Media CenterCatholic Relief Services Applauds Girls Count Act

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
Michael Hill
Catholic Relief Services
443-955-7110
[email protected]

 

New House Bill Would Help Girls Around the World Get Their Birth Certificates

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 30, 2015 – Catholic Relief Services (CRS) welcomed introduction of the Girls Count Act in the House of Representatives today by Representative Steve Chabot (R-OH), with original co-sponsors Chris Smith (R-NJ), Ed Royce (R-CA), Betty McCollum (D-MN), Brad Sherman (R-CA) and Eliot Engel (D-NY). The legislation aims to ensure that more children, and especially girls, around the world get birth certificates...

“This may not seem like an important issue to people in the United States where everyone gets a birth certificate,” said Bill O’Keefe, CRS’ Vice President for Advocacy. “But over a third of children worldwide – about 230 million – do not have their births registered. This can cause them problems for the rest of their lives.”

Lack of birth registration can make it more difficult for governments to accurately assess educational and other social service needs. It can also make it challenging for individuals to obtain national identification which can be required to access property rights, voting rights, social services, and other critical activities.

“Essentially, it can keep these girls from ever participating in the social, economic, legal and political realms of their countries,” O’Keefe said. “A girl without identification can be more vulnerable to trafficking or more prone to enter a child marriage.”

Particularly after a natural disaster such as the earthquake that just hit Nepal, lack of birth registration can hamper family tracing efforts. If a family is divided or a child orphaned, authorities may not know to look for a person who is not registered. Registering children is a proactive protection measure.

The Girls Count Act would make it official U.S. policy support the birth registration and other legal documentation of children in the developing world and to support programs that help develop government’s abilities to register all births. “This is an important bill and we hope the House and Senate act on it expeditiously,” O’Keefe said.

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Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. The agency alleviates suffering and provides assistance to people in need in more than 100 countries, without regard to race, religion or nationality. CRS’ relief and development work is accomplished through programs of emergency response, HIV, health, agriculture, education, microfinance and peacebuilding. For more information, please visit crs.org or crsespanol.org and follow CRS on social media: Facebook, Twitter at @CatholicRelief and @CRSnews,  Google+Pinterest and YouTube.

Michael Hill

Senior Writer

Michael Hill
April 30, 2015

Based in Baltimore, MD

As Senior Writer, Michael is responsible for much of the editorial production of the Communications Unit: press releases, op-eds, speeches, etc. He also is a supervisor in the department overseeing the work of three communications staff in Asia, Africa and the United States.

Before joining CRS is 2008, Michael had a 35-year career at the...More