Plan Sierra Leone, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation and other partners on Tuesday officially launched the Universal Birth Registration (UBR) project on the theme: “Every Child Has the Right to a Name and Nationality” at the Bintumani Hotel, Aberdeen, Freetown.
Underscoring the import of registering every child at birth, Plan Sierra Leone said birth registration was a fundamental step in ensuring the rights of the child. It said registration meant proof of existence and a birth certificate, a proof of legal identity as a citizen. Such proof, Plan Sierra Leone said, was essential to access the most basic services and to exercise fundamental human rights enshrined in the Convention of the Rights of the Child to which Sierra Leone is a signatory.
Outlining the benefits of birth registration, Miriam Murray, Programme Support Manager of Plan Sierra Leone said the lack of a birth certificate presented a real obstacle for many children and others in Sierra Leone today. She said adolescent still faced difficulties in working legally, obtaining travel documents, applying for jobs and claiming legal rights in court. She pointed out that whereas an ineffective birth registration system fostered an environment of unquestioned perpetration of child abuse and exploitation, the benefits of having a birth certificate were particularly clear in the area of child protection, where proof of a child’s age was a condition to enforce law effectively.
The project’s overview, presented by Dr. Joseph Kandeh, District Medical Officer, Western Area contains the following statistics, facts, benefits and challenges of birth registration:
- That Article 7 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child adopted in 1989 calls for the registration of a child immediately after birth.
- It says in the context of the Millennium Development Goals, effective planning is virtually impossible without accurate and comprehensive data, and birth registration provides the foundation – basic information that is vital to local communities, nationwide strategies and, ultimately, global cooperation.
- The document points out that universal birth registration is not only the bedrock of child protection, it will facilitate achieving such Goals as eradicating poverty and hunger (MDG 1), universal primary education (MDG2), reducing child mortality (MDG4) and combating HIV/AIDS (MDG6).
- In February 2005, Archbishop Desmond Tutu said a birth certificate “is a small paper but it actually establishes who you are and gives access to the rights and the privileges, and the obligations of citizenship."
- The document also says a birth certificate is a vital record that documents the birth of a child, legalises parents, and age among other things. It also determines position in demography either as a child, youth, adult, elderly etc. It legalises country and citizenship and also legalises responsibility to the country and citizenry.
In terms of the evolution of registration legislation in Sierra Leone, there have been several laws and ordinances with amendments since the 1791 law - which states that register should be kept for all births, deaths and marriage for settlers and others - to the 1983 Births & Deaths Registration Act, which made the registration of births and deaths compulsory with penalties.
Regarding the types of registration, there are two kinds: There is one that is free and described as normal or routine and which takes place from the first to 30 days of life outside the uterus or womb and 14 days after death. The second is late or delayed and not free. It goes with a penalty and above all, needs proof in the form of an affidavit from a Justice of Peace.
In terms of the overall objective of universal birth registration project, it is, among other things, meant to fulfill the right of children to be registered at birth to improve access to development opportunities and protection from violence and exploitation.
Meanwhile, the challenges of the project are numerous. They include but not limited to the non-digitalisation of registrations. According to Plan Sierra Leone and its partners, all registers should be digitized to ensure:
* The elimination of frauds;
* The elimination of transcript errors;
* To enhance fast research of documents;
* Better conservation of data;
* Control and check if a document is valid or not;
* To easily get statistics;
* Better control of revenue and
* Increase the credibility of data
The project implementors have also pointed out to a number of gaps, ranging from availability of insufficient funding for the construction of a Births’ and Deaths’ national office, to the dire need for more support in the form of equipment to increase the number of zones per district for birth registration, especially in Kono, Kambia, Tonkolili, Bonthe, Bo, Pujehun Districts. Further, they said they would have to “go-back-in-years” for the registration of adults and to connecting with the Immigration Department and other relevant offices.
Plan Sierra Leone was established in the country in September 1976 with the name Plan International. Currently, it has four programme units around the country (Bombali, Kailahun, Moyamba, and Port Loko Districts) in addition to its head office in Freetown. Among other areas, Plan Sierra Leone’s intervention is in education, health, child protection, skills training, and micro finance.
