Belafonte, UNICEF envoy, pleads for birth registration during African tour

Jet, March 15, 2004

United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Goodwill Ambassador Harry Belafonte recently urged African nations to step up efforts to register all newborn babies during a press conference in Dakar, Senegal.

The famed actor/singer/human rights activist, said, "If you're not registered it means, in some rather ironic way, that you don't exist." His address inaugurated a five-day conference of about 180 delegates from 24 countries studying how to encourage increased birth registration. "In order for the children to count, we must count the children."

UNICEF estimated that 17 million or 70 percent, of African children born in 2000 went unregistered by authorities, ultimately limiting their access to health care, schools, elections and bank loans.

Calling for funding to assist in the process, Belafonte cited the tens of billions of dollars the United States is spending in Iraq and Afghanistan. "Poverty is terrorism. Ignorance is terrorism," he said. "The absence of registration-not recognizing the existence of a child-is terrorism."

UNICEF works chiefly in developing countries, for children's rights, their survival, development and protection.