In This Article
Subscribe to International Updates
Farzana Wahidy/AP
An orphaned Afghan girl listens to her teacher during Quran-i- Sharif class in a Kabul
dormitory.
An orphaned Afghan girl listens to her teacher during Quran-i- Sharif class in a Kabul
dormitory.
Afghanistan Eyes Newborns with Birth Certificate Drive
July 02, 2008 06:58 AM
by
Devin Felter
The Afghan government will be partnering with the United Nations in an attempt to provide all newborns with birth certificates.
30-Second Summary
Afghanistan’s government says that less than 1 percent of its citizens have birth certificates, which makes it difficult to provide children with medical care and properly funded schooling.
Beginning in Kabul, the nation’s capital, the United Nations will be assisting the Afghani government’s push to register all of the country’s newborns before the end of 2009.
But the birth certificate drive is not merely about health care and education. “Having identity, proper identity, is everyone’s human right,” says Najibullah Hameem, a UNICEF child protection specialist in Kabul.
UNICEF, the UN branch funding the program, has been working with other governments facing similar problems. The organization launched a Madagascar birth certificate campaign in 2004, and also began to assess the problem in Latin America in August of 2007.
The work by UNICEF mirrors Pakistan’s recent efforts to account for Afghani refugee children with the help of the UNHCR, the UN group that specializes in refugee rights. This program attempted to provide birth certificates to children born in the 15 refugee camps designed to shelter Afghanis who had fled the war in Afghanistan in 2001.
The war-torn regions in Afghanistan will pose many problems for its government and UNICEF as they begin their attempt at complete newborn registration. Widespread conflict and the difficulty of reaching remote locations will be two of the main hurdles in making the 2009 goal a success.
Beginning in Kabul, the nation’s capital, the United Nations will be assisting the Afghani government’s push to register all of the country’s newborns before the end of 2009.
But the birth certificate drive is not merely about health care and education. “Having identity, proper identity, is everyone’s human right,” says Najibullah Hameem, a UNICEF child protection specialist in Kabul.
UNICEF, the UN branch funding the program, has been working with other governments facing similar problems. The organization launched a Madagascar birth certificate campaign in 2004, and also began to assess the problem in Latin America in August of 2007.
The work by UNICEF mirrors Pakistan’s recent efforts to account for Afghani refugee children with the help of the UNHCR, the UN group that specializes in refugee rights. This program attempted to provide birth certificates to children born in the 15 refugee camps designed to shelter Afghanis who had fled the war in Afghanistan in 2001.
The war-torn regions in Afghanistan will pose many problems for its government and UNICEF as they begin their attempt at complete newborn registration. Widespread conflict and the difficulty of reaching remote locations will be two of the main hurdles in making the 2009 goal a success.
Headline Link: Kabul begins attempt at complete birth registration
“If you ask people in Afghanistan how old they are, you are likely to get a vague response,” reports NPR. “Such vagueness is not due to vanity, nor to any objection to the question. Instead, it is because many people in Afghanistan do not actually know how old they are.” The Afghani government, with the support of UNICEF, will be attempting to register all of its newborns, a measure intended to increase the quality of life of its citizens as well as bolstering individual proof of age and identity.
Source: NPR
Background: UNICEF and birth certificates
Reporting that birth certificates were denied to 1 in 6 Latin American children, UNICEF began work last summer to address this problem with politicians in the region. “Without a birth certificate,” UNICEF says, “millions of children are excluded from basic services such as health and education and face daily exploitation and risk.”
Source: UNICEF
UNICEF also worked with Madagascar in 2004 in an attempt to provide birth certificates to those children who lacked them: approximately 2.5 million children, about 30 percent of Madagascar’s child population.
Source: UNICEF
Related Topics: Birth certificates for refugees and child rights
Pakistan established a program in 2004 to issue birth certificates to Afghani refugees who had fled their country during the 2001 war in Afghanistan. Working with the UNHCR, the UN branch specializing in refugee rights, the Pakistani government is following the guidelines ratified in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. It requires that all children be registered after birth and granted the right to a nationality.
Source: UNHCR
Even though the Afghani government is beginning to provide all children with a birth certificate, the UN reports that human rights abuses still frequently occur in cases of detained Afghani children, including lack of education and health care. “A punitive and retributive approach to juvenile justice seems to be still predominant in Afghanistan,” says the UN Children’s Fund.
Source: United Nations
FindingDulcinea reported recently on the use of 15 child brides as currency to end a dispute between two Pakistani tribes. Afghani officials hope that the implementation of a birth certificate policy will prevent parents from marrying daughters at a premature age.
Source: findingDulcinea
© 2009 Dulcinea Media, Inc.
