On the subject of age discrepancy in African athletes, here's a statement from Serge Ibaka yesterday.
Feel ashamed of yourself Ross.
I am ashamed, but not because of that.
Here's what the IRB in Canada say about Guinea birth certs:
4. Difficulties in Obtaining a Birth Certificate Extract
The US Department of State’s
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2015 indicates that, according to UNICEF, in 2015, the Guinean authorities registered only 41 percent of rural births compared with 77 percent of urban births (US 13 Apr. 2016, 23). The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child states in a 2013 report that it [UN English version] “is concerned that only a third of children are registered at birth” (UN 13 June 2013, para. 44).
According to a study published by UNICEF in March 2014 and cited by the same organization in a 2015 report, Guinea has more children without birth certificates than unregistered children (according to the study estimates, about 3.5 million and 2.5 million respectively in 2014) (ibid. 2015, para. 34). That same source states that, in Guinea, [UN English version] “to be registered without having a birth certificate is almost equal to not being registered at all” (ibid.).
Country Reports 2015 states that authorities do not permit children without birth certificates to attend school or access health care (US 13 Apr. 2015, 23).
Sources state that the cost incurred to obtain a birth certificate, as well as the difficult access to registration centres due to their location, constitute obstacles to registering births in Guinea (US 13 Apr. 2016, 23; UN 13 June 2013, para. 44). Sources state also that among the obstacles to birth registration are births outside health structures because of the isolation of villages in relation to the health centres, the lack of qualified staff to fill out records in the villages (UN 2015, para. 35) and illiteracy (US 13 Apr. 2016, 23).
Furthermore, according to the President of AJAD, [translation] “in Guinea, archives are often defective and, in most cases, the city hall does not have the birth certificate” (AJAD 10 Aug. 2016b). Similarly, the UNICEF report mentions [UN English version] “serious concerns … about … the care taken in the archiving of records for permanent keeping” (UN 2015, para. 34).
5. Incorrect and Fraudulent Birth Certificate Extracts
In a report by the joint mission in Guinea, conducted in 2011, the Belgian Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons (Commissariat général aux réfugiés et aux apatrides, CGRA), the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (Office français de protection des réfugiés et apatrides, OFPRA) and the Swiss Federal Office for Migration (Office fédéral des migrations, ODM) point out that there are [translation] “serious malfunctions” in the Guinean administration and therefore, a certain number of documents of civil status, “while authentic,” may contain “blatant anomalies” (Belgium, France and Switzerland Mar. 2012, 21). Similarly, the UNICEF report mentions [UN English version] “serious concerns both about the current quality of registration, as well as about errors in the filling out of forms (because of a lack of checks)” (UN 2015, para. 34).
In addition, the joint report of CGRA, of OFPRA and of ODM states the following about obtaining fraudulent civil status documents:
[translation]
[T]he lack of material means affecting all government officials exposes civil status officers … to corruption. Civil status documents … may therefore, while authentic because they are regularly issued by the competent authorities, have been obtained fraudulently ….
….
[T]he auxiliary rulings on birth registration are, altogether, deemed doubtful to the extent that they are issued “on demand,” without any verification, only on the basis of the testimony of two people.
…
The interlocutors unanimously stated that all of the documents, whether they are from justice, the police or they relate to civil status or identity, may be purchased in Guinea. (Belgium, France and Switzerland Mar. 2012, 21-22)
Similarly, according to the President of AJAD, [translation] “certain civil status documents are issued illegally” (AJAD 10 Aug. 2016b).
Moreover, the joint report of CGRA, of OFPRA and of ODM states the following about the counterfeit documents:
[translation]
In addition to the [authentic documents obtained fraudulently], there are also documents that are simply false and circulate in very large quantities in the country. Many agencies specialize in this business in the capital. According to the lawyers, police officers, magistrates and diplomats met, all of the stamps, signatures and headers may be reproduced. (Belgium, France and Switzerland Mar. 2012, 22)
Similarly, an article published in February 2015 by the Guinean news portal Aminata reports that the ambassador of Guinea in France, urged his compatriots not to be [translation] “complicit in the forgery” of falsified documents, including falsified “birth extracts” (Aminata 24 Feb. 2015).
With respect to checking the authenticity of the documents, the following is indicated in the joint report of CGRA, of OFPRA and of ODM, which is based on an interview with individuals in charge at the civil status office in the Matoto commune in Conakry:
[translation]
[T]here is no or little possibility to check the authenticity or the regularity of the procedure for obtaining documents from the authorities. On the one hand, the registers, when they exist, are not computerised, and the archive system is non-existent or faulty. On the other hand, requests of this nature addressed to the various administrations involved often remain unanswered. (Belgium, France and Switzerland Mar. 2012, 23)
This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.