Child rights organization gives 20,000 children birth certificates

The Committee for the Protection and Promotion of Child Rights (Burma) said at a ceremony to acknowledge the organization’s 10-years working on the Thai Burma border that they had organized 20,000 birth certificates for children from Burma.

Ma Aye Thandar Aung from the statistics department of CPPCR spoke to Karen News.

“We’ve provided birth certificates to 21,700 children in 10 years. Those children are now eligible to study in Thai schools or migrant schools in the Mae Sot area.”

Children who were born at Mae Tao Clinic, Mae Sot Hospital, medical clinics in the Mae Sot district were entitled to receive birth certificates.

CPPCR’s 10 year anniversary ceremony was held at the Quee Place Hotel in Mae Sot on November 2 and was attended by more than 100 people.

Dr Cynthia Maung speaking at the ceremony said.

“CPPCR is promoting the education of child rights, recording data on child protection issues and ensuring children’s births are recorded.”

Dr Cynthia Maung said all the birth records CPPCR has collected from children born of Burmese parents are used to inform the relevant Thai and Burma authorities, lawyers to ensure these children are eligible for Burmese citizenship at some point in the future.

U Myint Thein, the joint secretary of the Burma Lawyer Council said birth certificates are critically important for migrant children living in Thailand.

“People from Burma had to leave the county because of civil war. Many children did not have a chance to have a proper education and many have been denied their basic human rights. These children are at risk of losing their identity if they do not have birth certificates.”

CPPCR was founded in 2002 in Mae Sot to provide protection to children, giving access to their rights, healthcare and education.