Sonia Pierre

Sonia Pierre 2010

Solange Pierre , known as Sonia Pierre , (born June 4, 1963 in Villa Altagracia , San Cristóbal , Dominican Republic ; † December 4, 2011 there ) was a Dominican suffragette and human rights activist . Until recently, Pierre worked on overcoming the so-called "Antihaitianismo" (see Wiki) in the Dominican Republic - the stigmatization of Haitian immigrants, their economic, social and cultural exclusion. In 1983 she founded the organization MUDHA (Movimiento de Mujeres Domínico-Haitianas / Movement of Dominican-Haitian women) together with others and became the executive director of this organization. For her unconditional, tireless commitment to human rights, Sonia Pierre has received numerous international awards.

Life

Sonia Pierre was born in Villa Altagracia in 1963 as one of twelve children in a migrant family from Haiti. Her parents - María Carmen Pierre and André Cofidan - had moved from Haiti to the Dominican Republic in 1951 to work as a sugar cane cutter on one of the local sugar cane plantations. Pierre grew up in a "Batey" (Pl .: "Bateyes" ) - as the accumulations of barracks in the Dominican Republic are called, in which the Haitian migrant workers who work for starvation wages on the sugar cane plantations are housed under inhumane conditions. Large families share a room. The floors of the barracks are bare, the walls unplastered. There is no running water, no electricity, no sewers, no garbage disposal, no doctor's office or infirmary nearby and no connection to public transport. A car is a priceless luxury for the Bateyes residents. There are also no public schools. If children want to attend school at all, they often have to walk ten to thirty kilometers a day.

Sonia Pierre's parents intended to settle permanently in the Dominican Republic, but the authorities consistently denied them Dominican citizenship and ID. So they were still among the so-called "paperless" (the "sin papeles" ) and governed the Dominican authorities - even after they had been for decades stayed in the country - unchanged as "in transit" , "in transit" . Sonia Pierre and her siblings, who were born in the Dominican Republic, were also refused Dominican citizenship, although the Dominican constitution states that every child born in the country was entitled to a Dominican passport. Sonia Pierre's family shared the fate of most of the descendants of Haitian migrants in the Dominican Republic, who officially have no name or citizenship (stateless) because the Dominican authorities refuse them their papers.

From an early age, Sonia Pierre experienced the legal, economic, social and cultural barriers with which newly immigrated Haitians and also those who already had Dominican citizenship were denied basic human rights in the Dominican Republic. This plight of Haitian foreign workers in the Dominican Republic has a long history and is linked to a deeply rooted and politically promoted racism . While the Dominicanos see themselves as descendants of the Spaniards, they consider the Haitians to be direct descendants of the African slaves. Accordingly, there has been a strong dislike for anything that is really black, i.e. H. darker than yourself. Black is Haitian, dirty, inferior, “Haitian” is a dirty word in the Dominican Republic.

When Sonia Pierre's father died in 1965, her mother, María Carmen Pierre, continued to work as a sugar cane cutter - a rather unusual job for a woman because of the enormous physical strain. She raised Sonia and her eleven siblings in a tiny room that had been assigned to her in the shanty town. There was no school for the children, but when Sonia was nine years old, she took part in a class given by a local. When she was older, she walked many miles to the nearest school every day.

Early engagement

As early as 1976, at the early age of 13, Sonia Pierre campaigned for an improvement in the living conditions of the Dominiko-Haitians, refusing to remain silent in the face of obvious injustices. At that time a strike had broken out in the Batey where she had grown up. The plantation workers demanded higher wages, better food and improved living conditions. The strike spread. Finally, all the sugar cane cutters in the neighboring villages protested. Her involvement - Pierre was the spokeswoman for the workers - landed her in jail and was threatened with deportation from the Dominican Republic. Since then, Pierre has campaigned for the rights of rural workers born in the Dominican Republic, especially the children of Haitian immigrants, to secure citizenship and education.

Foundation of MUDHA

In 1983 she and others founded the organization MUDHA (Movimiento de Mujeres Domínico-Haitianas - movement of Dominican-Haitian women), which fights against the extreme lack of rights, especially of Dominican-Haitian farm workers and their children, in areas of life such as citizenship, health, labor rights, education and Housing struggled. MUDHA tries to get the migrants and their children papers, organizes lessons for those who are not admitted to the state schools and trains health advisors in the villages who know about hygiene and sexually transmitted diseases. MUDHA works with the entire village community, including grassroots church organizations.

