Mapping Children on the Move within Africa Article 6(1) of the ACRWC also provides that every child has the right from his birth to a name. Article 6(2) further requires that every child be registered immediately after birth. Article 6(3) provides that every child has the right to acquire a nationality. Importantly, Article 6 provides that Member States have an obligation to ensure that through legislation, they should recognize the principle to which a child who would otherwise be stateless,if at the time of the child’s birth it is not granted nationality by another State, acquires the nationality of the State in which it is born. The ACERWC in General Comment No. 2 stated that the right to a name, registration after birth and nationality are interlinked.83 A name is an important part of one’s identity. Having a name amounts to being assigned an identity and a place in a given society. A name is also required for birth registration, issuance of a birth certificate and registration as a national of a particular state. The CRC Committee and the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (CMW) have both observed that children on the move are vulnerable to violations of this right.84 The ACERWC in General Comment No. 2 states that the right to birth registration is one of the rights that constantly appears not to be fully implemented by African States.85 The ACERWC expressed concerns about the low rates of registration of births in its observations and recommendations to states that had submitted at least one report by 2013.86 A UNICEF Report published in 2013 indicated that about 230 million children under the age of five had not been registered at birth, and the lowest rate of registration of births is in parts of Africa and South Asia.87 There are several factors that explain the low rate of birth registration namely; poverty, discrimination against women, lack of education, being part of particular indigenous groups or belonging to certain vulnerable groups such as refugees or migrants.88 When it comes to refugees and migrants generally, the likelihood of displacements causing families to lose their legal documents (birth certificates or proof of identity) is very high.89 This makes it even more challenging for families to register their children and obtain crucial identification documents.90 As a consequence children would be at the risk of statelessness and become exposed to vices and abuses such as sexual exploitation, child labour, recruitment into armed forces, child marriages, and trafficking. The ACERWC observed that birth registration is not merely a bureaucratic and administrative formality because ‘it marks the legal existence of a child and brings with it enormous potential for the child to enjoy other rights immediately from his/her early childhood.’91 In addition to legal 83 ACERWC General Comment No.2 Article 6 of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 of the Child ACERWC/GC/02 (2014) para 9. Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (CMW) & Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC Committee), Joint General Comment No. 3 (2017) of the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families and No. 22 (2017) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on the General Principles Regarding the Human Rights of Children in the Context of International Migration CMW/C/GC/3-CRC/C/GC/22 para 3. Available at <https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G17/343/59/PDF/G1734359. pdf?OpenElement> (accessed on 03 March 2018). ACERWC General Comment No.2 (n 83 above) para 3. As above. UN News Centre ‘One in three children do not officially exist, UNICEF reports’ (11 December 2013) as quoted in ACERWC General Comment No. 2 para 3. ACERWC General Comment No. 2 (n 83 above) para 3. Humanium ‘The Right to an Identity- The Global Situation: A Look at a Child Identity Across the Globe’ https://www.humanium.org/en/world/right-to-identity/ accessed on 25 September 2018. As above. ACERWC General Comment No. 2 (n 83 above) para 44. 29