Centre de médias

Communiqué de presse

De hauts fonctionnaires internationaux se réunissent à l’OEA pour examiner le projet de cadastre en Haiti (en anglais)

International authorities met at the headquarters of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington, DC, to discuss the cadastre project in Haiti, one of the principal efforts of the hemispheric organization in the Caribbean country following the devastating earthquake of January 12.

Among the participants were countries and international organizations that expressed their interest in the modernization of the cadastre system in Haiti. The technical coordination meeting of the “Modernization of Cadastre and Land Rights Infrastructure in Haiti” Program included the participation of the OAS Assistant Secretary General, Albert R. Ramdin; the Minister of Public Works, Transportation and Communications of Haiti, Jacques Gabriel; the OAS Secretary for Political Affairs, Victor Rico; the OAS Secretary for External Relations, Adam Blackwell; representatives of the governments of Brazil, Canada, Dominican Republic, France, Haiti, Quebec, Spain and the United States; and representatives of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), UN-Habitat, the European Union and ONACA Haiti.

The meeting’s objective was to exchange views on the modernization of the cadastre system in Haiti, as well as discuss the challenges and difficulties in this process and the assistance that governments and international institutions could provide in this task.

The OAS Assistant Secretary General recalled the importance of the OAS cadastre project in Haiti, which accompanies the organization’s efforts in other areas, such as in the general elections to take place later this year and in the strengthening of the country’s civil registry.

The second topmost representative of the OAS called for coordination in support of this project, a common focus, and the recognition of the leadership of the government of Haiti as well as of its needs in the areas of training and operational management.

“There are three or four elements that I want to stress in this process,” Ambassador Ramdin said. “One is that Haitian ownership is critically important and ought to be our guiding principle. Secondly, I want to emphasize the importance of partnership, cooperation and coordination between institutions and Member States. We all agree that the OAS can be the platform for that partnership, a platform where we can all come together and agree on how to approach this because this will be a long project. We need common ground, a common vision on how to approach this.”

The Assistant Secretary General also said he hopes that in a couple of weeks the process of modernizing the cadastre system in Haiti may be started, while recalling the importance of the participation of certain stakeholders such as the Haitian Diaspora and the Haitian and international private sectors.

“We will follow the guidance of the Haitian authorities on this,” Ambassador Ramdin concluded. “At some point in time we will need to get an idea from Member States and institutions on how they foresee being involved in this process, whether by financing parts of the project or providing technical assistance or equipment. We will need to establish that so we know where the responsibilities are among the different partners.”

For his part, Minister Gabriel expressed his country’s interest in the OAS cadastre project, thanked the efforts of the organization and its Member States as well as of the other participants at the meeting, and called for the creation of a steering committee to move the project forward.

Photos of the event are available here.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org

Référence : F-245/10