Phase Two of a campaign geared at the rectifying the issue of non-registration or incomplete registration of children in Dominica has been launched by the Ministry of Legal Affairs through the Registry Department.
Authorities reveal that that total of 2,516 persons, mostly males, are either unregistered or have incomplete registration in nation’s record books and this has been described as “unacceptable.”
The campaign, which is dubbed the “Catch Up campaign” and is supported by UNICEF, was first launched in 2011 aims to have every person properly registered and to close the gap as it relates to under-registration of persons 18 years and below who do not have completed birth certificates.
“It is aimed at having the children’s names, names of both of parents, date of birth as well as place of birth inserted on their birth records,” senior executive officer at the Registry, Debbie Baptiste, said.
She noted that while this may appear to be a simple matter, it is of great importance. “While this may seem like a relatively simple issue, it is of paramount importance because one’s birth certificate is required in order to obtain other identity documents such as a passport, social security card, even to enroll a child in a learning institution you need a birth certificate,” she pointed out.
As part of the campaign parents are being asked to have their children’s birth certificate reviewed to make sure important information, such as correct spelling of names and parent’s occupation (and its proper spelling), is present.
They are also being urged to report to the Registry to have their children fully registered free of cost.
The Registry Department said it will continue to collaborate “with various organizations” and will be taking its promotion to schools and out districts so that everyone is aware of the project.
Meanwhile acting registrar, Ossie Walsh, blamed the tardiness of some parents for children not being registered at the Registry Department. “Some parents believe that after their child is born I can baptize my child in church and use the baptismal certificate to get him into school …. so there is no urge in that regard to ensure that the child is registered,” he said.
He noted further that some parents who migrate illegally bear children but fail to register them as a way of keeping themselves hidden from the authorities.
Phase one of the campaign, which began in November, 2011, included bedside registration of all births occurring at the Princess Margaret Hospital. Training was also provided to Village Council Clerks who serve as District Registrars. This allowed all births occurring in the rural areas to be registered. Computers loaded with the relevant software were also installed at many village Council Offices during Phase One of the campaign.
175 birth records were impacted during the first phase of the project.
Phase Two is expected to end in March 2013.
Furthermore, the Dominican Government ought to ensure that the Dominican Registry and its legal services are properly staffed and trained in customer service standards to ensure the UNICEF sponsors and Dominican Constituents are getting value for money. The registration of its people is vital more now, than ever before since Britain’s decision to exit Europe – why because of external funds for this Country which provide a lifeline for Dominica . I understand Dominica received funds from the Nations Children Fund (UNICEF). They also received erxtra funds the United Nations, the then British Government, USA, China, Japan in the wake of Storm Erica in September 2015 to rebuild, bridges, roads and homes etc. Write to your local MP to ensure the funds are being fairly used. Many are now easily accesible as they have both a personal and Government email address, and their own facebook pages.
“A People without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” – Marcus Garvey. This is about identity. Don’t deny your children an Identity. And as for those Dominicans who survived the 1979 Fire that destroyed the Registry in Roseau, and burned all of the birth, death records, you can re-register! Or register your family that have died at the very least to save your children and generations of children the distress of trying to find out where they come from? The land & heritage disputes is at its highest in Dominica…I wonder why?
Why do we need a birth certificate? Certainly, the issuance of a birth certificate is consistent with the Convention on the Rights of the Child that states that every child should be registered immediately after birth. And in almost all societies a birth certificate is a basic legal document that gives identity to a child, and automatically bestows a number of rights such as the right to health care, nationality, schooling, passport, property ownership, voting, formal employment, or access to banking services. While, for the family of the deceased, a death certificate ensures their right to inherit property, to access business and financial entitlements, and to claim any available insurance benefits…..But registration is also vital for national planning. The civil registration records of births and deaths are necessary for countries to compile accurate, complete and timely vital statistics, which, along with population censuses, are central to estimating population size – especially…
Great progam I am one of those who got the opportunity to use it and I am very happy that I finally got to have my Father’s name added to my birth cirtificate FREE of charge. I read some of the comments and its so sad to say that many of us Dominicans a little bit too political. Its a pleasure for some of us to blame the government for every darn thing just because we do not support them.there are times when we have to learn to take the good and cover the bad.and not every thing is about POLITICS!!
