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MEDIA RELEASE: 110+ Children / Teens Change Birth Certificate

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MEDIA RELEASE – 1 September 2024

110+ Children / Teens Change Birth Certificate

Children are changing the sex on their birth certificate since the new law came into force on 15 June last year, including 47 children 15 years or younger. Some 16/17 year olds have done it without parental / guardian consent.

Almost 900 people in total have changed their birth certificates to their ‘self-identified gender’.

According to Official Information Act data gained by Family First from the Department of Internal Affairs, the number of people who have changed their gender on their NZ birth certificate in the first year of the new law is:

15 & under       47

16 / 17                66

18+                   776

TOTAL              889

Two teenagers in the 16/17 age group have made the change without parental consent – instead relying on a letter of support from a “suitably qualified third party” (which is undefined).

Demand to be recognised as a female was greatest with 445, followed by male 302, and non-binary 142.

There is no limit to the number of times you can change the gender on your birth certificate. Ironically, you can reapply to revert to the sex recorded at birth.

In the 2001 Select Committee report it said:

  • “it is important to allow the sex markers to be prescribed by regulation, rather than primary legislation. This would allow them to be more easily reviewed and updated as understanding of sex and gender changes over time.”
  • “We believe that people should be allowed to amend their registered sex more than once, to reflect that gender can be fluid for some people.”
  • “It is possible that a 16- or 17-year-old may not receive guardian consent. In our view, this should not be the end of the process… We think that providing a reasonable alternative to guardian consent is important for young people who may not have guardians willing to support them in amending their sex.”
  • For children 15 years or younger, a health professional’s recommendation is no longer required either. Just a parent and a “third party”.
  • Who can be a “third party”? Could be “have known the applicant for a period of time” but “wide enough to provide applicants with a reasonable level of choice”.
  • “Some submitters were concerned that a self-identification process would have an adverse effect on women’s sport. We take a different view.”
  • “The information on a birth certificate alone is not definitive evidence of a person’s sex.”
  • “We agree that requiring someone to declare that they intend to “live as” a person of the nominated sex is problematic. Inadvertently, this could be perceived as enshrining sexist stereotypes in law depending on a person’s view of what it means to “live as” a person of a particular sex.” Those clauses are now removed (“intend to live as a person of the nominated sex”)

In a touch of massive irony, the Select Committee inadvertently confirmed why the ‘conversion therapy’ law should also have been binned, and why parental notification for teen abortions, puberty blockers and cross-sex hormone treatment should be mandated.

“We think that the difference between a 16- or 17-year-old and a child is their competence in making important decisions with significant consequences. We think it is important to retain a guardian’s responsibilities for their child’s development and helping their child to understand and make important decisions. This is why we think consent from a guardian must be required if a child under 16 wants to amend their registered sex… we are not confident that all children from age 12 to 15 have adequate competence to make important decisions.”

“By choosing your own gender in your birth certificate, the certificates have become an object of unscientific gender ideology and effectively tells medical professionals that they got it wrong at time of birth. Circumstances may change but a historical document should not be able to be changed,” says Bob McCoskrie, CEO of Family First NZ.

“Binary is the only gender story there is amongst humanity when it comes to gender and sex-distinction. There simply are not many genders. But of course, there are many different ways to be a healthy male or female without holding to narrow gender stereotypes. Human sexuality is a dichotomy, not a continuum.”

“It is to Parliament’s shame that they voted to distort biological reality.”

READ MORE ON THE NEW LAW: www.BirthCertificates.nz

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VANUATU: Families find climate-smart ways to grow crops

