Angola’s Justice minister Francisco Queiroz urges parents to take children for registration

Angolan minister of Justice and Human Rights Francisco Queiroz has recently urged parents to register their children in order to ensure an identity and access to basic services such as education and health.

Official data indicate only 25 percent of children under five years of age as having been registered. Paternity denial is one of the causes of the low number of registered children, according to the programme "Nascer com Registo".

Francisco Queiroz, who quoted a study conducted by his sector and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), opined that a few parents take their kids for registration, leaving the mothers in a situation of abandonment with the children.

The minister was addressing a birth registration campaign called "Responsible Parenting I Support", funded by the European Union and technical support from UNICEF.

The objective of campaign is to raise awareness on the importance of paternity and contribute to the reduction of children without registrations. The Minister put at 128,000 the number of children registered since the opening of birth registration posts in maternity wards in July 2017.

On the other hand, Secretary of State for Human Rights, Ana Celeste, revealed that the first stage of the campaign runs until June 2019.

Meanwhile, the UNICEF representative in Angola, Abubacar Sultan, thanked the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights for the partnership. He said the move opens the door so that the motto "Responsible Parenthood" addresses other problems related to protection and development of kid.