EVERYTHING IS NOT POLITICAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What is the reason for putting the parent’s occupation on the birth certificate?? What purpose does that serve?
The Government is not to be blamed for this, the Registry should be reshuffled, if I put you there to do a job, do it well. They need to work on this mishaps right away and i’m glad that someone is on to them.
WHOSOEVER SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN TO COME UNTO ME
Antigua has a great system. In order to register the child which is mandatory for any kind of legal document, u need to 1st pay the hospital bill then u go to the registry who is already pre notified by the hospital to receive the infant’s birth certificate!
The staff of the Registry leaves too much to be desired. When you arrive there, its as if you are begging to be served. These people are not at all professional, the laughter, comradeship and non nonchalance of an office of this nature is highly unacceptable. You see your co-workers everyday, so what’s the big deal of doing the government’s work, and performing the duties and functions of this office professionally!!! Don’t even mention when I come to register my child and having to sit and wait for hours at a time for something as registration which take minutes!
OMG— i am reading some of the comments here and just shaking my head in shame. For thos talking about the physial structure of the Registry- stop putting all u X by politicians who do not care enough to improve the structure. The Registrars and their staff have nothing to do with any of that as they answer to their Ministries. All you sit down there watching all u master put up big structure and wanna come blame the persons who have no control over funds about the building? Ridiculous!!
This has nothing to do with who in power it has to do with the lazy people at registry who fail to do their jobs.
This is in fact a failing on the part of the parents. Is the Registry staff supposed to go to the hospital to collect the data? Parents have a duty to their children. You have clearly not understood the campaign. It is for parents who have failed to either register their children or who have failed to complete the registration process. It has nothing to do with the Registry staff. Or with laziness. I suppose it is also the registry’s fault that tons of fathers do not come in to put their names on their child’s birth papers? or that the mothers do not even have a name for their kids and so send the documents to the registry without a name? You sir or madam are an idiot. Bon!
Great initative but this does not deal with the UK concern that in 2008 Dominica registry issued 25,000 (twenty-five thousand) birth certificates if this does not sound fisssshy then as of today I declare that tuna is no longer a fish.
Great initiative, This is long overdue.
The official population figure for Dominica for 2011, as used by the Worldbank is 67,680. This would mean that the number of unregistered Dominicans represent 3.7% of the population criterion used by the bank! If correct it is,at the same time also unacceptable as it would indicate instutional failure in gathering reliable statistics.
The other point is that grant money and/or concessionary loans are available from the Worldbank, which are however based on poverty- and underdelopment ratings. If somehow we could convince them that our reported GDP is correct but our reported population too low it would lower our GDP/capita, which would help in applying for more advantageous aid financing. I don’t know what really is at play here and one can only speculate in the absence fact-based information that is not easily forthcoming from our Govt.
i believe that phase two should be a bit longer if the department wants to achieve what it claims to achieve. we are talking registration islandwide. more time should be given so people can come in to confirm that the registration of their birth is accurate or to complete their births.
Great initiative Mr. Walsh.
It’s about time. But seriously any child born in a Hospital or Health center should have a record of birth. And it’s their responsibility to send it to the Registry.
It is in the interest of your child’s future that it is registered at birth. That reponsibility rests foremost with the parents and if you can not be bothered with that, don’t have have a child in the first place.
Yep that’s the way it is being done in Canada and some other countries
Well you know what? I don’t blame anybody for not wanting to register their child at the registry. What a hhhhorrrribllle office! A little hole, you have to wait whole day to get your child registered. For them to fix up things like that, is castle we building for the king. When you stand up there for an hour, somebody happen to catch your eyes, they know you and know you married, that is when you getting to know that married people can pass on the other side to get their child registerd. Not one notice! And that I think is crap anyhow. Buck up. Sort out the system. Every form in there has the wrong information on it. Sorry, but this office and the passport office operate at the lowest levels the world can find in my opinion. Good morning dominica!
