Draft bill 218.

Summary.

The draft bill proposes registering newborns in a biometric fingerprint database. It requires registration immediately after birth in the country’s public or private hospitals. It defines identity and identification and describes the documents used to establish identity. It also defines minors and newborns, explains how the biometric system and fingerprints work, and distinguishes between capturing the index fingers and capturing every finger on both hands. It links identification to children’s right to a given name and surname and to their parents’ duty to provide them. In that context, it refers to the United Nations (ONU).

The Civil Registry Directorate (Dirección del Rcgbtro Civil) of the Electoral Tribunal (Tribunal Ekctoral) would be responsible for registering, through the biometric system, births of minors in hospitals. The bill connects that responsibility with the protection of Panamanian nationality and civil status rights recognized in international instruments ratified by the Republic of Panama (República de Panamá), and refers to Law 3\ of 2006 (Ley 3\ de 2006). It requires the Civil Registry to ensure that births are registered so they can be recorded nationwide. Both fingerprint capture and birth registration would be mandatory. The bill proposes identifying newborns by taking their fingerprints.

The procedure covers birth registration and the addition of fingerprints to the database for all live-born children, including those who die after birth. Civil Registry offices throughout the country would have biometric systems. For a hospital birth, an Electoral Tribunal office, acting through the Civil Registry Directorate, would take fingerprints from the newborn’s index fingers and enter the information needed for identification. If a birth takes place outside a hospital, the mother or both parents would have to visit the nearest health facility to obtain care and complete the registration procedures.

If a newborn is found abandoned and the parents’ whereabouts are unknown, the person finding the child would have to take the child to a health facility and report the case to the National Secretariat for Children (Seaetaria Nacional de Niüez). The bill provides for the child’s placement in a shelter or children’s home until a competent court declares the child abandoned. Following a judgment declaring a minor a foundling or abandoned, the reporting person could assign surnames and request biometric registration. The database would include births within the Republic of Panama, births abroad to a Panamanian father or mother that meet the requirements of the Political Constitution (Constitución Política) and the law, and births registered under a judgment concerning a child’s civil status. It would also include births of children declared foundlings or abandoned by judgment and births of foreigners granted permission to remain in the country by the competent authority.

Each record would contain details of the birth and of the minor, the parents, and the grandparents. For Panamanians born abroad, the bill calls for scientific, documentary, and witness-based investigation where applicable before biometric registration is formalized. In adoption cases, it provides that the judgment must authorize registration of the adopted minor under given names and surnames.

The draft bill declares amendments to articles of Ley 31 ele 31 julio dc 1006 and requires minors still absent from the database to be registered once it takes effect. It directs the State to equip regional offices, assigns investigations of abandoned newborns to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, authorizes the Executive Branch to issue implementing regulations, and provides for entry into force forty-five days after promulgation. Its subject matter concerns the Electoral Tribunal, the Civil Registry Directorate, the National Secretariat for Children, the Public Prosecutor’s Office, public and private hospitals, health facilities, shelters, and families with minors.