SECRETARY-General of the Caribbean Community, Ambassador Irwin LaRocque, has reiterated the Community’s call on the Dominican Republic to take steps to “right the wrong” resulting from a ruling on nationality made by the Constitutional Court of the Dominican Republic.The ruling has retroactively stripped of citizenship tens of thousands of nationals from the Dominican Republic, mostly Haitians, and has rendered them stateless.

Speaking at a ceremony where Haiti’s first plenipotentiary representative, His Excellency Peterson Benjamin Noel, was presenting his Letters of Credence to CARICOM Secretary General Ambassador Irwin LaRocque at the CARICOM Secretariat’s offices at Turkeyen, ECD, Ambassador LaRocque noted that, on behalf of the entire Community, the Bureau of the Conference of Heads of Government condemned the Dominican Republic’s ruling, which violated regional and international human rights obligations.

He said CARICOM would continue to provide support to Haiti as it fights to have respected the rights and citizenship of members of its Diaspora.