Ossie ou vivant?Once upon a timea Young DFP-ite like Medard wow!Are you in the Real DFP or the Labour version?
Let us know we know the whole political system is in flux.
How could anyone give birth and not register the birth. It is of utmost importance for the birth of anyone to be registered. This is how the existence of such person is known. There should be NO charge for registration. A baptismal certificate does not take the place of a Birth Certificate. Regardless to religion or national origin of the parents ALL BIRTHS should be registered. That is ones identity. Even if the father do not permit his name to appear on the birth certificate that birth MUST be REGISTERED. We live in a society where everything depends on that piece of paper to identify the Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Parents, and Real people’s NAMES. Come on people, where have you been hiding to not know your children should be registered at BIRTH. Glad to hear that hospitals are now taking the initiative, this should have been the process from the beginning.
How do you know how many people are not registered if they are not really registered? It is about time that the people in position, not to mention the parents themselves, (they should know better) to take a stand and do something to help the children of tomorrow. No wonder some people are unable to obtain BIRTH CERTIFICATES, because the names that they are called by or the names that they thought were their names are not their names after all. I hope parents are aware that they can not register their children with “pet names”.
With the amount of foreigners that possess our Dominican passport today, I don’t know if I can trust these guys to do anything, especially as it relates to registration of real Dominicans. I just hope is not a way they looking for to legally register those criminals that have our passports all over in the world.Sorry ME Don trust you anymore cause you fooled me once, twice, three times and me will not give you a forth chance. I hope all you didn’t give a non national my name, DOB, POB already.
I meet a Haitian in Montreal, this individual came to Canada from Dominica and claimed Refugee Status, this individual name is the same as a person from the South of Dominica a friend of my son, Bishy/Bishara Ettinne, they are about the say age group
So i am wondering if this individual bought the birth certificate and ID of this Dominican since the Dominican guy is residing in the USA
another thing I am wondering if they are running out of names to for selling the passports, i agree with parents who do not want to register their children in the government office, you cannot trust some of the workers, in the registry
The government have to do a lot in that office, so that we can gain the trust of the workers, until then hell no, I have seven grand kids in Dominica for registered in the government system and three of them are register in the government system, because of their father’s belief, this is good enough they are at school, high school and doing well
Before i came to Canada after hurricane David and the fire inn the registry office i used my church document to get my passport so what is the big deal
The big deal is that you are registered albeit it with a certificate of baptism, which in those dyas was the norm and quite acceptable. At least those priests knew everything and everyone in their parish and good administrators as well, I must give them that.
hmmm. i can see you’re wearing your ignorance like a badge of honour wi…the big deal is, it’s not 1979 anymore, it’s 2013…It’s people like you that keep dragging Dominica back into the 20th century…chah man!! You got your passport with a church document, THAT WAS THEN, THIS IS NOW!!!
good idea, we also have to keep up with the population number
Great initiative, I hope a lot of people take advantage and get their birth records straigtened out.
Is that a case of who’s the baby father? Hmm Asa! Also, all them that going overseas and make they children should be removed from the registry
First of all I cannot understand why for any reason a parent would not want to register their child to obtain a birth certificate. Secondly, I note that both names of parents must be on the birth certificate. I do not wish to criticize anybody but what happens when some women genuinely are not sure of whom their baby’s father is? Let’s not he hypocrite about it because this is very real. this is very serious as we should not enter the “father” name that is not really the father. How will this be addressed?
If you genuinely do not know you simply report the truth “Not known”. That should not stop you from making sure that the child has an offical existence.
So does that mean that Dominica’s population is higher than what the census says?
Probably that is what the Govt. may want us, and outsiders to believe. Maybe there are some unregistered births but so many? it is hardly credible.
Goo to st. lucia’s site. They have some 14 000 unregistered persons. I just cannot stand the ignorance of Dominicans. They know because they count the applications. Seriously- is everything political to dominicans?
Of course, people should register their children’s birth. However, what puzzles me is how the authorities know that exactly 2,516 persons are either unregistered or incorrectly registered if they don’t know who these people are? Something does not add up here and I suspect it goes back to the last cencus when the “powers that be” had difficulty in accepting the population figures first presented to them.