Ghanaian children abused from birth

It is a near universal truth that children are the most valuable human resource because they grow up to assume leadership positions. Since they are the future leaders from the day children are born till they become adults, countries that plan ahead invest in their future based on vital statistics.

This is not so in Ghana. A UNICEF report on the registration on the registration of births in Ghana released last week shows how badly Ghana is doing in registration of children at birth across the country. The reports indicates that Ghana has a very low coverage of birth registration, and estimates that only 56 per cent of births last year were registered, a mere two per cent increase from 2000 figures.

The remaining 44 per cent are most likely to grow up without a birth certificate or any form of identification that would make them full-blooded citizens of the country with all the rights. The report said quite expectedly, nearly half of the country’s children are denied their basic human rights of an official identity, recognised name and nationality and access to services such as education and health.

Ghana’s poor registration rates also make it difficult to carry out meaningful demographic analyses or policy planning for children who form half of the country’s population. “These children have no birth certificates, the ‘membership car’ for society that should open the door to a whole rang of other rights including, education and healthcare, participation and protection,” says the UNICEF report, titled “Birth registration - right from the start.”

The report further noted that unregistered children will be unable to apply for a passport or formal job, open a bank account, and get a marriage licence or vote later in life. Since society cares less about their welfare they become the “surest target for child traffickers, illegal adoption rings, and others who take advantage of their non-status,” said Carol Bellamy, UNICEF Director.

Registration at birth is recognised as a basic right in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was reinforced at the UN General Assembly Special Session on Children, which ended last month. Ghana is a signatory to all of the conventions on children’s rights, yet statistics on children is nothing to write home about.

Low registration in this country stems from low awareness among the population about the importance of registration, a lack of an efficient government data collection system that makes it difficult for rural folk to have access to registration centres. But perhaps, what deters many rural women from registering their children is the payment of a late fee of ?10,000 if a mother fails to register her child after 21 days.

In order to reverse the trend UNICEF-Ghana has advocated for the removal of late fees as an inventive to encourage mothers to the voluntarily register their children. Efforts should also be made to increase public awareness on the issue, besides the provision of logistics for the Birth and Death Registry Department to increase the coverage.