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Migration Jurisprudence from the South › Dominican Republic

Expelled Dominicans and Haitians v. Dominican Republic

Inter-American Court of Human Rights · Dominican Republic · 2014-08-28 · Regional court or body

Citation: Series C No. 282
Type of case: Constitutional and human rights
Outcome: Decided for the migrant side

Question

Did the Dominican Republic violate the rights of Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent through summary expulsions and the denial of nationality?

What the court decided

Yes. The expulsions were arbitrary and collective, and TC/0168/13 and Law 169-14 breached the right to nationality and equality; the State was ordered to leave them without effect.

In plain language

People of Haitian descent, many born in the Dominican Republic, were rounded up and sent to Haiti. The Inter-American Court said this broke their rights and that the 2013 nationality ruling must be undone. The Dominican Republic refused and rejected the Court’s authority.

Dalam bahasa sederhana

Orang keturunan Haiti, banyak yang lahir di Republik Dominika, ditangkap dan dikirim ke Haiti. Pengadilan HAM Antar-Amerika menyatakan ini melanggar hak mereka dan putusan kewarganegaraan 2013 harus dibatalkan. Republik Dominika menolak dan tidak mengakui kewenangan Pengadilan.

Pertanyaan: Apakah Republik Dominika melanggar hak warga Haiti dan warga Dominika keturunan Haiti melalui pengusiran kilat dan penolakan kewarganegaraan?

What happened afterwards

  • 2014-08-28: Violations found.
  • 2014-11-04: Constitutional Tribunal rejects the Court’s jurisdiction (TC/0256/14).

Sources

Open this decision in the interactive collection (compare, filter, Indonesian view, downloads).

Cite as: Institute for Migrant Rights (2026), Migration Jurisprudence from the South, version 0.1, https://theimr.org/court-decisions/d/expelled-dominicans-2014/. This page summarizes a court decision for research and advocacy; it is not legal advice.

For researchers

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Keywords: case law; jurisprudence; judicial decisions; comparative constitutional law; courts and migration; judicial behavior; litigation outcomes; refugee law; non-refoulement; citizenship and nationality; empirical legal studies; empirical legal scholarship; quantitative legal research; statistical analysis in law; law and economics; law and economics of migration; comparative law; socio-legal studies; legal pluralism; migration law; labor migration; migrant workers’ rights; human rights law; access to justice; Global South; Asia; Africa; Middle East; Latin America; Indonesia; open data; replication data.