Short Guide for Civil Registry Officers

The guide was prepared within the justice reform begun under President for Life Jean-Claude Duvalier. The Ministry of Justice says the civil registry gained special importance because of mass emigration, and that serious difficulties in obtaining extracts of civil records had led to severe criticism of civil registry officers, who it says were recruited without rigor. It adds that the legislation on the civil registry is poorly known.

The guide therefore coordinates the laws, decrees and orders scattered over the period from 1922 to the date of the guide. Its nine chapters cover the organization of registry offices and the duties of the officer, the drafting of records, birth records, recognition, legitimation and adoption, marriage, divorce, deaths and burial permits, fees, the registers and the forms used for urban and rural residents. The appendix reproduces a decree-law of January, the decree of October 8, 1982 and a table of officers by jurisdiction. The ministry states that the guide is not a civil registry code, and that a copy would be given to each officer.