What went right this week: new law sends a ‘powerful message’ against online abuse, plus more

The tireless efforts of human rights campaigners in Bangladesh have finally paid off: children born in the brothels and streets there are now able to hold a birth certificate. Undocumented children, many born in the sprawling Daulatdia brothel, had previously been denied a birth certificate, and all the rights that come with it. Without official documentation, children cannot attend school and are vulnerable to trafficking. 

This week it was revealed that more than 700 children have now received a birth certificate, thanks to organisations such as anti-slavery organisation Freedom Fund, which identified an ‘overlooked stipulation in the law’. Since 2018, it has in fact been permitted for a birth to be registered, even in the absence of information on the parents. Government officials, however, were not recognising this.  

“When I first came to know about [this stipulation], we massively disseminated this information with our partners,” Khaleda Akhter, Bangladesh programme manager for Freedom Fund, told the Guardian. Akhter has seen firsthand how a birth certificate can be life-changing for children there. “These documents are not just a tool,” she said, “it’s about survival.”

Image: Shafin Ashraf