Alarming: Gov’t reveals nearly seven million Cameroonians without birth certificates!.

The presser was organised to brief the media on the forthcoming first-ever National Forum of Mayors on Universal Birth Registration in Cameroon. 

The pioneer gathering of mayors and civil status stakeholders, it was disclosed, will run from Friday April 26 to 27, at the Yaounde Conference Centre.

Speaking as he briefed the media on the high-level gathering, Minister Elanga Obam explained that the holding of the meeting stems from “the observation that for almost a decade, not only has the rate of birth registration in our country stagnated, but it is even declining in some Regions, despite all the measures taken by the State, with the support of technical and financial partners”.

He told reporters that at the moment, almost seven million Cameroonians are without birth certificates. The majority of these citizens, he disclosed, are children, including more than 1.5 million Primary and Nursery School pupils. 

Minister Obam was blunt that: “The importance of this document is well established, not only in the life of an individual, but also for our country”.

The member of government stated that in legal terms as well as being a fundamental right, birth registration is also essential to the exercise of many human rights, including the right to identity, parentage and access to certain basic social services such as healthcare, education and the protection of children against age discrimination, abuse and exploitation.

He said “from a statistical point of view, the registration of births, as well as deaths and marriages, also plays an important role in the development of government policy and in the identification of development problems.  It contributes to better design and evaluation of development policies as well as reliable forecasting of future demographic trends without necessarily going through a general population census”.

Minister Obam noted that in view of its importance, Cameroon has undertaken reforms with a view to modernising the national civil status registration system and boosting the registration of all civil status events, with particular emphasis on birth registration, while taking measures to secure the Cameroonian nationality.

He recalled that “with this in mind, Law No.2011/11 of 6 May 2011, to amend and supplement some provisions of Ordinance No. 81/002 of June 29, 1981, to organise civil status registration and various provisions relating to the status of natural persons, has introduced major innovations to facilitate the registration of civil status events, including births”.

He was quick to disclose that such actions by government include the establishment of the National Civil Status Registration Office, BUNEC, which main mission is to supervise, control, regulate and evaluate the national civil status registration system.

Meanwhile, it was disclosed during the presser that the First National Forum of Mayors on Universal Birth Registration in Cameroon, will be attended amongst others, by mayors from across the country, officers from the 374 civil status centres lodged in councils in the country, representatives of administrations, public institutions, civil society organisations, associations, international organisations and technical partners.

The forum will be chaired by the Minister of Decentralisation and Local Development. This will be in the presence of several other government officials and international partners.