What’s the reason for a global registry of people? 

Global registries of criminals, pedophiles, fine.  But global registries of vulnerable people who’s only ‘crime’ is fleeing conflict, famine, natural disasters and receiving aid – not so fine. We judge the vulnerable and view them so suspiciously that we somehow justify to ourselves the need for or value of a global registry of details about the vulnerable people.  Do we think that many of these vulnerable people are doing tours of humanitarian hotspots globally, jetting from Dadaab in Kenya to Colombia overnight to pick up extra ‘rations’?  

How did we get here?  How did we get to the point where we stand by and are ok with the delivery of aid being stopped because a community did not want to give their biometrics to us?  How did we get to the point where we do not think it is important to tell the youth in Latin America that when they join our education project and share their details, we  will pass their details to the US government?  

I don’t know, but we have.  

Going digital can be a massive force for positive change.  Going digital can help us uphold and hold fast to our humanitarian principles.  The choice is ours.  Perhaps it’s time to make better choices. 

Photo by nikko macaspac