Identify a national policy that refers to the rights of children.

Assess whether this

policy has legislative support. Discuss how the policy supplements the law to ensure
that the commitment to international law is recognized

Introduction

This study focuses on the children's birth registration national policy in Zimbabwe.
Society first acknowledges a child’s existence and identity through birth registration.
The right to be recognized as a person before the law is a critical step in ensuring
lifelong protection and is a prerequisite for exercising all other rights. Yet the births of
one-fourth of children under age 5 worldwide have never been officially recorded
(United Nations Children Emergence Fund-UNICEF, 2022). Hence, this essay
explores the legislative support for the birth registration policy and how the policy
complements the law to guarantee that the obligation to international law is
recognized. The study will start by defining and describing birth registration.

To start, birth registration is defined by UNICEF (2015: 2) as “the continuous,

permanent and universal recording, within the civil registry, of the occurrence and
characteristics of births following the legal requirements of a country”. Thus, birth
registration is the process by which a child’s birth is recorded in the civil register by
the applicable government authority. It provides the first legal recognition of the child
and is generally required for the child to obtain a birth certificate. In the same venue,
a birth certificate is a vital record that documents the birth of a child. The term ‘birth
certificate’ can refer either to the original document certifying the circumstances of
the birth or to a certified copy or representation of the registration of that birth,
depending on the practices of the country issuing the certificate (UNICEF, 2015).

Birth Registration Policy Legislative Support

In Zimbabwe, birth certificate registration is legislatively supported by the Births and

Deaths Registration Act (Chapter 5.02) of 1986 (BDR Act). The Act puts the
responsibility for the notification of birth or stillbirth to either the parents and or in
their inability, the occupier of the house in which the birth occurred, health worker,
headman, witness to the birth provided the person has attained 18 years of age or
any other person having responsibility for the child. Chapter 5:02 also stipulates that
births should be registered within 42 days of a child’s birth and at the latest before
the expiry of 12 months. Thereafter, the written authority of the Registrar-General is
required. The Act has laid out requirements to be met for one to register a birth
certificate. The legislation points out that birth registration affords a child proof of
their name and nationality. This means the child’s standing is legally ascertainable
as belonging to a certain nation, belonging to a State, and as such is not rendered
stateless.

However, although the children's birth registration policy is supported by the BDR
Act, in Zimbabwe achieving universal birth registration remains a difficult task. The
networks comprising international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) and
local interest groups are asking for universal birth registration. The rationale for such
demands is very strong: Progress towards universal birth registration in Zimbabwe is
slow and the gap between promise and achievement remains wide. Although there
are laws (both international and national) in place to address this problem, achieving
birth registration remains a tall order in Zimbabwe. According to UNICEF (2015),
only 31 per cent of children are registered before their fifth birthday. Nevertheless,
the Zimbabwe Statistical Agency provides a less conservative estimate suggesting
that 38 per cent of children are registered within the first 59 months after birth
(ZIMSTATS, 2015). Also, according to UNDP (2017), birth registration for children
under the age of 5 remains low, with only 37% having birth certificates. Even in
urban areas, the rate is low at 55%. Still, even after the 5th birthday, birth registration
success remains undesirably low (Save the Children et al., 2018). This may affect a
child’s right to basic education, especially as a birth certificate acknowledges the
existence of a child and the absence of this may slow down the school enrolment
process. Without valid proof of age, children are unable to register for the exams that
allow them to continue secondary education.

According to other research, some of these children are not able to get birth
certificates when their parents or guardians do not have birth certificates themselves.
For some according to Matimbe (2021), it is also due to a lack of knowledge in the
community where at the birth of a child anyone above 18 years can go have the child
registered for their birth certificate however in some rural areas the process has
been pointed out to be expensive and tedious. Also, the Apostolic sects like
Marange do not go to clinics or hospitals for baby delivery and are the most under-
registered as they do their deliveries at home and shrines (Chereni, 2015). In this
event, they will have a birth record required in the birth acquisition process.
According to a 1998 study done by UNICEF globally, rural populations have less
access to legal registration and rural children are among the highest numbers
without birth certificates. Chereni (2017), pointed out that without a birth certificate
children are vulnerable and susceptible to human trafficking by people who target
vulnerable groups. Furthermore, without a birth certificate a child grows up stateless;
meaning they do not belong to a nation and cannot vote, obtain any other national
documents, be a beneficiary of certain state benefits, enrol into school or enter a civil
marriage. To secure employment formally in Zimbabwe one requires an identity card
and without a birth certificate as an adult, these children will not be able to take
identity cards. Thus, without a birth certificate, a child can never be formally
employed as an adult.

