A/HRC/19/63
(b)
Post-disaster analysis and information sharing among relevant actors
79.
A number of international organizations and aid agencies, primarily through CPWG,
have established reporting processes for information sharing between relevant stakeholders.
This information is also shared and applied in the development of future design and
planning of response and recovery initiatives. Nevertheless, due in large part to resource
limitations, at present, there is low capacity and intention among international organizations
and aid agencies to undertake this work.
5.
Prevention and mitigation stage
(a)
Birth registration and data collection
80.
Plan International estimates that each year, over 51 million children are not
registered at birth.58 A legal identity helps to provide a measure of protection for the child
against illegal adoption and other violations. The lack of a legal identity can complicate
reunification efforts for separated children, particularly if a child is given a new name. A
large proportion of unregistered children are living in South Asia (64 per cent) and SubSaharan Africa (63 per cent) where natural disasters are a constant threat, leaving those
children exposed to greater risk. UNICEF has worked with the Government of Bangladesh
to establish an online birth registration system to improve accessibility to this process.59
(b)
Building resilience, capacity and raising awareness
81.
UNICEF has demonstrated that resilience is also key to recovery and can be fostered
at the individual, community and institutional levels before natural disasters strike to help
prepare for and limit the effects of future emergencies. 60
82.
Prior to and following a natural disaster, awareness-raising campaigns are critical to
ensuring that communities, children and their families are aware of the dangers of a natural
disaster as well as the violence, abuse and exploitation that children may experience in such
a situation. They must consequently be aware of how they can prevent, report and respond
to such violations, including through the protective legal framework and related child
protective services.61
83.
It is easy for individuals to abuse their power in relief camps and to ask for sexual
favours in exchange for basic necessities. The Swedish International Development
Cooperation Agency provided funding to Save the Children (Sweden) in Haiti to address
issues of gender-based violence and sexual exploitation through awareness-raising, training
and establishing community-based focal points. Despite these services, according to Human
Rights Watch,62 girls and women were badly neglected in recovery efforts.
84.
Following the earthquake in Chile in 2010, Save the Children partnered with the
police and the Department of Social Work to protect children from sexual abuse through
training and awareness-raising sessions with schools, health centres and village councils to
explain sexual abuse and violence and the availability of reporting mechanisms. 63
58
59
60
61
62
63
16
See also Ellen Mouravieff-Apostol, “The significance of Birth Registration in Today’s World,”
International Federation of Social Workers, 2006.
UNICEF’s response to the questionnaire.
Ibid., p. iv.
Save the Children, “Child Protection Fact Sheet” (see footnote 7), p. 7.
Human Rights Watch, Nobody Remembers Us: Failure to protect women’s and girls’ right to health
and security in post earthquake Haiti, New York, August 2011.
Save the Children, “Child Protection in Emergencies Fact Sheet, (see footnote 9), p. 5.
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