Earlier in the news, we told you that if you're planning on giving birth at a public hospital, you'll be able to do so free of cost. This also means you'll be able to get your child's proof of birth with no problems.
While it is an alarming practice, many mothers have been unable to register their child because the hospital will not issue them a proof of birth before they pay their hospital bill. This leads to children growing up and not having an official identity.
It's a growing concern, and that's why the Human Rights Commission has spearheaded a Late Registration Initiative. It kicked off in Orange Walk Town today, and the Communications Officer told us more.
Dalila Ical, Community Outreach/Comms Officer, HRCB
"The Human Rights Commission of Belize is leading this initiative where we are providing an opportunity for persons, families to be able to come and do late birth registrations, that would be birth at the hospital or home births, with midwives, so that they can process their documents here and at least get a head start on that or get the correct guidance as to what they need to do. People who are interested in registering their children, newborns, they're here as well, they can do that and others who maybe are like not a year old yet, they can still get their certificates here and I have seen people are also here arranging their marriage certificates."
Courtney Menzies:
"What are some of the reasons you've been hearing for why people can't register their children immediately or almost immediately after giving birth?"
Dalila Ical, Community Outreach/Comms Officer, HRCB
"Well, one reason that a lot of people give is that the hospitals are not allowing them to do it because they haven't paid or cleared their bill at the hospital. We understand that this is something that shouldn't be happening but it's still happening unfortunately and so some people are unable to register their children and these kids grow up without a birth certificate, pretty much invisible."
"Speaking from a human right perspective, it's really a challenge because having you documents allow you to enjoy a lot of your basic human rights so one, we all have a right to nationality, which is one of the reasons we pushed for this event as well and then having your documents, you're able to enjoy other events, like a right to education, right to health services, you have rights to Social security, and those are just some of the rights you can enjoy so it opens a lot of doors for people and they're able to enjoy basic, basic needs that really are your basic human rights."
The initiative will head to Corozal next.
