BANGKOK, Nov 27 — Interior Minister Gen Anupong Paojinda said the Thai government is cooperating with international organizations to improve the country’s civil registration systems.
Opening the Ministerial Conference on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics in Asia and the Pacific at the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok today, Gen Anupong said Thailand recognized civil rights in compliance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and all Thai governments attached importance to the creation of a civil registration procedures that was correct, adequate and quickly done.
“We are well aware that good civil registration is a tool to create respect for human rights, solve social problems of, for example, stateless people, migrants and those with premature marriage, and verify the legal identities of people so that [all] can be in society with equality, honor and dignity,” Gen Anupong said.
By mid-2014 the government registered 1.6 million illegal migrant workers and their dependents and provided them with health security.
In addition the government worked with UNICEF, the UN Refugee Agency to register refugees and expand birth registration nationwide and with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to link national statistics and civil registration to improve databases.
Over 200 ministers, senior officials and experts from Asia and the Pacific gather in Bangkok today to launch the first-ever Ministerial Conference on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) in Asia and the Pacific.
Under the theme ‘Get every one in the picture’, the conference is being convened by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) from 24 to 28 November.
The conference will focus on generating commitment and accountability through setting regional goals and national targets for accelerating efforts to improve CRVS systems. An expected outcome is that the Conference will proclaim a CRVS Decade of action on CRVS in Asia and the Pacific.
