WASHINGTON, USA (GNC) — Albert Ramdin, the Assistant Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), said that the hemispheric organization and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) will send a joint electoral observation mission to Haiti in preparation for the presidential elections on November 28.

OAS Assistant Secretary General Albert Ramdin
A total of 150 people will be deployed throughout the Caribbean nation and will be charged with following the electoral process before the election as well as the voting on Election Day. It is expected that the team will arrive at the beginning of August.

This is the first time the OAS and CARICOM have partnered together to provide electoral observation assistance, according to Ramdin. He hoped that this will help them to be more effective. He said that if a country is in need of such assistance, they should work together with the sub regional integration entity, in this case CARICOM.

He also mentioned that the November election preparations are efficiently moving ahead. He said that an election done in a timely manner could speed up the reconstruction process of the country following the devastating earthquake on January 12.

The assistance provided by the OAS in the Haitian electoral process includes the registration of new voters, whose addresses have changed since the earthquake; providing technical expertise and equipment for the establishment of tabulation centers and providing technical assistance to the country’s Provisional Electoral Council (CEP).

By Andrew Khouri (CP) – 56 minutes ago

LONDON — Not enough aid has reached Haiti six months after its deadly earthquake, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said Tuesday.

Ban told BBC radio from Jamaica that immediate humanitarian assistance is only being funded at 60 per cent. Donors must be held accountable for their pledges, he said.

« I would urge that there should be an accountability that when they have a pledge to this money they should immediately deliver this aid, » Ban told the BBC.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether Ban was making a flash appeal for aid or whether significant sums of aid still had not been received.

Ban’s comments came after Haitian President Rene Preval complained that the government lacks the money to run and re-build the country.

The Jan. 12 earthquake devastated Haiti’s capital and killed an estimated 300,000 people, according to the Haitian government.

Ban said he plans on talking to former President Bill Clinton about the need to accelerate aid. Clinton is the U.N. special envoy to Haiti.

PARIS, July 5 (Xinhua) — The Paris-based UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) announced Monday that it will hold the first meeting of the International Coordinating Committee for the salvage of the Haiti cultural heritages on July 7-8 at UNESCO headquarters.

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Santo Domingo, Jun 29 (Prensa Latina) The Dominican-Haitian bilateral Joint Commission will resume its functions in late July during a scheduled visit to Haiti by Dominican President Leonel Fernandez. Lire le reste de cet article »

Source: DPA English Date: June 30, 2010

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Source: AFP World News / English Date: June 22, 2010

OTTAWA, June 22, 2010 (AFP) – Canadian Governor General Michaelle Jean will serve as UNESCO special envoy to Haiti after her term as Canada’s acting head of state and commander in chief ends in the fall, the government said Tuesday.

« She will be in a position to further advance the international community’s response to the urgent needs in Haiti as it recovers from January’s devastating earthquake, » Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a statement.

« The appointment is also a tribute to Canada’s leadership role in rebuilding Haiti, » he said.

Canada’s first black governor general, Jean was born in Port-au-Prince in 1957 and spent her childhood summers in Jacmel. She and her family fled Francois « Papa Doc » Duvalier’s regime when she was 11 years old.

Days after the catastrophic 7.0 magnitude earthquake on January 12, a visibly distraught Jean called on her former compatriots in a televised message in Creole to « stand firm. »

« Like me, Haitian communities across Canada are heartbroken and overwhelmed by the magnitude of this catastrophe, » said Jean.

« The images and news reports are unbearable to watch, » she said. « So much distress, suffering and loss. We are also, of course, imagining the worst, situations no image can capture that only increase our feeling of helplessness. »

But « we are a courageous people, stand firm, » she added in a nod to Haitians in Canada and back home, unable to hold back tears.

Since moving to Canada with her family, Jean has visited Haiti as a journalist and collaborated on documentaries about Haiti and the expatriate community in Canada.

As the representative of the British throne in Canada, she returned to her country of birth in 2006 to attend the inauguration of Haiti’s president, Rene Preval, and again last year when Haiti was still recovering from powerful storms.

JENNIFER KAY, Associated Press Writer

MIAMI BEACH, Florida — Haiti’s prime minister visited Florida on Tuesday seeking potential investors for an estimated $5.3-billion in rebuilding projects he is overseeing along with Bill Clinton in the earthquake-ravaged nation. Lire le reste de cet article »

Miami  Herald BY JACQUELINE CHARLES

Haitian President René Préval is being urged to move faster to schedule presidential and parliamentary elections in an earthquake-battered Haiti or risk losing the confidence of the U.S. Congress. Lire le reste de cet article »

New York Times By DAMIEN CAVE

CARADEUX CAMP, Haiti — The movie screen rose like an apparition, in the middle of a tent city, on a hillside veined by rain. “Under the Sky,” the title card said, and sure enough, a soap opera about a family living right here suddenly appeared. Lire le reste de cet article »

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI Haitian President Rene Preval has asked the United Nations for help in forming an independent commission to investigate allegations that dozens of prisoners were shot by Haitian police during a jail riot in the southern city of Les Cayes a week after the Jan. 12 earthquake. Lire le reste de cet article »