No fees and no questions for being late - second phase of birth registration campaign in Myanmar begins

Children up to the age of 10, whose births were not registered, will be given a second chance to register and immediately use their new birth certificate for school enrolment

NAY PYI TAW, 4 June 2018: Today, the Government of Myanmar with support from UNICEF launched the second phase of the nationwide birth registration campaign in Nay Pyi Taw.  The campaign is targeted to coincide with school enrolment week and will continue up to 8th June 2018. Guided by the recently revised Manual on Birth and Death Registration, this phase of the campaign will cover nine locations (Nay Pyi Taw, Bago, Kachin, Mandalay, Rakhine, Sagaing, Shan, Tanintharyi, and Yangon) that were not covered by the first phase .

According to the revised manual, all children up to the age of 10, born in all parts of the country, will be registered - regardless of their parents’ nationality, ethnicity and citizenship status. This is aimed at ensuring all children’s rights can be subsequently met - guaranteed by the acknowledgement of their existence under the law. “All children should be registered so they can access vital services, such as health, education and social support without difficulty” asserted H.E. U Tin Tun, Member of Nay Pyi Taw Council, at the launch. The new operational features of the birth registration campaign include the removal of obstacles to late registration for children up to the age of 10.

Although Myanmar has made remarkable progress, the births of two out of 10 children under the age of five (around 1.3 million children) have not been officially recorded in Myanmar according to the Demographic and Health Survey (2015-2016). Children unregistered at birth or children without identification documents are often excluded from accessing their basic rights and social services. If children are separated from their families during natural disasters, conflicts or as a result of exploitation, reuniting them is made more difficult by the lack of official documentation. 

To realise the right to birth registration for every child in Myanmar, there is a need to build a strong and sustainable routine registration system in line with the principles and procedures in the new Manual. However, birth registration campaigns remain necessary to urgently extend the service to children that are not reached currently. 

On the occasion, UNICEF Representative to Myanmar, Ms June Kunugi, commended the Government’s efforts to achieve universal birth registration in Myanmar. “UNICEF remains committed to support the Government to count every child, and in the process, to make every child count.”