Birth Registration Policy in Zimbabwe and International Law

Commendable actions have been taken the world over to ensure and promote the
realisation of children’s rights. The United Nations Convention for the Rights of the
Child (UNCRC), which came into effect in 1990, highlights the need for special care
of children including their legal rights. The birth registration policy has supplemented
the law in Zimbabwe by ensuring the ratification and commitment to international
laws on child rights. Zimbabwe is a State Party to the African Charter on the Rights
and Welfare of the Child (African Children’s Charter). Section 6(2) of the Charter
provides that children should be registered immediately after birth. This is in line with
article 7(1) of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The
right to birth registration is not an extension of marriage rights and is not there to
supplement the existence of other rights but primarily is the beginning of the lasting
relationship between a child and their country of birth, establishing clear
determinable obligations.

While there is no specific right to legal identity guaranteed by the African Children’s
Charter or CRC, the tectonic power of birth registration has the effect of establishing
the legal existence of children, without registration, a child is legally non-existent and
on the bounds of statelessness. For instance, Article 7 of the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) states that “The child shall be
registered immediately after birth and shall have the right from birth to a name and
the right to acquire a nationality.” This convention imposes a duty on states like
Zimbabwe to register the birth of every child. In the same vein, Article 24 of the
United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which
the General Assembly adopted in 1966, provides that “every child shall be registered
immediately after birth and shall have a name.” Such systems produce vital
statistics, including those on birth registration, which are foundational for achieving
sustained human and economic development (Matimbe, 2021). While most countries
have mechanisms in place for registering births, the systematic recording remains a
serious challenge, highlighting the urgent need to improve and strengthen civil
registration and vital statistics.

Furthermore, the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) number 16 states:

“Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide
access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at
all levels” has a target of 16.9 stating that: “By 2030, provide legal identity for all,
including birth registration.” Zimbabwe has ratified these SDGs thus it should that
ratified these SDGs should oblige. Birth registration as part of the Civil Registration
and Vital Statistics (CRVS) not only provide children with their birth rights but also
acts as an important instrument for planning education, health and overall
development issues (Amos-Adjei and Annim, 2015). Thus, CRVS systems are widely
recognised internationally as critical requirements for advancing human
development. A well-functioning CRVS information system has in recent times been
recognized as a key ingredient in strengthening CRVS systems in general, and the
United Nations Commission on Information Accountability (COIA) for Women and
Child Health have especially mandated that countries would need to strengthen their
CRVS information systems (WHO, 2015). While most countries have mechanisms in
place for registering births, the systematic recording remains a serious challenge,
highlighting the urgent need to improve and strengthen civil registration and vital
statistics.

The birth registration policy in Zimbabwe has enforced the government to embark on
registration advocacies through programs like the mobile birth registration blitz
(Chereni, 2017). Still, those engaged in birth registration advocacy are conscious of
the fact that simply rehashing children's rights in international conventions does not
seem to provide an effective motivational frame to garner the support of various
influential actors in society, especially the grassroots (ibid). Subsequently,
proponents of universal birth registration seek to advance the argument that denying
a child his or her right to birth registration intensifies that child's social exclusion
throughout the life cycle. Understood as a state of ultra-deprivation and non-
participation in normatively prescribed domains of society—including education,
sport, and the labour market (Hobcraft and Kiernan, 2001). Birth registration,
therefore, is the right to have rights, without which children may not effectively
exercise their economic and social rights and political freedoms (UNICEF, 2013). So,
drawing on the international legal normative framework, proponents of universal birth
registration in Zimbabwe have connected child poverty with birth registration,
presenting the latter as a predictor of the former (ibid.). Nonetheless, relying on
international human rights discourses to frame a motivational perspective for
advocacy has become the weakness of birth registration activism in Zimbabwe.

Conclusion

Conclusively, awareness of the BDR Act legislation coupled with visible and clear
sanctions may encourage an increase in birth registration. This is because the law is
seen as a viable tool to control human behaviour if properly enforced. Birth
registration policy has been framed as a child’s right and a mechanism through
which children access human rights. Therefore, laws on birth registration in
Zimbabwe need to be properly promoted and pressure exerted where none exists.
Birth registration is very crucial in every facet of life, it establishes the identity of an
individual. Without identity, a person does not exist, at least on paper, and this is no
small barrier. As the World Bank observes, the possession of a birth certificate
represents a ‘permanent, legal and visible recognition by the state of a child’s
existence as a member of society.
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