VIDEO: Sonia Pierre on the Plight of Dominicans of Haitian Descent

Sonia Pierre, recipient of the 2006 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, works in the Dominican Republic to fight discriminatory policies that violate the rights of Dominicans of Haitian descent and Haitian immigrants.

In March 2011, the Government of the Dominican Republic presented modifications to its civil registry at a public hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Described by the government as a great modernization effort, the modifications as implemented deny identity documents to Dominicans of Haitian ancestry, leaving many of them stateless.

In the following video, Sonia explains the impact of these modifications.