UN Legal Identity Agenda Taskforce highlights impact of COVID-19 pandemic on civil registration, including lower birth registration

While the pandemic ravages child protection system around the world, the impact on civil registries and vital systems, will not be left unscathed. Already, 166 million children are not registered and a further 237 million do not have a birth certificate, according to UNICEF. This number is likely to significantly increase due to the pandemic’s impact on infrastructure (e.g., suspension of recording of vital events such as births in Argentina, civil registries closed in Uganda, shorter working hours in Samoa), budget shortages and other delays. Child Identity Protection fully supports the UN Legal Identity Agenda Taskforce’s recommendations to ensure that these vital services can continue and that all people can have access to a legal identity (SDG 16.9).

Source: https://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic-social/meetings/2020/Webinar-crvs-Covid19/docs/Seminar02.pdf