W HO WE ARE SERV I N G A N D W HY STAKEHOLDERS GOVERNMENT/STATE JUDGES MINISTRY OF JUSTICE MINISTRY OF INTERIOR LEGAL AID OFFICES LAWYERS IMMIGRATION OFFICIALS UNITED NATIONS UNICEF UNHCR UN WOMEN UNDP REFUGEE AGENCIES OMBUDSPERSON CIVIL REGISTRATION OFFICIALS CIVIL SOCIETY NGOs (LOCALLY AND CENTRALLY) RELIGIOUS LEADERS SOCIAL WORKERS WOMEN’S LEADERS HEALTH WORKERS ACADEMIC PARTNERS YOUTH LEADERS UNFPA IOM T H I S I S A PA R T I A L L I S T O F S TA K E H O L D E R S NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTES (NHRIs) Second, consider the laws that affect the issues you seek to address. Sources for these are listed below. You will need to train paralegals to understand these laws, and may wish to provide them with hard copies of the laws, or parts of them. Civil registration and legal identity documentation systems can be heavily bureaucratic. Many of the critical steps in your clients’ cases and daily elements of your work with administrative agencies will be determined in implementing regulations, orders, and even in internal memoranda that you may not have access to. Many decisions will be left to administrative discretion of individual officers (see State and Local Practice, below). The rules and procedures for administrative challenges to denials may not be clear and access to judicial review of denials may be difficult or unavailable. There is also often great variation in practice across different local offices. These challenges often make paralegal assistance in such cases all the more important because projects are equipped to learn these processes and advocate for the gradual elimination of systemic problems like the lack of transparency, administrative discretion, and 24 | A C O M M U N I T Y- B A S E D P R A C T I T I O N E R ’ S G U I D E : D O C U M E N T I N G C I T I Z E N S H I P A N D OT H E R F O R M S O F L E G A L I D E N T I T Y