The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has announced its partnership with the global children’s rights organization Plan International for a worldwide push to ensure that children, especially those at risk of statelessness, are registered at birth. There are some 12 million stateless people across the world, half of which are children, according to the UN agency. UNICEF estimates that 51 million babies each year, more than two fifths of those born worldwide, are not registered at birth. Furthermore, many parents are not registered themselves, often a requirement for child registration. Halting this vicious cycle is key to ending exploitation and the denial of human rights worldwide.
The announcement of this new partnership is vital to ensuring that children and adults are given not only their basic rights to identity and state, but that they are not placed at risk for exploitation and trafficking. Plan’s Chief Executive Officer Nigel Chapman stated that the “failure to document a person’s legal existence beginning from birth can prevent the effective realization of a range of human rights, including the right of every child to acquire a nationality. Children’s right to identity therefore lies at the center of all efforts to prevent child statelessness” (AlertNet/Plan International). A child’s first access to human rights comes with their birth registration, it is the key to the future. Without a birth certificate a child is left to wander through life vulnerable to abuse and victimization. In developing countries, the number birth registrations is often low.
As I mentioned in my post last year, The Battle Against Satelessness, on December 7th the largest conference on refugees and stateless people in UNHCR’s 60 years was held, during the 50th anniversary of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. UNHCR then made increasing birth registration rates a global strategic priority for 2012-13. Many issues were brought to light at this landmark meeting, and seeing UNHCR and Plan unite to increase birth registration and win the fight against statelessness demonstrates that the global community is on the right path to safeguarding children’s rights across the globe.
Partnering with Plan is a perfect fit for tackling this problem on an international level, as they have been leading the global campaign Count Every Child for universal birth registration since 2005. So far, the initiative has facilitated the registration of more than 40 million, mostly children, in 32 countries. In addition, Plan’s advocacy on the issue has helped to improve laws in 10 countries and allowed 153 million children to be eligible for free birth certificates. UNHCR and Plan’s partnership will also work closely with UNICEF and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) to begin with the identification of priority countries, where they will then work to ensure that every child is registered at birth.
Addressing statelessness and birth registration is key in the battle to protect the basic human rights of millions and brings us a step closer to ending modern slavery. The simple recognition of birth and state can safeguard the most vital of all human rights and end the abuse and exploitation of men, women and children. Without birth registration or recognition by a state, children are without an official identity; they have no recognized name or nationality- in legal terms they do not exist. Without document to provide proof of their age or who they are, children are likely to be discriminated against and denied access to basic services such as health and education.
