President Danilo Medina has confirmed that the collaboration between the Dominican Republic and the United Nations is strengthening in areas such as the fight against poverty, climate change, food supply and education, amongst others. He made the comments on occasion of the visit of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon yesterday, 15 July 2014. Ban Ki-moon has come for a two-day visit. Ki-Moon and his wife arrived yesterday on board a UN helicopter that landed at the Ministry of Defense after 6pm.
Medina and Ki-moon met at the Presidency for an hour on Tuesday. The Presidency reported the meeting had served to confirm that they shared goals and ideas such as working for the good of the people, especially those who had the least, and to build a more prosperous and fair society.
The Presidency reported that President Medina briefed Secretary General Ki-moon on work under the National Development Strategy and the actions that his government had carried out to achieve its goals. Concerns on climate change were presented, as the Dominican Republic is in a region that is very vulnerable to natural disasters. Also discussed were the objectives of the surprise weekend visits to help fight poverty in rural communities.
Medina thanked the United Nations Development Program (PNUD) for helping with the visits by carrying out a study to ascertain their impact and asked Ban Ki-Moon for the support of the UN in reducing teenage pregnancies in the country. He also asked for help in the education area.
Speaking to the Dominican people at the Presidential Palace, Ki-moon highlighted as “very positive” actions taken by the Dominican government to provide identification to Haitian migrants living and working in the country with the adoption of the National Foreigner Legalization Plan in November 2013. He recognized the problem of the large mass of Haitian immigrants entering the country and said the efforts to regularize these persons are essential and require the cooperation of both countries. He concluded by encouraging the Dominican government to resolve what he described as the stateless situation of Dominican-born descendants of Haitians living in the Dominican Republic in order to protect human rights. He said that the recent bilateral initiatives between Haiti and the Dominican Republic are highly commendable.
Speaking to senators and deputies at the General Assembly on Wednesday, 16 July 2014, Ki-moon again stressed the interest of the United Nations that the Dominican government grant Dominican nationality to descendants of Haitians that claim they have been born in the Dominican Republic and that do not qualify according to Constitutional Court Ruling 168-13. The ruling confirmed an earlier sentence of the Supreme Court of Justice in 2005 whereby immigrants are required to have had legal residence in the Dominican Republic for Dominican nationality to be granted to their descendants born in the country.
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