Liberia to require birth registration; fewer than 4 percent of children under 5 are registered

Liberia to require registration of new births

MONROVIA, Liberia — Liberia’s government, still recovering from a 14-year civil war and previous decades of poverty and illiteracy, said Friday it will now require all children to get birth certificates, a document most of them lack.

An initiative launched Friday in Liberia’s capital will now require parents to register all new births or face fines, said national birth registration coordinator Esther Thomas. She said the campaign also plans to register everyone under the age of 18.

A Liberian government report found in 2008 that fewer than 4 percent of children under the age of 5 have birth certificates or registration. That statistic places the West African nation in the company of lawless Somalia, which has not had a government for two decades.

Liberia-based UNICEF official Ibrahim Sesay said the campaign is “the first landmark event for every child in Liberia to have the right to a name and nationality.”

He added, “Without a very strong birth registration system it is virtually impossible to plan or implement effective development strategies.”

But critics said they worried about the initiative’s long-term success in the impoverished country, which has previously struggled with instability and corruption.

“It’s a very good step in the right direction, but the one question is all of the systems that they are putting in place, what are they doing to ensure that it is sustained? Beyond this big program, six months from now, will those computers be functional? Will the database still be there?” said women’s rights advocate Lyman Gbowee.

Vice President Joseph Boakai offered praise for the measure on Friday. Like many of Liberia’s 3.5 million people, he said he does not know when his birthday is because his parents were illiterate.

“It’s a tough question,” he said.