IPU urges governments to give legal identity to infants

The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly has urged governments in the world to guarantee the right to legal identity for infants by removing barriers to birth registration, a statement released on Wednesday said.

According to the resolutions adopted by the Members of Parliament from more than 130 countries attending the 134th IPU Assembly in Lusaka, the Zambian capital, the resolution identified a series of measures that parliaments could take to facilitate the issuance of birth certificates free of charge or at minimum costs.

According to the resolutions, it is estimated that 230 million children under the age of five are unregistered at birth and one in every seven registered children does not have a birth certificate.

The IPU, according to the statement, is currently working with parliaments in East Africa, Latin America and South Asia to raise awareness on the importance of birth registration among Members of Parliament and supporting outreach to rural communities.

The meeting also highlighted the impact on access to education, health, welfare services and other basic rights on unregistered children.

"Socially marginalized, these children are even more vulnerable to human trafficking and forced labor, particularly during humanitarian crises," the statement said.

The meeting has since called for implementation of mobile applications to allow authorized people to register births, registry offices to be set up as close to people's homes as possible for women to be able to register children and registration to be digitalized.

Goal number 16 of the Sustainable Development Goals includes a target on providing legal identity and birth registration for all by 2030. Endit