[ePrayer – Pray for better civil registration system in Asia]
Stronger civil registration systems are needed in Asia, home to 60 percent of the world’s population, to ensure the legal and human rights of all. Civil registration is the most basic requirement for individuals to establish legal identity and to formalise family relationships, and is thus a basic responsibility of the state. Without a legal identity, individuals may be deprived of the right of access to key public services such as health, education, social welfare and recourse to justice. Statistics show that only one quarter of the world’s seven billion inhabitants live in countries with registration systems that record births and death efficiently. 51 million children go unregistered each year globally, while in South Asia two out of three children are not registered at birth and thus have no official record of their names, family and place or date of birth. Birth certificates are crucial forms of social protection for vulnerable and marginalised groups such as people in poverty, and such registration can be an effective tool for preventing human trafficking and child marriages. [IRIN]
Pray for better civil registration system in Asia:
- Pray that governments of Asian countries can take an active role to improve the civil registration system and remove the barriers such as geography, cultural differences, inadequate legal frameworks and provide funds for such changes;
- Pray for public awareness towards the importance of civil registration and more marginalised group will get registered to protect their rights.