The 22nd annual CLARCIEV (Latin American and Caribbean Council for Civil Registries, Identity and Vital Statistics) conference was held from 1-2 October in San Salvador, marking one of the most well-attended editions in recent years. The event drew delegations from 22 countries and, for the first time, included a parallel exhibition area showcasing technology providers specialising in secure identity systems, biometric enrolment, document personalisation, and data management.
The choice of El Salvador as host carried symbolic weight as the country has recently earned attention as the safest in Latin America.
Opening the conference, Fernando Velasco, Director of El Salvador’s civil registry, the Registro Nacional de las Personas Naturales (RNPN), welcomed participants and underscored the importance of strengthening cooperation among CLARCIEV’s member nations.
He expressed appreciation to the network’s long-standing partners – the Organisation of American States (OAS), World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, Pan American Health Organization, UNICEF, Vital Strategies, the University of Santa Catarina, and UNHCR – for their continued technical and policy support.
Velasco reminded delegates that the global challenge remains profound: 850 million people worldwide lack an official identity document, while 150 million children are still unregistered. ‘Without legal identity,’ he said, ‘these individuals remain invisible – excluded from essential public services and denied fundamental rights.’ Building on the progress achieved under CLARCIEV President Omar Morales of Chile, the Executive Secretariat, led by Rebeca Omaña of the OAS, reported strong advances in collaborative action. A highlight was the first-ever Civil Registry Week, organised simultaneously across 11 member states earlier in 2025. The initiative, publicly endorsed by all CLARCIEV countries, raised awareness of civil registration’s role in social inclusion and the fight against statelessness, aligning with UNHCR’s #IBelong campaign.
The sessions reaffirmed CLARCIEV’s dual nature – both political and technical – bringing together ministers, directors, and technical officers to share experience in secure registration, digitalisation, and social policy. This year’s priority topics included:
Velasco concluded that ‘civil registries are no longer administrative offices – they are the foundation of good governance’. His words framed the discussions that followed: the need for resilient, interoperable, and citizen-centred identity systems to underpin both national development and regional security.
A major highlight was the unveiling of El Salvador’s Digital DUI (Documento Único de Identidad) – the country’s new digital identity credential, currently in pilot phase.
Developed by RNPN, the Digital DUI is compliant with ISO 18013-5, ISO 180137, and OpenID4VP standards – the same protocols adopted by the EU and US for secure exchange of digital credentials.
The system will operate alongside the physical ID card, ensuring inclusion for all citizens while enabling digital authentication for online services.
Designed for interoperability with future regional identity systems, the Digital DUI supports secure, user-controlled data exchange and integrates advanced authentication technologies.
According to RNPN’s technical team, the system’s roadmap foresees expansion into a digital identity wallet by 2026. Once fully implemented, it could generate institutional revenue through value-added services and ensure continuous reinvestment in cybersecurity. ‘Our goal is not only convenience,’ Velasco explained, ‘but also the creation of a self-sustaining, resilient identity infrastructure.’
The discussion on El Salvador’s pilot led naturally into one of the conference’s dominant themes: the convergence of AI, cybersecurity, and identity management.
A joint panel featuring GET Group and IN Groupe explored the growing sophistication of AI-driven attacks, including the generation of synthetic biometric data and deepfake imagery.
Panel experts emphasised that AI, while potentially transformative, also poses existential risks for identity verification systems. As biometric spoofing becomes more convincing, cryptographically secured digital IDs and digital signatures are increasingly seen as indispensable.
‘The age of the simple photograph is over,’ one speaker noted. ‘Identity must be mathematically verifiable.’
El Salvador, delegates heard, is the only Central American country with a roadmap to fully implement ISO 18013-compliant digital identity. Its long-term plan includes quantum-safe encryption and blockchainbased trust frameworks, technologies that are rapidly becoming standard in the EU’s digital identity wallet initiative.
Speakers warned that governments ignoring these standards risk digital isolation. Interoperability, they argued, is only possible when systems share the same technical DNA. As AI evolves, standardised protection mechanisms – updated centrally by ISO – will provide a consistent defence across jurisdictions.
