International Birth Registration Day 2023: Date, History, Facts about The Rights of Children

International Birth Registration Day is observed annually on October 8, and this initiative aims to safeguard newborns at risk by registering their births. On October 8, 2018, Johnson’s Baby launched the Right Start Program, marking the beginning of International Birth Registration Day. Hundreds of millions of neonates and infants in the Middle East and Africa have not yet had their births officially recorded, according to the Right Start Program. This makes children, the most vulnerable members of these communities, even more vulnerable. International Birth Registration Day is about raising awareness of children’s rights and ensuring that they are able to obtain them.

The background of International Birth Registration Day

In 2019, the United Nations reported that more than half of the African infant population was undocumented; in their own countries, they had never had their births registered and, as a result, they did not exist in the bureaucratic systems of their nations. A similar study conducted by UNICEF in 2019 revealed that one in forty children under the age of five in the MENA Region, Middle East, and North Africa, were unregistered. There is increasing international pressure to account for these children, who are commonly known as the uncounted children, and to increase the registration rate of newborn children.

Approximately 91 million infants in the MENA region were never issued a birth certificate or registered. For an individual, this is an extremely difficult way to navigate life; often, these children are already impoverished, and their lack of official identification makes them susceptible to exploitation by malevolent parties.

Johnson’s Baby partnered with Save The Children and pledged to increase the number of births registered in the MENA region. The registration program rollout targeted Lebanon and Ethiopia as important nations and funded the training and expansion of the registration program in both countries. With heightened awareness and international pressure, these vulnerable infants and children can gain access to their human rights and the protection that comes with them.

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5 FACTS ABOUT THE RIGHTS OF CHILDREN

After more than a decade of conflict, an estimated 2,500,000 children in Syria and 750,000 children in neighboring countries do not have access to education.

In 2022, Africa will be home to 40 percent of the world’s child soldiers; abducted and coerced into service, there are approximately 21,000 armed child soldiers in Africa.

Iceland has been ranked first in the world for its child rights environment, with comprehensive laws protecting the interests of children.

This international convention endeavors to ratify a universal offering for the rights of children; in 2022, only Somalia and the United States have yet to sign.

It is an integral aspect of their development for children to be loved, and they have the right to access love.

INTERNATIONAL BIRTH REGISTRATION DAY DATES