UNHCR, APRIL 2023 REFUGEES FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION has not, or not yet, received formal proof of nationality, he or she should be registered with the status and nationality of the asylum seeker / refugee parent. 117 UNHCR’s guidance on registration and identity management note that the issuance of identity documents for refugees is the primary responsibility of the government of the host state , and UNHCR advocates for documents to be issued by the national identification registration authority with the same design and specifications applied to identity documentation issued to nationals. 118 All countries in the Great Lakes region have refugee determination procedures; none, however, has a stateless person determination procedure. Rwanda has recently made the first move in this direction: the 2021 nationality law and ministerial order adopted in 2022 provided for the first time for acquisition of nationality by stateless persons (see Annex 4). For this reason, there are no current holders of stateless person identity or travel documents issued by states in the region. In general, UNHCR recommends that the status of stateless person should only be considered for a person who is in a situatio n similar to that of a refugee – that is, who has left the country of birth – rather than for individuals born in the country, for whom facilitated access to nationality of the country of birth is more appropriate. 119 Where a person already has refugee status, however, there is likely to be no immediate additional benefit to undertaking a stateless person status determination procedure, since no additional rights would be granted. However, it may be important to record within the refugee registration that a person may additionally be stateless, in case this becomes relevant for later for finding and providing legal support for the most adequate durable solutions (whether voluntary repatriation, local integration, or resettlement procedures). