By Janet Gilmore, Public Affairs
Posted October 13, 1999

A major legal victory has been won by School of Law students for a 14-year-old client fighting for the right to attend school in the Dominican Republic.

Born in the Dominican Republic but denied an education because of her Haitian heritage, the teenager is now one step closer to fulfilling her dreams of getting an education and, one day, becoming a school teacher.

The law students, who work at Boalt Hall's International Human Rights Law Clinic, learned last month that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights -- the human rights arm of the Washington D.C.-based Organization of American States -- had granted their emergency request to direct the Dominican Republic to enroll the teenage girl in school.

The girl's name has been withheld due to her fear of government reprisals.

Students, law school faculty members, and the other lawyers and activists who worked on this case anticipate this will be the first step toward granting such rights to other children.

The order also is significant from a legal standpoint. This is the first time the human rights commission has used its injunction-like powers to order immediate relief to protect the right to education. Such orders typically involve efforts to prevent physical harm.

The law clinic began the project in March 1998, when Laurel Fletcher, the clinic's associate director, led a team of students to the Dominican Republic and Haiti to investigate human rights violations.

Clinic students spoke to numerous parents who could not get their Dominican-born children into schools because they are from Haitian families.

The law clinic, which provides students with training and experience to promote human rights in international fora, filed the request for urgent action jointly with the Center for Justice and International Law, a regional organization specializing in the litigation of human rights cases before the Inter-American Commission; and the Movement of Dominico-Haitian Women, an organization based in the Dominican Republic that fights for the rights of Dominicans of Haitian descent.

The teenager was expelled from school after the 3rd grade because she did not have a birth certificate. Under Dominican law, according to Fletcher, children born in the Dominican Republic are considered nationals.

Although the girl was born in the Dominican Republic to a Dominican mother and a Haitian father, the Dominican government told her it was a policy not to give birth certificates to children of Haitian parents, Fletcher said.

Gina Amato, a joint degree candidate in law and public policy, found working on the case rewarding: "It's wonderful to see that my legal education can have a profound impact on the lives of others."

On Aug. 27, the Inter-American Commission ordered the Dominican Republic to adopt immediate measures to ensure that the girl will attend school, which began Sept. 6. It also gave the government two weeks to inform the human rights commission about the steps it has taken to comply.

"We are pleased the commission acted decisively in this case," said Fletcher. "This decision shows that the commission not only can provide redress for past abuses, but also work to prevent future ones."

October 13 - 19, 1999 (Volume 28, Number 10)
Copyright 1999, The Regents of the University of California.
Produced and maintained by the Office of Public Affairs at UC Berkeley.
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