Source: Save The Children

Tropical Cyclone Lola was one of the most powerful off-season storms to strike the Pacific when it made landfall in October 2023 with wind speeds of up to 215 km/h, destroying homes, schools and plantations, claiming the lives of at least four people [2] and affecting about 91,000 people [1]. 
Recovery efforts were made significantly more challenging when Vanuatu’s capital Port Vila was then hit by a 7.3 magnitude earthquake in December last year, claiming 14 lives and destroying critical infrastructure.
Madleen, 11, said when the cyclone hit, her family’s crops were destroyed, leaving them short of food. 
“It destroyed the food crops. When we came outside, we saw the crops were destroyed. The banana tree was just bearing fruit and it was destroyed. And we didn’t have enough food. We were eating rice, but we were almost running short. We were not eating well, we ate just enough. I felt bad.”  
After the cyclone, a shortage of nutritious food put children at risk of hunger as well as diseases like diarrhea, with typically an increase in the number of children hospitalised for diarrhea following cyclones, Save the Children said. 
Vanuatu is already one of the most climate disaster-prone countries in the world, and scientists say tropical cyclones will become more extreme as the climate crisis worsens. This will disproportionately impact children due to food shortages, disruption to education and psychosocial trauma associated with experiencing disasters. 
Save the Children, alongside Vanuatu’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Forestry, Fisheries, and Biosecurity (MALFFB) and local partners, is supporting Madleen and her family through the Tropical Cyclone Lola Recovery Programme, which is helping improve food security and resilience in communities impacted by the cyclone. 
As a part of the Recovery Programme, over 1,100 households have received climate-resistant [3] seeds from a seedbank. These seeds, for growing watermelon, papaya, Chinese cabbage, tomato, capsicum and cucumber, are proven to perform in Vanuatu’s changing climate, with tolerance to high rainfall, drought, pests and disease. Farmers are encouraged to preserve the seeds from crops and sell them back to the seed bank. 
The programme is also training communities in other climate-smart agricultural techniques such as growing smaller fruit trees that are robust enough to withstand strong cyclone winds.
Save the Children has also built a collapsible nursery for plants in Madleen’s community that can be taken down when a cyclone is predicted, so saplings and trees can be stored, protected and replanted after it passes.
Save the Children Vanuatu Country Director, Polly Banks, said:
“In just 18 months, people in Vanuatu have been deeply shaken by a devastating cyclone and a powerful earthquake.
“Children have borne the brunt of this, with food taken off their plates, crops destroyed, homes and schools damaged and diseases on the rise. As the climate crisis accelerates, we must work with communities to strengthen their resilience, so children and their families are better equipped to face whatever comes next.
“We’re working in partnership with the Government of Vanuatu and local partners to help communities build the skills and resources they need to support themselves when future cyclones and disasters strike.”
Save the Children has been working in in Vanuatu for more than 40 years to make sure children are learning, protected from harm, and grow up healthy and strong.  

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Source: Save The Children

Tropical Cyclone Lola was one of the most powerful off-season storms to strike the Pacific when it made landfall in October 2023 with wind speeds of up to 215 km/h, destroying homes, schools and plantations, claiming the lives of at least four people [2] and affecting about 91,000 people [1]. 
Recovery efforts were made significantly more challenging when Vanuatu’s capital Port Vila was then hit by a 7.3 magnitude earthquake in December last year, claiming 14 lives and destroying critical infrastructure.
Madleen, 11, said when the cyclone hit, her family’s crops were destroyed, leaving them short of food. 
“It destroyed the food crops. When we came outside, we saw the crops were destroyed. The banana tree was just bearing fruit and it was destroyed. And we didn’t have enough food. We were eating rice, but we were almost running short. We were not eating well, we ate just enough. I felt bad.”  
After the cyclone, a shortage of nutritious food put children at risk of hunger as well as diseases like diarrhea, with typically an increase in the number of children hospitalised for diarrhea following cyclones, Save the Children said. 
Vanuatu is already one of the most climate disaster-prone countries in the world, and scientists say tropical cyclones will become more extreme as the climate crisis worsens. This will disproportionately impact children due to food shortages, disruption to education and psychosocial trauma associated with experiencing disasters. 
Save the Children, alongside Vanuatu’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Forestry, Fisheries, and Biosecurity (MALFFB) and local partners, is supporting Madleen and her family through the Tropical Cyclone Lola Recovery Programme, which is helping improve food security and resilience in communities impacted by the cyclone. 
As a part of the Recovery Programme, over 1,100 households have received climate-resistant [3] seeds from a seedbank. These seeds, for growing watermelon, papaya, Chinese cabbage, tomato, capsicum and cucumber, are proven to perform in Vanuatu’s changing climate, with tolerance to high rainfall, drought, pests and disease. Farmers are encouraged to preserve the seeds from crops and sell them back to the seed bank. 
The programme is also training communities in other climate-smart agricultural techniques such as growing smaller fruit trees that are robust enough to withstand strong cyclone winds.
Save the Children has also built a collapsible nursery for plants in Madleen’s community that can be taken down when a cyclone is predicted, so saplings and trees can be stored, protected and replanted after it passes.
Save the Children Vanuatu Country Director, Polly Banks, said:
“In just 18 months, people in Vanuatu have been deeply shaken by a devastating cyclone and a powerful earthquake.
“Children have borne the brunt of this, with food taken off their plates, crops destroyed, homes and schools damaged and diseases on the rise. As the climate crisis accelerates, we must work with communities to strengthen their resilience, so children and their families are better equipped to face whatever comes next.
“We’re working in partnership with the Government of Vanuatu and local partners to help communities build the skills and resources they need to support themselves when future cyclones and disasters strike.”
Save the Children has been working in in Vanuatu for more than 40 years to make sure children are learning, protected from harm, and grow up healthy and strong.  

