Dominican court could help Haiti issue IDs to it’s citizens
SANTO DOMINGO. - The Central Electoral Board (JCE) will evaluate an Organization of American States (OAS) proposal to provide IDs to Haitian citizens who reside in Dominican Republic.
JCE president Julio Cesar Castaños said that document won’t influence the status of the Haitians in the country. “That’s a project of the OAS which has already been previously communicated to us officialy, the possibility would be that the Haitians get IDs as Haitians in the country.”
The Electoral judge, in a press conference with Haiti’s ambassador Fritz Cineas, said it would be a way to support the neighboring country’s efforts to provide that document to its citizens.
The JCE chief said the OAS’ project is “a very good idea” because although it doesn’t solve the problem, “at least lays a path towards it.”
http://www2.dominicantoday.com/dr/local/2008/7/29/28836/Dominican-court-could-help-Haiti-issue-IDs-to-its-citizens
Listin Diario:
The ambassador of Haiti in the country, Fritz Cinéas, declared that the electoral authorities will give Haitian Cedulas to the Haitians that live in this country, through a project that will develop the Organization of American States (OAS).
Cinéas said that their government worries extremely on the situation of its nationals that live in the Dominican Republic for which it carries out efforts so that they have their documentation in legal form.
He stated that the majority of the Haitians that live here are being documented through the Embassy, but maintained that they do not have statistics on the quantity of lacking identity papers that reside in the country.
Of his side, the president of the JCE, Julio Cesar Castaños Guzmán considered good that initiative of the OAS, for which he asked contribution, but clarified that any bilateral agreement would have that to be endorsed by the Chancellery.
The ambassador of Haiti talked today on the theme with Castaños Guzmán, to whom he visited along with the president of the Electoral Counsel of Haiti, Frantz Gerard Verret.
In the encounter were present for the JCE, the director of the National Office of Civil Registration, Servio Tulio Almánzar and the sub director of Elections, Mario Núñez.
Castaños Guzmán said that he already had talked with representatives of the OAS on the possibilities that the Haitians be cedulados "as Haitians" in the Dominican Republic so they can be incorporated to the electoral registry of Haiti that will permit them to vote for elections there.
"Though it does not resolve the totality of the problem, at least it opens an important road that is to resolve the problem of not being documented, we know the large problems, the differences that are presented, but one must begin to identify the common niches of interest between the two people, and any initiative to win, that win both Haiti and the Dominican Republic, one must take advantage of", he indicated.
He also indicated that they opened a channel of cooperation and of permanent exchange between the Electoral Counsel of Haiti and the JCE, in order to contribute to the development of the democracy and to the improvement of its elections.
The president of the Electoral Counsel of Haiti exposed that they can take advantage of the electoral experience of Dominican Republic.
He said that hew as an observer of the elections celebrated last May 16 and he congratulated to the JCE by the organization of that process.
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