Madam, – The Adoption Bill currently passing through the Oireachtas puts centre stage the plight of some 42,000 Irish people who have been adopted since 1952 but still have no legal right to obtain their own birth certificates.
In the developing world, a birth certificate can be a passport to essential human rights. Being unregistered denies children access to so many of their rights – education, health, participation as active citizens in their countries, to name but a few.
Children with birth certificates are less vulnerable to trafficking and can be protected from child labour and child marriage. Being unregistered can leave these children invisible in effect.
Since the launch of its Universal Birth Registration Campaign in February 2005, Plan has helped almost 50 million children around the world to claim a legal identity. Thirty per cent of countries targeted have changed their legal systems as a result of this advocacy work, boding well for future generations.
In many developing countries, a child not counted does not count.
Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, a keen supporter of Plan’s Universal Birth Registration Campaign, put it well last year when he said: “universal birth registration is impossible to ignore and entirely possible to achieve”. – Yours, etc,