Tens of thousands individuals became stateless in the Dominican Republic in September 2013. The highest court in the country decided that even though these individuals were born and raised for generations in the country, they should not have been Dominicans because their parents, grandparents, or even great grandparents, who were undocumented, came from the neighbouring country of Haiti, with which the Dominican Republic shares the same island in the Caribbean.Amnesty is rightfully concerned with the problem of statelessness.
Their lives are a succession of frustration, lost opportunities, and the denial of their rights as human beings. Without nationality, they have no documents nor rights. Without documents, children do not have access to education or have to stop studying. They cannot go to university and turn their dreams of a better life into reality.
Stateless people have difficulty accessing healthcare. They can’t travel and are forced into informal jobs. Women are at increased risk of violence or other abuse, and have little to no opportunity to secure justice in court. The lives of all those who remain stateless are in limbo.
Stateless people are people who legally do not exist.
However, there are another people who have lived without the rights of citizenship in host countries that have treated them badly for generations. The analogy isn't perfect, but when Amnesty looked at Palestinians who have been discriminated against in Lebanon because they were kept stateless, Amnesty didn't ask Lebanon to do anything about the problem of statelessness. They didn't demand Lebanon confer citizenship on Palestinians or even children of Palestinians born there. They didn't insist on equal rights even when Lebanon created laws specifically against them.
The reason? Because Amnesty wants to make sure that Palestinians remain stateless so they can pressure Israel for a non-existent "right of return" - a "right" that that Amnesty twists international law to pretend that it exists.
So while Amnesty is so upset over the statelessness of Haitians in the Dominican Republic, ti has no such concern about the people that have dominated their reports for years. Because Amnesty will adopt the Palestinian anti-Israel "right of return" narrative rather than stand up for the real human rights of Palestinians.
Isn't that interesting?
