Child Identity Protection (CHIP)

🎒 🧑🏫 24/1 International Day of Education 📖 ✏️   Every child deserves the chance to learn and thrive. A legal identity, starting with a birth certificate, is a vital step in ensuring access to education and unlocking the #righttoeducation for all.   At CHIP, we're privileged to collaborate with partners in #Cameroon and #Senegal to strengthen birth registration systems, bridging the gap to education for countless children.   Learn more about some of our work: 📄 Birth registration work with UNICEF Cameroon: https://lnkd.in/ddPVhmWY 📄 Efforts to improve access to education with UNICEF Sénégal: https://lnkd.in/dG_fTNje 📄 CHIP's submission to United Nations OHCHR's upcoming report on access to early education: https://lnkd.in/dS2BGzXD #internationaldayofeducation #righttoeducation 🙏 Laurence Bordier, Marine Braun, Mia Dambach, Mariama Diallo, Cornelius Williams, Casimira Benge, Saly D., Mayang Alexis, Georges Bissiongol, Nicolette Moodie, Massamba DIOUF, Juliette Haenni, Karin Heissler, Gloria Mathenge, Sulini Sarugaser Hug etc etc..

🎉 WEBINAR SERIES continues 🥳 Topic 3: Speedily re-establishing missing elements of children's identity in emergency situations (Art. 8(2) CRC) 🗓 Date: 18 February 2025 ⏰ Time: 13:00-14:30 CET 🎤 Speakers include: Bina Ramanand | Family Frontiers (Moderator) Karin Heissler | UNICEF WCARO Zoé Bertrand | Global Survivors Fund Laura Echeverri | UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency Colombia Georgios Kyriakos | METAdrasi Benoît Van Keirsbilck | CRC Committee member 🚨 Certificate of attendance I Institute for Inspiring Children's Futures, University of Strathclyde 🙏 Jennifer Davidson   🔗 Register here: https://lnkd.in/ejYVvduV 🎥 Past recordings/ further info : https://lnkd.in/gt5nB9g7   #AccessToJustice #ChildrenRights #Identity   🙏 our partners : African Child Policy Forum (ACPF); ATD Fourth World; CONACMI ONG; Consortium For Street Children; DKRG undefined; European Network on Statelessness; The Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights, Global Alliance to End Statelessness, International Federation of Social Workers, Red RELAF, Voice of children, Family for Every Child, Family Frontiers, Lawyers for Human Rights, Red RELAF, United Nations Human Rights, Institute for Inspiring Children's Futures, CENTRE FOR CHILD LAW, Deneisha Moss Balboni, Mia Dambach, Valeria Cherednichenko, Ann Skelton, Mikiko Otani, Velina Todorova etc.

Child Identity Protection (CHIP) is honoured to support the CRC Committee in its role in keeping States parties accountable for their CRC committments by submitting country factsheets at their 100 Pre-Sessional Working Group (03 Feb 2025 - 07 Feb 2025) https://lnkd.in/drUc6rxz These factsheets focus on the child's #right to #identity and #speedyre-establishment when elements are missing. - Burkina Faso https://lnkd.in/du5ZRwfE - Malaysia https://lnkd.in/d3wtFqBs 🙏 tireless work of 18 members including Philip D. Jaffé; Mikiko Otani; Luis Pedernera, Ann Skelton; Velina Todorova; Benoît Van Keirsbilck, etc and the many more before them Maria Herczog Ph.D; Olga Khazova; etc. 🥳 🎓 special hats off to Ann, Luis and Mikiko for their #leadership as chairpersons in making sure that #everychild counts

🎥 watch new videos from #ExpertsCHIPin series https://lnkd.in/g2pepV9j 🙏 to members from the CRC Committee for the unwavering committment to #childrights and ensuring States uphold their responsibilities in the #CRC Ann Skelton - chairperson 1. unpacking the child’s right to identity in the CRC https://lnkd.in/duQziWjF 2. how OPIC provides access to justice when rights including identity are contravened https://lnkd.in/da3JbQZX 3. right to identity for “foreign fighters.” https://lnkd.in/dXRFn93E Velina Todorova - member 1. importance of the child’s right to identity https://lnkd.in/dJShxnp3 2. barriers and potential solutions to accessing right to identity https://lnkd.in/dzvdNWCy 3. child's right to identity and family relations https://lnkd.in/deFgDx7g

