| Develop systems to ensure the registration of every child at or shortly after birth, and fulfil his or her right to acquire a name and a nationality, in accordance with national laws and relevant international instruments. |
Birth registration is at the core of UNICEF's concerns as it represents the starting point for the recognition and protection of every child's fundamental right to identity and existence. Birth registration refers to the permanent and official recording of a child's existence by some administrative levels of the state which is normally coordinated by a particular branch of the government.
Article 7 of the CRC gives every child the right to be registered at birth by the state within whose jurisdiction the child is born. This means that states must make birth registration accessible and available to all children including asylum seekers, refugees and immigrants.
Drawing from the right to a name and nationality contained in this article 7, the 2002 General Assembly Resolution 'A World Fit for Children' reaffirms governments' commitment to ensure the birth registration of all children and to invest in educate and protect children from harm and exploitation. In order to achieve these goals, it is necessary for governments to have accurate population data in order to plan services provision for children and their caregivers.
During the 1990s, there was growing awareness of the importance of prompt birth registration as an essential means of protecting a child's right to identity, as well as respect for other children's rights. The lack of a birth certificate may prevent a child from receiving health care, nutritional supplements and social assistance, and from being enrolled in school. Later in childhood, identity documents help protect children against early marriage, child labour, premature enlistment in the armed forces or, if accused of a crime, prosecution as an adult.
Some countries have achieved universal registration and others report having made significant progress in increasing birth registration during the decade. Decentralisation, mobilisation, campaigns with active participation of civil society, elimination of registration fees, removal of legal or administrative obstacles, such as the requirement that the child's parents present their identity papers, and registration of children in health facilities where they are born are among the measures that have proved effective in increasing registration rates and reducing regional disparities.
Over 50 million children under five years of age are not registered. Around 24 million of them live in South Asia. While countries like Uzbekistan and Korea DPR have birth registration rates above 99 per cent, less than 10 per cent of children are registered in Afghanistan, Tanzania and Zambia. Almost 1 country out of 3 has birth registration rates below 50 per cent1.
Throughout the developing world, parents cite many reasons for not registering their child. Distance and lack of knowledge of how to register a child limit birth registration rates throughout the developing world, and cost is the most frequently cited reason for not registering the birth of a son or daughter.
The wide rural and urban disparities in birth registration must be reduced to ensure equal protection of rights. Guinea-Bissau is an example of a least developed country that has managed to redress this imbalance through additional registration efforts in rural areas. Priority actions remain essential to ensure that all children are registered at birth, acknowledged as persons before the law and ensured due protection by state mechanisms.
Children under five who have been denied the right to identity tend to be poor, live in rural areas, have limited access to health care, are not attending early childhood education, have higher levels of malnutrition and have higher mortality rates. They are likely to have been born without the support of a health professional or midwife, and their mothers have low levels of formal education and are less likely to have adequate knowledge of signs of some child illnesses and HIV/AIDS transmission. There is some likelihood that these children will be registered at some point during their lives when the lack of a birth certificate prevents them from accessing education or health services, or realizing their right to legal protection as children. However, even this is not certain, because a significant number of children grow up without ever being registered.
Birth registration advocacy and programming have been based on the assumption that household wealth, access to government services and education of children's caretakers would increase the likelihood of a child being registered at birth. For example, most countries show that birth registration is highest among the richest 20 per cent of the population, confirming that poverty is associated with low levels of birth registration. Families with scarce resources may be deterred by fees for birth certification due to its direct costs and opportunity costs - time, absence from work and household responsibilities.
In areas where there are significant disparities in birth registration rates, programmatic interventions should target rural children living in poverty and their families. Decentralized national systems of birth registration, removal of fees and penalties, and awareness-raising campaigns can help to reduce the numbers of children without birth registration. In countries where fees have been removed, the perceived barriers of expense can be mitigated by public awareness campaigns and innovative programmes such as mobile or house-to-house registration campaigns at the national level. In countries where fees for birth registration and late penalties still apply, interventions should be targeted at policy and legal reform, an approach that was successfully undertaken in Bolivia, where advocacy efforts have led to the removal of registration fees for all children under seven.
The lack of birth registration is one of many factors that can cause children to be disadvantaged in life. It is likely that the children who are not registered are the same children that are disadvantaged in terms of their socio-economic status, education, health care and protection. For example, as the above analysis demonstrated, there is a confluence between children who are registered and those who are fully vaccinated, receive vitamin A supplementation, and/or are taken to a health-care professional when ill. The analysis demonstrates the potential for integration between birth registration and programming for maternal and child health and early childhood development.
It is important to devise programmes in such a way that children and caregivers who seek health-care and education services are given information on how to obtain birth registration documents. Conversely, health and education information and materials might be provided to parents and caretakers when they go to register their children's births.
There is a positive correlation between the mother's education level and her child's likelihood to be registered. The data also suggest a statistical association between a mother's health-related knowledge and children's levels of birth registration. A mother's knowledge of acute respiratory infection, HIV/AIDS and signs of a child's illness increase the likelihood of a child being registered at birth. This creates an imperative for programming around the education of girls and interventions to provide information to and increase the knowledge of women and families.
Mapping levels of birth registration is useful for determining where to launch new birth registration campaigns and for tracking future progress by comparing birth registration levels at different points in time.
Information regarding non-registration is useful for programmatic purposes. For countries where the initial cost or late fees are listed as major barriers to registration, the national government may decide to adjust or abolish fees in order to increase registration rates. In countries where the population perceives distance to be the main barrier, mobile units may be employed to reach rural populations. Alternatively, the government body responsible for registering births may choose to collaborate with religious organisations, national and international non-governmental organizations, the civil service, or the armed forces to increase coverage beyond the municipalities (i.e. in churches, schools, health centres, or camps for internally displaced persons). Finally, for countries where the major reasons for non-registration are the lack of knowledge about the importance of birth registration or the location of registration centres, it is necessary to conduct effective information campaigns that reach all sectors of society.