Inter-American Court of Human Rights

Sonia Pierre and MUDHA managed to bring the international community's attention to the injustices suffered by Haitian Dominicans in the Dominican Republic. One of the cases she championed - Dilcia Yean and Violeta Bosico v. Dominican Republic - came up before the Inter-American Court for Human Rights ( Inter-American Court of Human Rights ). Dilcia Yean and Violeta Bosico were two girls of Haitian descent who were born in the Dominican Republic. Although the parents of both girls were already Dominican citizens, the Dominican authorities refused to issue birth certificates (birth registers) for the two girls. The Dominican constitution (the one that was in force at the time) granted Dominican citizenship ( ius soli ) to every child born on the territory of the Dominican Republic . The Inter-American Commission for Human Rights (IAKMR) in Washington then lodged a complaint with the Inter-American Court of Human Rights , stating that the discriminatory refusal of the Dominican authorities had made Dilcia Yean and Violeta Bosico stateless, forcing them into illegality or in completely unsafe circumstances to grow up. The commission also complained about numerous violations of the American Convention on Human Rights (which was recognized by the Dominican Republic on April 19, 1978). a. Proof that Violeta Bosico was not allowed to attend school for a year because she could not show any identification papers. The judges ruled that with Dominicans of Haitian descent, the status of the parents could not (also) be "inherited" on the children.

Awards

Sonia Pierre has been honored with numerous awards for her selfless, unconditional commitment:

• 2003 - Human Rights Ginetta Sagan Fund Award (Amnesty International)
• 2006 - Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award
• 2010 - US Department of State International Women of Courage Award - United States Department of State
• 2010 - Order of Knights “Honor and Merit” for services to the Haitian people

Web links

• Orange 94.0 March 17th, 2011: Human rights activist Sonia Pierre (Dom. Rep.) In the studio as a guest - Interview (audio file)
• Ulla Ebner. April 22, 2011: "We'll burn you alive!" - Interview (text + audio files)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Biographical information on Sonia Pierre ( Memento of the original from December 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ^ Biographical data of Sonia Pierre
3. ^ New York Times September 28, 2007: Rights advocate test Dominican color line
4. ↑ Progressio.org December 15, 2011: Tribute to Sonia Pierre, Dominican-Haitian women's leader
5. ↑ Since the 1920s, Haitian migrant workers, mostly men, came to the Dominican Republic as seasonal workers for the sugar industry. The working conditions were miserable and they were paid starvation wages. The number of people with Haitian roots living in the Dominican Republic is estimated at 800,000 to 1.2 million. There are no exact official figures. About half of them were born in the Dominican Republic without ever having received Dominican identity cards, and they live under the sword of Damocles, and they are constantly threatened with deportation to Haiti. Although the sugar industry collapsed in the 1980s, the influx of Haitian migrants into the Dominican Republic continued unabated. In addition to agriculture, they now worked in other sectors of the economy, such as the construction or tourism industry, in industrial plants that were built in free trade zones near the border with Haiti, or as domestic workers or as outpatient traders in the big cities. Without them there would be no construction boom, many tourist beds would remain unmade, rubbish would be left lying around and sugar cane would remain in the fields. The Dominican Republic is therefore dependent on the Haitians, but at the same time they are constantly exposed to racist hostility and attacks, which are often fatal.
6. ↑ FWA 2011, Dom. Rep., P. 166.
7. ↑ Amnesty International: Amnesty Report 2011: Dominican Republic
8. ↑ Amnesty International: A Life in Transit / A life in transit - The plight of Haitian migrants ... (unauthorized translation) / s. under Dossiers + Reports
9. ^ Spiegel-Online January 15, 2010: Unloved neighbors
10. ↑ taz August 4, 2011: Haitians in the Dominican Republic. From nowhere to nowhere
11. ^ ^{A b} US Department of State 2010 Human Rights Report: Dominican Republic
12. ^ Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights: April 1, 2007: Gregory Kane: Commentary: For those who still believe people of color can't be racist, Sonia Pierre has a story for you ( Memento des Originals vom 2. November 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
13. ^ ^{A b} Political Database of the Americas - República Dominicana - Constituciones de 1994 / s. here Seccion I - De la Nacianalidad, Art.11 (span.)
14. ↑ ^{a b} Ulla Ebner. April 22, 2011: "We will burn you alive!" - Interview with Sonia Pierre (audio files)
15. ↑ Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights November 18, 2006: Remarks by Senator Edward Kennedy: 2006 RFK Human Rights Award Ceremony ( Memento of the original from November 2, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and still Not checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
16. ↑ Ulla Ebner. April 22, 2011: "We will burn you alive!" - Interview with Sonia Pierre (text + audio files)
17. ↑ ^{a b} The Standard March 31, 2011: The surname is always "Illegal"
18. ↑ Medico International December 5, 2011: campaigner for equal rights for immigrants. Sonia Pierre, head of the Dominican women's organization MUDHA, dies
19. ↑ Homepage MUDHA (Spanish)
20. ^ Child Rights International Network: Yean and Bosico v. Dominican Republic
21. ^ Open Society Foundation: Yean and Bosico v. Dominican Republic
22. ^ ^{A b} University of Minnesota / Human Rights Library: The Yean and Bosico Children v. Dominican Republic, Judgment of September 8, 2005, Inter-Am Ct. HR, (Ser. C) No. 130 (2005)
23. ^ Amnesty International - USA: The Ginetta Sagan Fund
24. ^ Amnesty International - USA: Ginetta Sagan Award Winners / s. here: 2003: Sonia Pierre
25. ↑ Amnesty International - ai-Journal April 2003: So far only small victories ( memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.