N AT I O N A L I N Q U I R Y R E P O R T ZIMBABWE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION For Human Dignity 3.3.4 Use of Maternal Surnames to Register Children Through the National Inquiry, the ZHRC established that some children born out of wedlock were not registered because their mothers were either unwilling or unable to use their maiden names to register the children. This usually happened in cases where the male family members did not grant them permission to use their surname, although this is not a legal requirement. In some cases, fathers of the children were the ones without identity documents, as such they also refused to have the children registered in their mothers’ names. 3.3.5 Generational Challenges Some of the challenges encountered by people in acquiring documents resulted from generational challenges. This is whereby individuals failed to have identity documents because their parents, and in some cases grandparents, did “Both my parents passed away leaving us not have national identity documents. It was noted that for with no birth certificates. We are 10 in our some witnesses, these challenges dated back to second and family and all of us have none. I have 8 third generations. Some witnesses reported instances where children, 6 girls and 2 boys who also have the father was in possession of all required identity documents no birth certificates. I do not have any but the child could not be registered because it was known relatives. My maternal uncle whom prerequisite for the mother to possess identity documents to we used to visit as children passed away.” facilitate registration of the child85. 40-year old female prisoner, Gokwe Prison. The generational challenges of non-documentation were prevalent in border communities were there were many cases of inter-marriages across borders. In cases where the foreign mother is un-documented, even if the father is Zimbabwean with identity documents it is still not possible to register the children because of the requirement that the mother must have identity documents as well. Further generational challenges faced are consequences of atrocities which occurred in some parts of the Midlands and Matabeleland Provinces in the early 1980s, generally known as Gukurahundi86. Two-point The biggest challenge is a group of children who do not nine percent (2.9 %) of submissions received have parents because of Gukurahundi. My community highlighted that Gukurahundi created challenges was affected by Gukurahundi. These children do not have in accessing documentation. birth certificates and we end up using people who are not biological parents to register those children. Some of Another generational challenge is that of unthese children are a product of rape by armed forces documented former migrant workers in mining and during that period. It is very painful because some of the farming communities, whose offspring were also fathers of these children were buried in pits. If the first document which is the birth certificate is successful, the not registered, thereby creating a chain of rest of the documents will be easily accessible”. Village unregistered generations. The situation was Head, Umguza District, Matabeleland North. worsened when the workers moved from farm to farm or mine to mine, in the process forgetting where they were born, or if they were still aware, no witnesses were available to attest to their births as required by the RG’s office. 85 For example, a 79-year-old witness from Mt Darwin gave evidence that he had both a birth certificate and a national identity document but his wife had neither and as a result, they had failed to register their six children and three grandchildren. 86 See details in Chapter 4 on Gukurahundi affected communities. 29 29