Last year, only around 60 percent of all babies born worldwide were registered at birth. In Moldova, the situation is better. Practically all the children under the age of five were registered, according to a report on every child’s birth right by UNICEF. Article 7 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child says that all the children have the right to a legally registered name and nationality.
According to UNICEF, nearly 230 million children under the age of five around the world have never had their birth registered. This amounts to one in three children under five. UNICEF Deputy Director Geeta Rao Gupta said birth registration not only acknowledges a child’s identity and existence but is key to guaranteeing that children are not forgotten.
In Moldova, the children must be obligatorily registered within three months of the birth. The birth certificates are issued free by the local Civil Status Offices. A survey carried out by UNICEF in Moldova in 2012, on a sample of about 12,000 households, shows that almost all the children under five (99.6%) were registered at birth.
The report collected statistical analysis spanning 161 countries and determined that the lowest levels of registration are in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. The 10 countries with the lowest birth registration levels, according to UNICEF, are: Somalia (3 percent), Liberia (4 percent), Ethiopia (7 percent), Zambia (14 percent), Chad and Tanzania (16 percent), Yemen (17 percent), Guinea-Bissau (24 percent), Pakistan (27 percent) and Congo (28 percent).
Even when children are recorded, one in seven do not have a physical birth certificate as proof of registration. Among the reasons for not registering, the report authors cite prohibitive costs, cultural barriers and fears of discrimination or marginalization. Children unregistered at birth or without identification documents are often excluded from accessing education, health care and social security. If children are separated from their families during natural disasters, conflicts or as a result of exploitation, reuniting them is made more difficult by the lack of official documentation.
