Almost 60 per cent of the Rhino Camp population are minors, with high birth rates contributing to the settlement having a significant young population. Children up to four years old comprise 12 per cent of the total population. Many of these children and their parents faced challenges and delays in registering births and obtaining birth certificates.
Since 2018, the Information Counselling and Legal Assistance (ICLA) Programme has collaborated closely with the National Identification and Registration Authority, the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) and other partners in Rhino Camp to ensure that all children born in the settlement have access to birth registration. This action is key to ensuring that no child is left without an official document.
In late 2023, The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), OPM, the National Identification and Registration Authority and partners joined forces to issue birth certificates to undocumented refugee children under five years old. The exercise, led by the OPM Department of Refugees for Rhino Camp, covered the entire settlement and resulted in the registration of over 2,440 children.
The briefing provides an overview of the legal framework for birth registration in Uganda and describes the process for registering birth of children born in this settlement, as a scalable model for birth registration owned and driven by the Ugandan Government with minimal support from humanitarian agencies.