Spain, 2024: The Supreme Court declares that the recognition of a foreign court decision validating a surrogacy contract and attributing paternity to the intended parents is contrary to public order. The Supreme Court of Spain has declared that recognising a foreign judgment validating a surrogacy contract and attributing paternity to the intended parents is contrary to Spanish public order. The case involved a Spanish couple who signed a surrogacy contract in the United States, validated by a court in Texas (United States). The court recognised the intended parents as the parents of the children born through this agreement. However, the Spanish courts rejected the request for recognition, by virtue of paragraphs a) and d) of Article 46.1 of Law 29/2015, of 30 July, on International Legal Cooperation in Civil Matters, and the prohibition stipulated in Article 10 of Law 14/2006, of 26 May, on Assisted Human Reproduction Techniques. They argued that since the applicants knowingly and voluntarily initiated a process to obtain a child by entering into a surrogacy agreement which is illegal in Spain, the procedure by which the children were conceived is void under Spanish law and that the requested recognition and enforcement were not possible because they were based on a fraud of law which cannot be protected by Spanish law. The case reached the Supreme Court alleging violations of personality development, discrimination based on nationality and lack of respect for the best interests of the child. However, the court rejected these allegations, arguing that the fundamental rights and dignity of the pregnant woman and the child, protected by the Constitution, prevail. In particular, the court held that such agreements imply exploitation of the woman and harm the child, as they commit the pregnant mother to hand over the child after birth without any possibility of refusal and deprive the child of his or her right to know his or her biological origins. Furthermore, it highlighted the mercantilist nature of these agreements, which involve payments to the pregnant mother, obtaining her consent in exchange for financial or other compensation. The Supreme Court also affirmed that refusing to recognise the foreign judgment does not violate the best interests of the child. This interest should not be defined according to the wishes of the intended parents or based on a surrogacy agreement or on filiation in favour of the intended parents under foreign law. The best interests of the child must consider the severance of all ties between the children and the woman who gestated and gave birth to them and the existence of a biological paternal filiation and a family unit in which the children are integrated. According to the court, to automatically recognise these filiations in Spain would harm the fundamental rights of pregnant women and children, who are treated as commodities, without guaranteeing the suitability of the intended parents.

UNICEF: The Right Start in Life: Global levels and trends in birth registration, 2024 update The report reveals that the world is home to over 200 million #children under 5 without a #birthcertificate, including 150 million unregistered children and 55 million children whose births are reported as registered but lack proof in the form of a birth certificate. The report identifies the countries with the lowest levels of birth registration, the main barriers and disparities and the progress made. UNICEF reminds us that “The costs of taking action are significantly lower than the costs of inaction » and that “achieving universal birth registration will require a concerted, discrimination-free approach. Efforts must be grounded in collective action by partners engaged in strategic global and regional initiatives, with targeted investments to enhance the efficiency of routine systems and to make them more responsive to the needs of all children – particularly those affected by humanitarian crises, migration, health emergencies and statelessness.” CHIP is honored to be able to work with UNICEF in projects, which have allowed to better understand the causes and barriers to #birthregistration, as well to identify promising practices, such as interoperability with the education sector. 💡 Read the report: https://lnkd.in/gpSeu-Dj

Submission for 2025 OHCHR report on the rights of the child and violations of the human rights of children in armed conflicts Child Identity Protection (CHIP) welcomes the opportunity to provide input for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights’ (OHCHR) report on the rights of the child and violations of the human rights of children in armed conflicts (HRC res. 55/29), which is being coordinated by the Child and #YouthRights section within the OHCHR. This submission is based on CHIP’s work including the Legal Atlas on #birthregistration currently being developed in collaboration with UNICEF (UNICEF/CHIP Legal Atlas), work with UNICEF WCARO and UNICEF Cameroon as well as public sources. Despite the importance of birth registration, UNICEF notes that “emergencies infringe on many individual basic rights, including access to a name and a nationality. In almost all emergencies, including armed conflicts, natural disasters and humanmade hazards, vital event registration systems become dysfunctional and, in extreme cases, they collapse entirely, archives may be destroyed, and documents are lost.” CHIP recommends that States should ensure that CRVS systems are shock and disaster resistant, adapted to the specific needs of all #children and their families. Cooperation including between international, regional and national stakeholders should be encouraged through memorandum of understandings, as well as ratification of relevant international standards such 1996 Hague Convention and ICCS Convention No.34. Family reunification should be prioritised where children are separated from their families, preserving the child’s right to #familyidentity.

