No ground to stand on: The decision will make the Dominican Republic the third country in the hemisphere to withdraw from the regional court’s jurisdiction (after Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago), but in fact the Dominican case is more nuanced. By finding that the human rights court’s jurisdiction was never properly ratified, the Dominican Republic is not technically denouncing the American Convention, and will not have to wait a full year for its withdrawal to take effect as Venezuela recently did. It will be interesting to see how the United States government reacts -- if it reacts at all -- to the decision. While the Obama administration has pushed Dominican officials to resolve the contradictions stemming from last year’s citizenship ruling, the fact that the U.S. has not ratified the American Convention (let alone the Inter-American Court’s jurisdiction) means it is not in a place to criticize the Dominican Republic.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Nov 2014 18:30:00 +0000
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