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Citizenship Reform: Ouagadougou Political Agreement (OPA)

Implementations

Citizenship Reform – 2007

The Ouagadougou Political Agreement required the general identification of the population, the deployment of mobile courts for the issuance of substitute birth certificates, and the issuance of national identity cards or residence permits. The process of issuing new identity cards was said to be carried out along with the issuance of voter cards.

After much delay, the process of issuing national identity cards started in 2007. As of December, 55 technical teams out of 111 planned mobile courts were deployed, 33 of which were operational. It was reported that the court granted a total of 93,027 duplicate birth certificates nationwide.¹

“Fifteenth progress report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Operation in Cte dÕIvoire,” United Nations Security Council (S/2008/1), January 2, 2008.

Citizenship Reform – 2008

Steady progress was made in terms of issuing duplicate birth certificates for the purpose of providing national identity cards. By the end of December, 2.8 million people among the country’s population of 19 million were identified nationwide as needing duplicate birth certificates.²

“Nineteenth progress report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Operation in Cte dÕIvoire,” United Nations Security Council (S/2009/21) January 8, 2009; “Ivory Coast extends voter identification deadline.” Agence France Presse, August 19, 2008.

Citizenship Reform – 2009

Population identification was completed by the end of June. A total of 6,552,694 people were registered in a voter roll, including 38,496 Ivorians registered in 23 foreign countries.³ Production and distribution of national identity cards and voter cards was scheduled for October and November of 2009 but was not completed.⁴

“Twenty-second progress report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Operation in Cte dÕIvoire,” United Nations Security Council (S/2009/495), September 29, 2009.
“Twenty-third progress report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Operation in Cte dÕIvoire,” United Nations Security Council (S/2010/15), January 7, 2010.

Citizenship Reform – 2010

Production and distribution of national identity cards was rescheduled to be initiated in January and February but did not happen due to allegations of fraud. Finally, starting 6 October 2010, national identity cards for 5,932,999 individuals were distributed.⁵ This completed the implementation of citizenship-related provisions of the accord.

“Progress report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Operation in Cte dÕIvoire,” United Nations Security Council (S/2010/537), October 18, 2010; “Twenty-sixth progress report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Operation in Cte dÕIvoire,” United Nations Security Council (S/2010/600), November 23, 2010.