✨ As 2024 draws near, we want to express our heartfelt gratitude for your invaluable collaboration throughout the year. Together, we’ve made strides toward ensuring that every child has a legal identity— the anchor of all rights. As we look ahead to 2025, we wish you many wonderful adventures, both personal and professional. Here’s to another year of impactful work and meaningful progress! 🙏🏽 A special thank you to our team Maud De Boer Buquicchio, Grégoire Bordier, Wanchai Roujanavong, Mia Dambach, Laurence Bordier, Christina Baglietto, Gisela Sin Gomiz, Siena-Sophia Demetriou, Cornelius Williams, Nigel Cantwell, Olga Khazova, David Smolin, Dr Claire Achmad, Marine Braun, Mariama Diallo, Dr. Chrissie Gale, Lynelle Long, Rosa María Ortiz, Dainius Puras, Eda Elizabeth Aguilar Samanamud, Katarina Trimmings, Michael Wells-Greco 🙏🏽 As well as our partners: Committee on the Rights of the Child, OHCHR, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, HCCH - Hague Conference on Private International Law, International Commission on Civil Status (ICCS), Council of Europe, Swiss National Science Foundation SNSF, Service de la Solidarité Internationale du Canton de Genève, UNICEF, UNICEF West and Central Africa, UNICEF Cameroon, UNICEF in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, UNICEF Liberia, UNICEF Niger, UNICEF Nigeria, UNICEF Sénégal, ATD Fourth World, Better Care Network, Child Rights Connect, Family for Every Child, Global Survivors Fund, Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, InterCountry Adoptee Voice (ICAV), Association Origines, Ciao.ch, Fondation Brocher, etc.

Input into proposed amendments to Civil Code related to step-parent adoptions This legal memorandum addresses child rights concerns regarding proposed amendments to the Civil Code; those proposed amendments may be, at least in part, a response to decisions from the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). The proposed amendments address “the adoption of a child of a spouse or partner conceived through private sperm donation, (possibly anonymous) sperm donation or other medically assisted procreation methods authorized abroad, including surrogate motherhood.” The stated goal of the amendments is to “simplify and speed up” the process to avoid a period of time when “the child, who has only one parent, is not fully protected legally.” This memorandum particularly focuses on the situation of #children born from : use of anonymous gametes in assisted reproductive technology (ART) in cross-border situations, in a context where anonymity is currently forbidden in #Switzerland foreign surrogacy arrangements, in a context where domestic surrogacy is illegal in Switzerland. For the many reasons outlined in the memorandum, it is contradictory for Swiss law through these proposed amendments to facilitate quicker and easier ways for Swiss residents to evade and violate Swiss law. It seems equally contradictory to obligations under the CRC and other international standards. 🗒️Read the full report here: https://lnkd.in/eZbdVEBG This memorandum was prepared by David Smolin with assistance by Christina Baglietto, Laurence Bordier, Maud De Boer Buquicchio, Nigel Cantwell, Mia Dambach and Katarina Trimmings

Birth registration work in collaboration with UNICEF Cameroon & WCARO The CHIP team has had the privilege of supporting #Cameroon actors through their innovative strategies to ensure that every child has a #legalidentity – at birth and through catch-up #birthregistration work – in line with their international commitments. Following up on the Mayors’ Forum on Universal Birth Registration in Cameroon in April 2024 (https://lnkd.in/ehZKeGYF), a roadmap was developed to outline strategic actions that mayors can implement to make birth registration accessible to all within their municipalities. In November 2024, a virtual training session was provided to support Mayors in translating the roadmap’s strategic goals into actionable micro plans for birth registration. The MINDDEVEL MINISTERE and BUNEC led the training in collaboration with UNICEF and Child Identity Protection (CHIP). Concretely, the welcome and closing were provided by Mme Efa from BUNEC, with inputs from the UNICEF Deputy Representative Juliette Haenni;  Chief Social Policy Paul Marie Petroch Chief Child Protection Casimira Benge and Child Protection Specialist Mayang Alexis. Contributions were also provided by the CHIP team led by Cornelius Williams with support from Mia Dambach. All resources are in 🇫🇷 and 🇬🇧 🖥️ Slide deck in English (https://lnkd.in/eYsSFb98) and French (https://lnkd.in/e-5nWT2M) 📺 Recording of the session in English (https://lnkd.in/eNX54Gbv) and French (https://lnkd.in/eiT4H6br) 🗒️ Template of micro-plan in English (https://lnkd.in/eTXN5Zc6) and French (https://lnkd.in/egtUJD8p) In parallel, catch-up birth registration work through the schools has been led by the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education with MINDDEVEL MINISTERE, BUNEC, other relevant Ministries, UNICEF and the The World Bank to tackle the over 1.4 million children without a birth certificate. The CHIP team included Laurence Bordier, Marine Braun, Mia Dambach, Mariama Diallo, Georges Bissiongol and Romauld Onah who undertook various tasks including literature reviews, remote meetings and in-country research (November) covering six of the ten regions with over 150 professionals interviewed. Preliminary results will be discussed with counterparts in early 2025 with a final report to be published in the first half of 2025 which will identify opportunities to scale up this work.