NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

QUESTION FOR ORAL REPLY

QUESTION NO. 231

DATE OF PUBLICATION: Friday, 31 July 2015

INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER 27 OF 2015

231. Mr M L W Filtane (UDM) to ask the Minister of Home Affairs::

In light of the recently launched unabridged birth certificate requirement, particularly with reference to the conflicting information about the severity of the child trafficking statistics within his department recording 30 000 cases in respect of each year whilst the Department of Police records 23 cases in the previous three financial years, how dire was the need for this measure seeing that it affects such an important component of our economic growth and development plan which is the tourism sector?

NO3047E

REPLY:

The Department of Home Affairs instituted the unabridged birth certificate requirement to give effect to Section 18(3)(c)(iii) of the Children’s Act (No 38 of 2005) which requires that a parent or other person who acts as guardian of a child must give or refuse consent to the child’s departure or removal from the Republic.

The adoption of the requirement also aims to give effect to the provisions of the Hague Convention on International Child Abduction to which South Africa is signatory. The measure is also in line with Article 11 of the UN Protocol to Prevent Trafficking in Persons which calls on States Parties to strengthen border controls to detect and prevent trafficking in persons.

The department not only has an obligation to protect South African children from trafficking, but also any child entering or departing from the Republic, in line with the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa 108 of 1996, particularly Section 28 dealing with children, which protect any child regarding of status or nationality. Any one child trafficked is one child too many.

The issue of child-trafficking statistics is a red-herring as our obligation to protect children does not require meeting a certain arbitrarily pre-conceived threshold before we can act. Again, we reject the notion that economic development cannot co-exist with protecting children from trafficking. Child-trafficking is not a pre-requisite for economic development. Many countries have set a benchmark and international best practice in achieving both child protection and economic development. It cannot be different in our case.

International child-trafficking agencies have argued that:

i) South Africa’s efforts to combat child-trafficking have often been undermined by lack of stringent measures; including regulations; and

ii) Child-trafficking has not in the past been properly reported and recorded by the security agencies, hence inaccurate statistics.

Therefore the need for this measure, recognised in the children’s Act of 2005, as self-evident.

Issued by Parliament, August 18 2015