One hundred and fifty million children under the age of five worldwide (two in ten) are not registered in the civil registration system, leading them to live a life without legal identity or access to basic services such as education or healthcare, according to a UNICEF report published today (midnight GMT).
However, in recent years more than 500 million children under five years of age have been registered in the registry (at least eight out of every ten), which represents progress compared to the latest figures on record, which They date from 2019.
This progress has been favored, in part, by the measures that some countries have taken to expand their health, social protection and education systems to more population sectors, such as digital transformation or the elimination of fees for registration services.
By region, Oceania – excluding Australia and New Zealand – is the furthest behind in this matter, with 74 percent of children under five years of age not registered.
Meanwhile, in sub-Saharan Africa there live 90 million children who are not registered (49 percent), which represents more than half of the total number of unregistered children under five years of age worldwide.
You may be interested in: 9 cases of klebsiella oxytoca and 3 deaths confirmed in Michoacán so far
These areas are followed by South and Central Asia (with 22 percent of unregistered children), North Africa and West Asia (with 14 percent), East and Southeast Asia (with 6 percent) and Latin America and the Caribbean (5 percent).
For their part, Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand are estimated to have a child registration level of 100 percent.
On the other hand, UNICEF indicates that more than 50 million children who are registered do not have a birth certificate.
The report, titled “The Right Start in Life: Global levels and trends in birth registration” and released on the organization’s 78th anniversary, highlights that registering a child at birth minimizes their exposure to rights violations and guarantees their access to essential services.
“Birth registration ensures the immediate recognition of children before the law, laying the foundation for their protection from exploitation, as well as access to essential services such as vaccines, healthcare and education,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell notes in the document.
LEE: What are the symptoms of diabetes?
However, many families face obstacles when registering their children due to factors such as “discrimination based on gender, ethnicity or religion, long distances, lack of knowledge about the process or unaffordable rates.”
To improve this situation, the organization asks countries to digitize registration systems; take advantage of health, social protection and education programs to expand these services; carry out key reforms and empower communities to claim civil registration as a right.
With information from EFE.
* * * Stay up to date with the news, join our WhatsApp channel * * *
MS