Protection Brief: Access to birth registration in Ethiopia
Published: 3/Oct/2024
Source: UNHCR Ethiopia
A birth registration is the official recording of the birth of a child through a state’s administrative process. It is a permanent and official record of a child’s existence. Although birth registration is different from the process of acquiring nationality, it establishes a child’s legal identity.
There are 1,066,842 refugees in Ethiopia as of 30 August 2024. Some 576,094 of them, or 54%, are children. Since the Vital Events Registration started in refugee camps/settlements in October 2017, only 69,131 birth registrations have been completed. While the exact number of children without a birth registration is under review, it is clear that many forcibly displaced children lack vital documentation.
This September 2024 protection brief analyzes the challenge of birth registration among refugees and other forcibly displaced populations in Ethiopia. It will lay out why birth registration is important in displacement situations, including in Ethiopia. The commendable actions by the Government of Ethiopia to promote birth and other vital events registration for refugees since 2016 will also be reviewed. The causes of the current birth registration challenges in different parts of the country are then analyzed. Finally, the brief sets out a series of recommendations for the way forward.
Download: https://data.unhcr.org/en/documents/details/111528