Panellists also called for the recruitment of AI specialists who possess direct experience in identity management and civil registration. ‘We need technologists who understand the ethical and administrative context of identity,’ one participant noted. ‘Without that, AI risks outpacing human oversight.’
The theme of digital transformation with responsibility – echoed in other 2025 conferences such as Intergraf and ID4Africa – resonated strongly across the CLARCIEV sessions, where governments face mounting pressure to deliver secure digital services without compromising privacy or inclusion.
Regional case studies showcased practical lessons in digital transformation and antifraud measures. Roberto Brevé, Director of the Honduran Registro Nacional de las Personas (RNP), presented one of the region’s most ambitious biometric projects: the enrolment of 5.5 million citizens in under twelve months, achieved with technology partner Mühlbauer. The initiative dramatically reduced the RNP’s 60 million annual in-person transactions, improving service efficiency and data quality.
The RNP aims to evolve this system into a full digital identity wallet. ‘Our goal is to simplify services, but also to understand our citizens better – how they use their identity in everyday life,’ Brevé said.
Next, Ahlam Safa of MOSIP (Modular Open-Source Identity Platform) outlined how her organisation – funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – provides governments with open, interoperable architecture for identity systems.
MOSIP’s modular framework supports authentication, biometrics, and credential management through auditable code, allowing national authorities to customise deployments according to local policy and privacy requirements.
MOSIP pilots are currently underway in Peru, Bolivia, and Mexico, and the platform is already operational in Trinidad and Tobago. The initiative aims to make digital identity transformation more inclusive, particularly for low-income and digitally marginalised populations.
A later session turned to fraud and identity theft, with speakers from Peru, Uruguay, and Panama presenting real-world cases of attacks on civil registry databases. Virginia Cachay of RENIEC Peru revealed that the national identity system endured 26 million malicious attacks in 2024, and a further 19 million by August 2025, underscoring the escalating cyber threat faced by registries.
Silvia Facal from Uruguay’s Dirección Nacional de Identificación Civil addressed the challenge of identity theft among displaced persons. The absence of valid credentials, she noted, facilitates illicit onboarding, financial fraud, and human trafficking. Interoperability and datasharing between countries were identified as essential to prevent exploitation and enable refugees to access basic rights.
UNICEF added perspective on the vulnerability of children and undocumented migrants, while panellists stressed that despite digital progress, physical security elements remain vital. Whether overt (such as optically variable devices) or covert (such as embedded features or UV-reactive inks), physical protection still plays an indispensable role in ensuring the integrity of civil registry credentials.
The final session addressed the intersection of identity and public health.
Beatriz Plaza of Vital Strategies – an organisation supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies – presented new data revealing uneven progress in birth registration. Although the Latin American and Caribbean region averages around 95% registration coverage, several countries remain below 70%, notably Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, and Honduras.
Failure to register births, Plaza warned, leads to statistical ‘blind spots’ that hinder vaccination campaigns, maternal health planning, and public policy. ‘Unregistered individuals do not exist in official systems,’ she said. ‘That invisibility is fertile ground for exploitation, fraud, and exclusion.’ Throughout the two days, a recurring motif was the ‘phygital’ balance between physical and digital identity. Almost every speaker referred to the need for a dual approach, combining traditional document-based security with robust digital protection frameworks. Compared to CLARCIEV XXI in São Paulo, Brazil (IDN August 2024), discussions this year reflected a distinct shift: the conversation has moved from if digital identity will come, to how it can be made secure, interoperable, and socially inclusive.
Delegates agreed that secure identification underpins not only individual rights but also national stability, cross-border security, and regional economic integration.
Closing the conference, CLARCIEV President Omar Morales of Chile observed: ‘safe streets and secure citizen ID are two sides of the same coin. Our citizens trust institutions when those institutions can prove who people are – accurately, securely, and with respect for their dignity’.
The statement encapsulated the tone of the event: pragmatic, forward-looking, and rooted in the belief that civil registries form the backbone of social trust.
