The Bahamas Weekly

The Mem­ber Coun­tries of the Orga­ni­za­tion of Amer­i­can States (OAS) today renewed their com­mit­ment and sup­port for the recon­struc­tion of Haiti in a spe­cial ses­sion of the Per­ma­nent Coun­cil of the Orga­ni­za­tion in Wash­ing­ton, DC., in which they addressed the future of the Caribbean coun­try fol­low­ing the dev­as­tat­ing earth­quake of Jan­u­ary 12.

Among the speak­ers at the Spe­cial Meet­ing of the Per­ma­nent Coun­cil on efforts towards the recon­struc­tion of Haiti were OAS Sec­re­tary Gen­eral José Miguel Insulza; OAS Assis­tant Sec­re­tary Gen­eral Albert R. Ramdin; the Spe­cial Rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Heads of Gov­ern­ment of the Caribbean Com­mu­nity (CARICOM) for Haiti, Per­ci­val J. Pat­ter­son; the Spe­cial Rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the United Nations Sec­re­tary Gen­eral in Haiti and Head of the United Nations Sta­bi­liza­tion Mis­sion in Haiti (MINUSTAH), Edmond Mulet; and the Hait­ian Min­is­ter of For­eign Affairs, Thérèse Marie Michèle Rey.

Per­ma­nent Rep­re­sen­ta­tives of OAS mem­ber states—the United States, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Mex­ico, Guatemala, Uruguay, Panama, Argentina, Jamaica, Chile, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Colombia—also inter­vened dur­ing the meet­ing, as well as rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Spain and the Euro­pean Union.

Sec­re­tary Gen­eral Insulza said the inter­na­tional com­mu­nity remains com­mit­ted to rebuild­ing Haiti fol­low­ing the Jan­u­ary 12 earth­quake. “As many of you know, we have been con­cerned about the immense chal­lenge of coor­di­nat­ing the mas­sive relief and recon­struc­tion efforts in Haiti since the day of the earth­quake,” he said. “I am heart­ened to see by sev­eral pos­i­tive steps taken by the Gov­ern­ment of Haiti and the inter­na­tional com­mu­nity in recent months, which I believe improve the coor­di­na­tion of the aid to Haiti and lay the ground­work for its effec­tive reconstruction.”

Among them he named the Haiti Government’s pre­sen­ta­tion of a clear and com­pre­hen­sive National Recon­struc­tion and Devel­op­ment Plan; the recent cre­ation of the Hait­ian Recov­ery Com­mis­sion; the inclu­sion of the Hait­ian Dias­pora in the process of con­sul­ta­tion and plan­ning; and efforts to mobi­lize the Hait­ian and inter­na­tional pri­vate sectors.

Sec­re­tary Gen­eral Insulza said the OAS, “after much con­sul­ta­tion with the Gov­ern­ment of Haiti and oth­ers in the inter­na­tional com­mu­nity,” has decided to focus its efforts and lim­ited funds in areas where “we have a proven track record: gov­er­nance, insti­tu­tional strength­en­ing and capac­ity building.”

More specif­i­cally, he said the OAS would con­tinue its sup­port to the Hait­ian elec­toral process by assist­ing the Pro­vi­sional Elec­toral Coun­cil and other elec­toral author­i­ties in the upcom­ing elec­tions; con­tinue to exe­cute its Civil Reg­istry Pro­gram, which has helped reg­is­ter and issue iden­ti­fi­ca­tion cards to over 90% of the adult pop­u­la­tion in Haiti; and embark on an ambi­tious pro­gram to cre­ate a cadastre—a mod­ern, safe and effi­cient sys­tem of prop­erty rights for Haiti.

“We are in the process of sourc­ing funds for all three of these impor­tant ini­tia­tives,” the Sec­re­tary Gen­eral con­cluded. “We wel­come the coop­er­a­tion of all of you seated here today to make these pro­grams a real­ity for Haiti.”

For his part, Assis­tant Sec­re­tary Gen­eral Ramdin, who also chairs the OAS Task Force on Haiti, focused on the OAS assis­tance to the Gov­ern­ment of Haiti with respect to the upcom­ing pres­i­den­tial, leg­isla­tive and local elections.

“We wel­come the clear state­ment of Pres­i­dent Pré­val that it is impor­tant to avoid the estab­lish­ment of a tran­si­tional gov­ern­ment and there­fore the need for pres­i­den­tial, leg­isla­tive and local elec­tions to be held in accor­dance with the con­sti­tu­tion,” the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary Gen­eral said. How­ever, he added, the polit­i­cal forces in Haiti “are not orga­nized and alter­na­tive propo­si­tions on the way for­ward are not eas­ily discerned.”

Point­ing to the need for polit­i­cal under­stand­ing to be reached in order to have suc­cess­ful elec­tions, Ramdin said the OAS “stands ready to sup­port the elec­toral process,” to con­tinue to mon­i­tor the debate on the elec­tions and to con­tribute to pro­duc­ing a voter reg­istry that accu­rately reflects the pop­u­la­tion shift that took place after Jan­u­ary 2010.

In con­clu­sion, Ramdin said, “there seems to be an increased need to force dia­logue with the polit­i­cal actors and civil soci­ety in gen­eral in Haiti, to facil­i­tate a com­mon under­stand­ing on the way for­ward,” adding that tech­ni­cal prepa­ra­tions for the elec­tions should start “as soon as pos­si­ble” and that the OAS will coor­di­nate its efforts with the United Nations, CARICOM and oth­ers “always under the lead­er­ship of the Hait­ian authorities.”

The Hait­ian Min­is­ter of For­eign Affairs, Thérèse Marie Michèle Rey, thanked those present for their sup­port, “the sup­port you have shown since the begin­ning of this drama that has had such dra­matic human con­se­quences for us,” she said, adding that “you have expressed the sup­port of your coun­tries and we value it, we are cer­tain we will receive it. I take this oppor­tu­nity to tell my com­pa­tri­ots, those here, those inside and out­side Haiti that together we must remain united to face this chal­lenge, as we have done in the past, and rebuild Haiti.”

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