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Aid cuts threaten the lives of 110,000 children

Source: Save The Children

Globally, one in five deaths among children aged under 5 are attributed to severe acute malnutrition, making it one of the top threats to child survival. Community-based programmes combining medical treatment and therapeutic foods, including a fortified peanut paste, have a 90% success rate.
Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) is an energy-dense, micronutrient paste typically made using peanuts, sugar, milk powder, oil, vitamins and minerals that is packaged in foil pouches with a long shelf life and no need of refrigeration. Over the past 30 years this emergency therapeutic food has saved the lives of millions of children facing acute malnutrition [1] [2].
At a time when global hunger is skyrocketing [3], the current global supply of RUTF is already not even meeting 40% of global needs, Save the Children said, leaving millions of children without access to this life-saving intervention.
In 2024 there were large-scale breaks in the supply of RUTF as rising malnutrition rates drove up demand and due to disruptions in global supply chains and insufficient funding. This situation is expected to worsen in 2025. An analysis by Save the Children of the 10 countries forecast to have the biggest gaps in supplies found 110,000 malnourished children could miss out on this vital treatment by the end of the year. RUTF supplies are expected to run out in many locations from next month due to a lack of funding.
Globally at least 18.2 million children were born into hunger in 2024, or about 35 children a minute, with children in conflict zones from Gaza to Ukraine, to Haiti, Sudan to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), struggling daily to get enough to eat. Famine has been declared in several parts of Sudan where people are resorting to eating grass to stay alive.
Hannah Stephenson, Head of Hunger and Nutrition at Save the Children, said:
“Right now, funding shortfalls mean essential nutrition packs are not reaching the children who desperately need them. We know we have the expertise and the track record to reach children around the world but what we urgently need now is the funding to ensure children can receive life-saving treatment. We are running out of time, and t his will cost children’s lives.
“We also need to see long-term commitments to tackle the root causes of hunger and malnutrition, or else we will continue to see the reversal of progress made for children.”
In Kenya, one of the countries where Save the Children treats acute malnutrition cases, 18-month-old Ereng has just recovered from malnutrition with treatment from Community Health Promoter Charles, who was trained in basic healthcare by Save the Children.
Lomanat and Daniel, Ereng’s parents, walked for several kilometres to reach Charles’ clinic. The family are pastoralists, but recent droughts have killed their livestock, and the family now has no sustainable income and no reliable food source.
They know how important treatment is for children like Ereng, who gained 2.4 kgs (5.3 pounds) in two months once she started receiving nutrition treatment using the fortified peanut paste which has about 500 calories in each portion. Lomanat said:
“Our child was in a very bad shape, and the doctor helped by giving her peanut paste. I am very happy, because she is cured.”
In Somalia, where Save the Children also treats child with acute malnutrition, 7-month-Mukhtar- arrived at a health centre in Puntland after contracting flu which led to breathing difficulties and malnutrition.
His mother Shamso, 40, who has eight other children, feared her son would not survive with the family struggling after drought killed all but six of their herd of 30 goats. But after receiving medical care and treatment for malnutrition with peanut paste, Mukhtar recovered and returned home.
“His condition was serious when I brought him in and I didn’t expect him to reach the town alive,” said Shamso. “My biggest worry is the children, whether my own, those of the relatives or those of my neighbours. When drought comes, it follows that hunger will strike.”
Children are always the most vulnerable in food crises and, without enough to eat and the right nutritional balance, they are at high risk of becoming acutely malnourished.
Malnutrition can cause stunting, impede mental and physical development, and increase the risk of contracting deadly diseases.
About 1.12 billion children globally – or almost half of the world’s children – are unable to afford a balanced diet now, according to data from Save the Children released last month.
In 2025, Save the Children aims to treat 260,000 children for severe acute malnutrition at outpatient sites in 10 countries that are now experiencing therapeutic food shortages.
Save the Children is urgently trying to raise $7 million to provide 110,000 severely malnourished children with life-saving RUTF and the critical services needed to treat malnutrition 1 including skilled health workers, community follow-up, immunizations, safe spaces for treatment, safe water, hygiene and sanitation support.
In the United States, actress and Save the Children ambassador Jennifer Garner launched her #67Strong4Kids campaign on her birthday last week. For #67Strong4Kids she is running a mile a day for 67 consecutive days to raise awareness about Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF). The amount $67 covers a six-week course of RUTF that treats a child suffering from severe acute malnutrition and potentially saves their life.
* Methodology: Save the Children used the target reach figures for all outpatient severe acute malnutrition treatment in 10 countries facing the largest disruption to the RUTF supply and compared with the current funding gaps for RUTF in those countries. Given the continued uncertainty in supply funding these figures are preliminary and up to date as of 26 March 2025. The 10 countries facing the largest disruptions are Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Myanmar, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Yemen.

