Anglican network starts campaign for birth registrations
By Ron Csillag
TORONTO (ENInews) — In industrialized nations, a birth certificate
is taken for granted, even regarded as a bit of tedious bureaucracy.
But in the developing world, the existence of such a record can mean
the difference between full participation in citizenship, or barely living.
That’s why the International Anglican Family Network
(IAFN) has launched a global campaign to register births. The network
is calling on Anglican churches to partner with government and other
agencies to ensure that babies born in 2012 and after are registered.
“More than just a legal formality, birth registration opens the
door to education and healthcare,” the IAFN said in a recent news
release. “Without it, people may not be able to obtain a passport,
own a house or land, or marry.”
The network points out that more than one-third of children
never have their births registered, “and so are significantly disadvantaged
in their childhood as well as in their adult life. They are officially
invisible; in a sense they do not exist.”
Among the worst outcomes for someone whose birth was never
recorded is that they are easily exploited in human trafficking and as
child soldiers and labourers, said the IAFN’s Ian Sparks.
In its latest newsletter, IAFN makes clear the problems that can work
against birth registration. For example, in Papua New Guinea, registrations
are paltry because families have to travel long distances to log a birth.
The result there is that only one per cent of the 260,000 children born
each year are registered.
“Belonging is important to all human beings,” IAFN
president Bishop James Tengatenga told ENInews via email. “Children,
like the rest of us, need an identity and a nation or state to belong
to. This is an inalienable right.”
Indeed, the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights
of the Child calls for the registration of babies “immediately after birth,” followed
by their right “to a name, the right to acquire a nationality and
as far as possible, the right to know and be cared for by his or her
parents.”
Birth certificates provide their recipients with access to a wide variety of services, Tengatenga said, including citizenship, justice, health care, education, and protection. Children without the document “can disappear without a trace.”
The campaign is underscored by a biblical imperative, he added, as Jesus said, “whatever you do to (and for) the little ones, you do to me.”
In a recent article, Anglican Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu claimed
that every year in the developing world, the births of about 51 million
children go unregistered.
A birth certificate is but “a small paper,” Tutu said, “but
it actually establishes who you are and gives access to the rights and
privileges and the obligations of citizenship.”
The IAFN noted some positive signs to date. Anglican churches in Uganda
are encouraging parents to register births at baptism, while in Kenya,
church-issued baptismal certificates allow births to be registered when
there is no other documentation.
Meg Gardinier, director of the secretariat for the World Day of Prayer
and Action for Children, reports that progress in promoting birth registration
over the past decade highlights the crucial role of religious leaders
and their ability to engage in partnership with others. “Clearly
the Anglican Communion, whose 85 million members are in over 160 countries
worldwide, has a vital role,” she said.
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