Cambodians turn out in their millions to get birth certificates

A Cambodian family holding their birth certificates

Since the project started in October 2004, 11.5 million or 89 per cent of the Cambodians have visited their civil registration offices, or have received a visit from the mobile civil registration team in their province, to have their birth certificates issued.

The campaign was undertaken in close cooperation with the Cambodian Ministry of Interior and Asian Development Bank working in partnership with the communities.

Since this is a national project the preparations needed were immense. More than 13,000 registration officials received training and technical support. UN Volunteers were also deployed in the provinces to provide further assistance. Thousands of registration books were printed and a national information campaign was undertaken to inform people about the ongoing registration activities.

Several legal amendments were also made to further enhance and simplify the registration process.

“I am happy that my father led the entire family to the registration desk when the team came to our village.  Tomorrow, I will ask all my fellow pupils and teachers at school what they know about birth registration.”                                                                        

Sokly, 15 years old, Kampong Speu

To further spread the message about birth registration Plan supported two children’s fairs held in Phnom Penh with more than 10,000 children participating. A photo exhibition was also put on display to highlight Plan’s Universal Birth Registration campaign. One hundred billboards were set up all over the country to continue to remind people that they need to take their newborns to register.

A birth certificate has a profound impact on a child’s life and future that  in February 2005 Plan launched a global campaign to bring birth registration to the attention of governments around the world and make it a priority.

Without a birth certificate a child may have difficulty accessing basic rights, such as access to education and healthcare, as well as being more vulnerable to exploitation and abuse of every kind. Many crimes against children benefit from the anonymity and lack of legal identity of the young victims.