Central Electoral Board (JCE) president Roberto Rosario Marquez and Public Health Minister Freddy Hidalgo have announced new measures aimed at ensuring that no baby leaves a public hospital without a birth certificate. They will be given a unique identity number that will become their ID card (cedula) number when they reach the age of 16.
Speaking at the Presidential Palace yesterday, Tuesday 1 October, Rosario announced that it was decided that minors giving birth to babies would receive their first identity card before leaving the hospital. This will facilitate the registration of the babies who will be given their unique identity number.
The measure covers foreigners who will be recorded in the foreigners’ book and given a unique identity number to guarantee their right to a name and last name. This document can serve to prove who their parents are.
Rosario and Hidalgo said the system would start to work soon, but did not give a precise date. A committee is being set up with representatives from both the Civil Registry (JCE) and Ministry of Public Health to start the process from the time of pregnancy through to birth. Ministry of Public Health personnel will fill in a form when a pregnant woman first seeks antenatal care and this will be deposited at the JCE for the issue of the birth certificate when she gives birth.
According to a recent study carried out by the JCE and the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), 59% of babies born in public hospitals in 2012 did not make use of the civil registry facilities at the hospitals and left without their birth certificates. The new measures seek to considerably reduce this percentage.
www.listindiario.com/la-republica/2013/10/2/294245/Los-recien-nacidos-no-podran-salir-de-hospitales-sin-actas-de-nacimiento