Civil registry workers at the Tai Town Council on Thursday 3 April 2014 took part in a seminar on the importance of the national policy on civil registration of births and national and international legislation on the matter of birth registration.



The seminar, organized by the UN Operation in Cote d'Ivoire (UNOCI), was aimed at enabling participants become advocates among their people of the importance of birth registration and to solve the problem of children- without- papers.



A UNOCI human rights official, Yvon Mabofe spoke of the consequences of unregistered births. "Birth certificates are material proof of the existence of a person. You must do all to sensitise parents to declare the birth of children. A child who is not registered does not exist," she declared. Despite efforts by national and international actors, cases of undeclared births still exist in the villages of Tai division.



Birth registration, Mrs. Mabofe continued, ensures legal protection for the child and guarantees access to basic services. She urged the Council workers to carry out a grassroots campaign to explain the importance of birth registration and to reduce the number of children without birth certificates.



The Chief of administrative services of the town council, Constant Dodo, said they had learnt something in addition to what they already knew and it was up to them to play their part by informing their colleague and relatives of the need to register births. He requested for logistic and technical support to carry out the campaign.