Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to contribute to the Motion and to call on Hon Colleagues that we should take the matter of births and deaths seriously, and to indicate that there is a well-developed and functioning civil registration system to ensure not just the registration of vital events including births, marriages and deaths but issuing relevant certificate as proof of such registration. It also promotes efficient government and planning as indicated by Hon Inusah Fuseini.
Mr Speaker, also, today it can help us even more with our papers on the sustainable development goals. We must understand the country's population, the growth of the population. Is it one largely constituted by aged persons or by young people or by children? It is only through an effective monitoring of births and deaths that we would have an appreciation of this.
Mr Speaker, as Hon Inusah Fuseini indicate, following the Supreme Court ruling, I was going to ask the Minister what about deaths again because if the Supreme Court in its ruling which I quote:
“A birth certificate is not a form of identification and does not establish the identity of the bearer nor does it link the holder with the information on the certificate.”
Mr Speaker, quite obviously, it provides no evidence of citizenship. I am quoting from it. Now, this would question how do we establish citizenship, and can the death or registration of birth not be relevant? Therefore we must look for a nexus between death and its registration.
Mr Speaker, growing up as a young student of Sociology, there was a famous article, “Birth as a
Messenger of Death”. Once a person is born, he has become a messenger and potential candidate for death to understand mortuary rites and other issues. So it is commendable that they want to move this into a decentralisation regime .But as has been argued by the Chairman of the Employment Committee and my other Colleague, physical decentralisation would be important.
Where would the assemblies get the resources to be able to do this? Hon Chireh has also raised a very significant point and that is why I had to walk to the Hon Minister's Committee meeting when the initial thinking was to subject this to an Urgent Bill and said we should have a broad-based consultation which we have done but the consultation must be all-encompassing. The Ministry of Health, the Ghana Health Service, the Population Council as have been indicated are all key stakeholders in getting this.
Mr Speaker, we cannot over- emphasise the need for technology to drive this process. I recall sometime in 2009 and 2010, I did some work with the then Prime Minister Steven Harper of Canada and President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania on
women and children's health, and we highlighted the use of technology to drive the process.
So Hon Minister I think that if we improve the edges, we should be able to have a credible data base for the country. Probably, even as we debate the ruling of the Supreme Court, they probably raised concern about the authenticity of what is issued as birth certificate. We must take it more seriously.
Mr Speaker, in the United States of America, when a child is born, on the same day, a form of registration of birth is filled for the purpose of issuing a passport to the child. So like it or not, the Supreme Court can give a ruling which I can describe as absurd, there is a nexus between birth, citizenship, the acquisition of passport and the acquisition of national identification. Identification will not necessarily be a person's face, a person's parents and grandparents.
Mr Speaker, I understand that we started the registration of births as far back as 1888 in the Gold Coast. But the Ghanaian attitude, is one for which we do not give premium to this important national exercise. I think we must encourage even children in our schools. The other time, the Hon Majority raised a very important issue when we were discussing the voter's
