Civil Registration in Humanitarian Contexts: Recommendations and Operational Guidelines for African Union Member States
Published: 1/May/2023
Source: UNICEF/African Union
Highlights
Emergencies infringe on many individual basic rights, including access to a name and a nationality. In almost all emergencies, including armed conflicts, natural disasters and human-made hazards, vital event registration systems become dysfunctional and, in extreme cases, they collapse entirely, archives may be destroyed, and documents are lost. Civil registration and vital statistics systems are also affected by large-scale epidemics and pandemics due to restrictions on movement and the disruption of service delivery. In addition, where movement and migration occur, access to civil registration services may be hampered by laws and policies that exclude certain groups.
The provision of civil registration services is even more of a challenge in humanitarian contexts, with many African countries struggling to achieve complete and universal registration coverage. Across the continent, millions of children remain unregistered at birth1 and mortality statistics systems do not exist or are largely incomplete2. Restoring registration activities and registries and clearing backlogs is a complex and costly exercise requiring specific legal and policy provisions.
Under the Africa Programme on Accelerated Improvement of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems, the United Nations Children’s Fund, in consultation and collaboration with other members of the Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Core Group, has led the process of developing recommendations towards the improved resilience of systems and services to ensure continuous, permanent and universal registration of births and deaths in crisis situations and emergencies.
The recommendations and guidelines that were developed reflect the outcomes of the various meetings, with the objective of providing operational guidance to Member States and development partners in maintaining the delivery of civil registration and vital statistics services in humanitarian contexts.
Download (English & French): https://www.unicef.org/wca/reports/civil-registration-humanitarian-contexts