Zimbabwe: “Birth certificate the most elusive document”
Published: 1/Oct/2020
Source: Sunday Mail (Harare)
Fatima Bulla-Musakwa
A birth certificate is the most difficult national document to access in Zimbabwe, with Manicaland province having the highest number of people experiencing this challenge, according to findings released in the latest report on National Inquiry on Access to Documentation.
Overall, the report discovered that Zimbabweans are having difficulties accessing all civil documents – the national identity card, passport and death certificate.
Officially launched Wednesday by Speaker of the National Assembly, Advocate Jacob Mudenda, the report indicates that birth certificates are the most difficult civic document to get (50,9 percent), followed by national ID (30 percent), passport (8,5 percent), death certificate (7,3 percent) and citizenship (3,3 percent).
A birth certificate is a primary document that essentially impacts on the acquisition of other documents.
“Such defining primary rights underpin the human ego, that person’s sense of self-esteem which affirms the human being’s worthiness in the community of the living and the departed. The denial, therefore, of such primary rights, which anchor the self-identity of individuals, should never be attenuated through lack of access to the fundamental personal documentation,” said Adv Mudenda.
The National Inquiry on Access to Documentation in Zimbabwe, which began in March last year and ran for close to a year, was spearheaded by the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC).
Read further: https://www.sundaymail.co.zw/birth-certificate-the-most-elusive-document