Joined by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, newly inaugurated to a second
term, the leaders of the three organizations gathered in Bogota this week to
support the initiative, which aims to grant an official identity to millions of
the region’s unregistered children who remain largely invisible in their own
countries.
“This partnership seeks to end the economic, political and social exclusion
of undocumented citizens,” said UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman. “When
children are not registered, they are not counted and included in statistics.
Without reliable statistics, we cannot have reliable programmes and services for
the children who need them most.”
The alliance will strengthen IDB’s and UNICEF’s ongoing efforts to eliminate
barriers that impede registration in Latin America and the Caribbean through
measures such as improving the collection and dissemination of data relating to
birth registration, supporting the modernization of civil registry systems, and
linking birth registration with other social services.
Although the region exceeds world averages in birth registration, there are
considerable disparities both among and within countries. For example, while
Cuba (99 per cent) and Chile (95 per cent) can boast nearly universal
registration, Haiti (70 per cent) and the Dominican Republic (75 per cent) are
still a long way from achieving that goal.
In the region, it is estimated that more than one in six children who are
born every year go unregistered, UNICEF said, for an overall estimated total of
close to 2 million of the 11 million annual births.
Citizens who lack identity documents have difficulty obtaining employment,
accessing credit, opening a savings account and inheriting property, according
to the agency. Voting and being elected to office may also be restricted. For
children, lack of registration can sentence them to a life of exclusion and
invisibility by creating a barrier to access health, education and social
services, while placing them at greater risk of abuse and exploitation.
11 August 2006 – The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is working with
the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Organization of American
States (OAS) to help ensure free, timely, universal birth registration for
children in Latin America and the Caribbean by 2015.
Danny (R) has lived for years
without his birth registration