The All-Party Parliamentary Human Rights Group (PHRG) and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Street Children held this joint meeting to highlight issues of legal identity and impacts on the rights of street children. We would like to thank Ann Coffey MP for chairing this event.

The event’s speakers were:

• Rona Fellowes, Partnership Grants and Programme Manager, Plan UK (“RF”);
• Deborah Perkin, Chair, Moroccan Children’s Trust (“DP”);
• Ian Gray, International Programmes, Director, Toybox (“IG”).

The main points raised were:

• Around the world, roughly 240 million children are not officially registered. Without registration, children often lack the identification needed to access basic services. Because of their extreme marginalisation, street children are some of those worst affected by this issue. (DP)
• In Morocco, lack of official identity papers is a major obstacle to children accessing formal education, public health and other services. Street children are particularly affected by this lack of documentation. (DP)
• Bureaucracy and the costs of registering create barriers for street children trying to register themselves. In particular, street children can struggle to prove their parentage. (RF)
• Unregistered street children are unjustly treated by the judicial system in many countries. If a child cannot prove their age, they can end up being unjustly detained or serving longer sentences. (IG)
• Plan UK are campaigning for the birth registration of children around the world. In Indonesia, where one of their projects is based, birth registration coverage is only about 53%. Street children, especially in Jakarta, are especially vulnerable. (RF)
• In Guatemala City, street children live within a context of extreme poverty and a high homicide rate. Without registration, children face many barriers such as not being able to graduate from secondary school. (IG)
• Access to legal identity was one of the main issues for street children who were consulted in connection with the drafting of the forthcoming UN General Comment on Children in Street Situations. Parliamentarians are encouraged to request the Department for International Development (DfID) to make a submission further to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s call for evidence for the UN General Comment on Children in Street Situations.

The meeting also featured a clip from the documentary film ‘Bastards’, which highlights the issues facing children without legal status in Morocco.

The PHRG continues to work on issues affecting street children as part of its work to highlight particularly marginalised groups around the world. We will continue to use the Parliamentary platform to raise our concerns around street children’s lack of rights and legal identity.