Poor civil registration leads to rights deprivation: UN

Poor civil registration leads to rights deprivation: UN

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The United Nations (UN) prodded the Indonesian government on
Friday to establish, as soon as possible, a comprehensive and
non-discriminatory civil registration system to ensure efficient
development planning and protect the rights of its citizen.

An official from the New York-based UN Statistics Division,
Srdjan Mrkic, said without the proper functioning of the civil
registration system, Indonesia had in the past suffered from
inefficient development planning as it was often based on
population estimates which were questionable in their accuracy
and reliability.

"Due to a poor registration system, in the year 2000, the
Indonesian population estimate was 210 million, while the actual
figure turned out to be 203 million. Therefore the government has
spent more resources than it should," he told a press briefing
here Friday.

He gave the example that, not having accurate population
figures could result in either too many or too few teachers and
schools in certain districts. "This is related to the fact that
reliable data on school children is unavailable."

Poor coverage of birth registration has also resulted in the
susceptibility of children to age-related abuse, exploitation and
discrimination.

The civil registration system is responsible for collecting
data relating to birth, death, marriage and divorce, and other
elements of the civil status of individuals.

Indonesia is one of 19 countries in the world with the lowest
coverage of birth registration. Only 40 percent of Indonesian
children under the age of five are officially registered. The
figures are lower for other events, such as marriage and divorce.

The country's civil registration system is also hindered by
discriminative practices. The public widely believes that
children who are born from parents whose religious beliefs are
not recognized by the government will have difficulties in
obtaining a birth certificate.

Children of a certain race or ethnicity are also allegedly
discriminated against in the obtainment of a birth certificate.

The system has also been afflicted with corruption. Parents
must pay a considerable amount of money to officials at the civil
registration office to get their documents processed.

The United Nations Child Emergency Fund (UNICEF) section head
of child protection Birgithe Lund Henriksen said that the
system's deficiencies were largely contributed to by the fact
that Indonesia did not have a comprehensive law on civil
registration.

"Indonesia has 15 different laws that touch on civil
registration, some of which date back to the Dutch colonial era,"
she said.

Birgithe said that UNICEF is currently supporting the National
Consortium on Civil Registration, to develop a generic law on
civil registration compatible with Universal principles. "This is
the first of its kind for Indonesia," she said.

The consortium consists of representatives from Ministry of
Justice and Human Rights, Ministry of Home Affairs and concerned
non-governmental organizations, she said.

"The drafting of the law is expected to wrap up by the year-
end. Afterwards the home affairs ministry will submit the draft
law to the House of Representatives for further deliberation,"
she said.