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Poorest people get less than 1c per day to protect themselves from impacts of climate crisis

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People living in the poorest countries receive around $3 per year – less than one cent per day – to protect themselves from the devastating impacts of the climate crisis, Oxfam estimates in a new report today ahead of the Climate Action Summit in New York. The report highlights how people in Mozambique and the Horn of Africa are facing mounting human and financial costs from climate-related disasters they did least to create. 

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Hunger is spiralling, but has fallen off the political agenda, says Oxfam

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Responding to new figures released by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) today, which show that the number of hungry people has risen for the third year in a row, mainly as a result of conflict and the climate crisis, Oxfam International’s Executive Director Winnie Byanyima said:

“Despite spiralling hunger and two global food price crises in a little over ten years, hunger has fallen off the political agenda.

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Review of relationships and sexuality education welcomed

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“The report has shown us that there is widespread support from parents, whānau and students for relationships and sexuality education (RSE), but there is a need to improve consistency across the RSE curriculum as a whole.”

“In an increasingly fractured and online world, it is important that parents and whānau know what their rangatahi are learning at school. Nowhere is this more important than in relationships and sexuality education.”

“The 21 key findings and the seven recommendations will make a welcome difference to the experience of RSE for all of our ākonga. In particular, the recommendation to move away from the current ad hoc practice towards a more prescriptive and structured approach is one we support in this case. RSE is too important to be left to chance, and often much of the material is outside of the lived experience of those delivering the curriculum. A structured approach ensures age-appropriate, identity-affirming information is delivered across the board.”

“Students have made it clear what they want to learn, and when. It is essential that student voice is recognised when the curriculum is reviewed. It is also important that any changes are properly resourced. The addition of appropriate teaching resources and professional learning for teachers should also be considered, to support those delivering RSE.”

“We acknowledge the challenge that principals and schools face when consulting with their communities on the RSE guidelines, and that this process can be difficult and divisive. We support the recommendation to consider moving from a two-yearly consultation requirement to one that requires schools to inform parents and whānau about what they plan to teach, and how, before teaching it.

This knowledge will enable parents, whānau, and their young person to make decisions about what is right for them. For the minority that want less RSE, they would be better able to identity the lessons they wish to withdraw from, and the same would be true for those who wish to know more. With a clear understanding of what is not being taught, they can supplement the learning in their own homes”.

“We know that often there is a narrow view of what RSE is. In most cases it is about helping young people understand how to navigate friendships and thinking about others in an inclusive way. These are key skills for being an active member of your community and wider society.”

Last modified on Tuesday, 10 December 2024 08:30

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