A Rights Advocate’s Work Divides Dominicans – Sonia Pierre

“WHEN Sonia Pierre won an international human rights award last fall, there were two diametrically opposite reactions here: “Way to go!” and “Oh, no!”

Ms. Pierre is the Dominican Republic’s most polarizing human rights advocate, a dark-skinned woman who says she can only dream of a country in which her color ”” and the skin tone of hundreds of thousands of other Dominicans like her who are of Haitian descent ”” is a non-issue.

Carlos Morales Troncoso, the Dominican foreign minister, was among those who were infuriated at the honor Ms. Pierre received from the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights. He fired off a letter to Mr. Kennedy’s widow, Ethel, labeling the award “ill advised” and “myopic.”

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