CHAPTER I
15
ANNEXES
36
37
UN CRC, UN CMW, Joint general comment No. 4.
Good Practices Paper, Action 7: Ensuring birth registration for the prevention of statelessness, UNHCR,
November 2017.
See e.g., Background Note on Sex Discrimination in Birth Registration, UNHCR, UNICEF, 6 July 2021; Every
Child’s Birth Right: Inequities and trends in birth registration, UNICEF, December 2013.
Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, UN DESA (no date).; see also
UNHCR, Good Practices Paper, Action 7.
See Birth registration and the prevention of statelessness in Europe, ENS, May 2020.
Statelessness Index website, ENS.
RECOMMENDATIONS
35
CHAPTER VII
34
CHAPTER VI
32
33
CHAPTER V
The European Network on Statelessness’s 2020 report, Birth registration and the prevention
of statelessness in Europe,36 expands on and provides helpful recommendations on
how States should regulate and implement birth registration to comply with international
standards to prevent childhood statelessness. In addition, the ENS’s Statelessness Index
contains substantial evidence of laws and practices relating to birth registration in many
OSCE participating States in Europe.37
CHAPTER IV
Children whose births have been registered may be stateless in some cases, but having
proof of when, where and to whom a child was born reduces the risk that they will remain
without nationality. As discussed above, it is also crucial to have legal safeguards that
provide nationality for children who would otherwise be stateless, in accordance with the
1961 Convention, the CRC and other international law.
CHAPTER III
UNHCR’s 2017 Good Practices Paper, Action 7: Ensuring birth registration for the
prevention of statelessness33 provides further guidance; and UNHCR and UNICEF
have also published other reports and resources emphasizing the importance of birth
registration and setting out criteria for good practices.34 Further, the UN’s 2030 Sustainable
Development Agenda (Target 16.9) recognizes statelessness as a development issue
and includes the aim to ensure “legal identity for all, including birth registration.”35
CHAPTER II
Various international laws, standards and principles establish the criteria for good practices
relating to birth registration to prevent statelessness. Article 24 of the ICCPR and Article
7 of the CRC establish that children have a right to birth registration immediately after
birth, as well as the right to a name and to acquire a nationality. Article 29 of the 1990
International Convention on the Protection of Migrant Workers and their Families and
Article 18 of the 2007 Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities also confirm
the right to birth registration. The CRC Committee and the Committee on the Protection
of Migrant Workers have emphasized that all children should be issued birth certificates,
regardless of the immigration status of the child or their parents.32