Within three working days, as required by law, I came to the Registry Office to report the birth of my child and submit all documents. The registrar did not know how to proceed, but she did not hesitate and had our family immediately reported to the Department of Social and Legal Protection of Children, which investigates cases of abused and neglected children. A social worker appeared that day in our home, three hours after reporting the birth of a child, and demanded entry to our house and wanted to see our newborn daughter. I had to explain the whole thing at their office. The social workers continued to demand entry to our house and even threatened us, saying that they will return with the police. They did not hesitate to carry out investigations with our neighbors, assuming our children had been abused and neglected. I demanded an explanation of this highly non-standard procedure by their superiors, who put this procedure to an immediate halt and told me that they will no longer be involved in this case.

After this method failed, the Civil Registry Office started to require unreasonable documentation, such as to fill their "Report of Birth" for the Czech Statistical Office, which in practice the office is obliged to complete itself. They said that they would issue us the birth certificate afterward. We told them that it is their duty, and that we are not even entitled to fill out such forms, but that we will provide them with all the required information to help them complete the form. The Registry Office refused this and started to invent more and more required documentation, such as a certificate by a gynecologist that the mother gave birth to the child, and so on. The Registry also called us to get witnesses who saw my wife pregnant and attended the delivery, as if the birth was a public matter. This seemed already totally absurd to us, because the registrar, who issued an acknowledging statement on the child's name, saw my wife pregnant less than a month before the birth. The Registry then began to speculate that the child probably does not even exist. We cannot comprehend this, because our daughter goes on regular walks outside, neighbors meet us and we have also received congratulations on the birth of our daughter from the local authority. And that's not the only office whose officials have seen our daughter.

Moreover, the Registry Office arbitrarily asked our gynecologist for information, which she provided without the consent of the child's mother. Thus the Registry Office acquired further evidence they demanded, but still it was not enough for them. We filed a complaint with the Ombudsman and the Regional Office to set aside the registrar's decision and to re-open the discussion. The Ombudsman conducted an investigation, which is still pending. In the meantime, the Ombudsman's findings showed so far that the Registry Office erred in many cases, for example delays and errors in management etc. Additionally, according to the Ombudsman, reporting families to the social services is totally unacceptable!

Although we have repeatedly urged the authorities to take up this serious matter, as our daughter still has no birth certificate and no social security number, the appeal authority took four months to decide that it will revoke the matter and return it to the Civil Registry Office.

In conclusion, the Registry Office now has documentation above and beyond the required framework, such as the pregnancy card, gynecologist's report on our visits and a report of other visits to private gynecology clinics; a Registry Office official saw my wife a month before the child birth and another public official has seen our newborn daughter, so it can not be doubted that our daughter actually exists. Moreover, an investigation by a social worker showed that people from the neighborhood have confirmed that the baby exists - all this and further evidence is still overlooked by the Registry Office.

We are now waiting again for the decision by the original Registry Office, which the authorities have again tasked with solving the situation by referring the whole matter back to them.

Luboš V., the Pardubice region, Czech Republic