Santo Domingo. - Central Board Electoral (JCE) president Roberto Rosario revealed Tuesday that 49 birth certificates have been issued to descendants of Haitians born in the country and who lacked those documents, pledging not to “give the Dominican nationality away.”

He said the affidavits are “free of impediment to issue them,” and belong to members of the group of 122 people allegedly denied the nationality and the right to their name by the JCE, as denounced by several human rights organizations.

The National Human Rights Commission, the Dominican-Haitian Jacques Viau Network and the Dominican-Haitians Women Movement made denunciation in December, and a similar claim by the U.S. State Department recently.

Rosario said the JCE hasn’t transacted 22 cases on lack of support documents, with 18 more under in investigation, while 23 affidavits were rejected and are in the process of registry in the Book of Foreigners, for being children of foreigners in irregular status.

The official said eight requests were suspended on forged data and are pending rulings in court, and that the denouncers were asked for data on the parents’ documents for the remaining 40.

Rosario warned that the JCE “guarantees the right to a name and identity in the country, but not by means of violations. We will not give away the Dominican identity.”