Migrant Workers and Their Families in the Hemisphere. OEA/Ser./L/V/II.111 doc. 20 rev., April 16, 2000,
paragraph 97.5.
231
IACHR, Annual Report of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, 1999: Progress Report of the Office of the
Rapporteur on Migrant Workers and Their Families in the Hemisphere. OEA/Ser.L/V/II.106 Doc. 3, April 13, 2000, paragraph 9.
232
IACHR, Annual Report 1991, Chapter V, Situation of Haitians in the Dominican Republic. OEA/Ser.L/V/II.81 Doc. 6 rev.
1, February 14, 1992.
233
IACHR, Annual Report 1991, Chapter V, Situation of Haitians in the Dominican Republic. OEA/Ser.L/V/II.81 Doc. 6 rev.
1, February 14, 1992.