CRC Concluding Observations: Botswana, 2019
Published: 26/Jun/2019
Source: UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
CRC/C/BWA/CO/2-3
Concluding observations on the combined second and third reports of Botswana
Extract:
Birth registration and nationality
29.The Committee welcomes the measures taken to promote birth registration, including through the amended National Registration Act, but remains concerned about the significant number of children who are not registered, particularly children in remote areas, refugee and asylum-seeking children and abandoned children. It is also concerned about the persistence of barriers to birth registration and the lack of safeguards to prevent refugee and asylum-seeking children from statelessness.
30. Taking note of target 16.9 of the Sustainable Development Goals, the Committee urges the State party to:
(a) Strengthen efforts to achieve universal registration by, inter alia, addressing administrative obstacles, expanding health facility-based birth registration centres and mobile registration campaigns and raising awareness of the importance of birth registration, paying special attention to refugees and children living in alternative care institutions, nomadic communities and remote areas;
(b) Consider withdrawing its reservation to the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and ratifying the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, and bringing its national legislation into line with those international instruments, including by establishing safeguards to prevent children from being stateless;
(c) Seek technical assistance on measures to ensure registration and prevent statelessness of children from, among others, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and UNICEF.
Download from OHCHR: https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CRC%2fC%2fBWA%2fCO%2f2-3&Lang=en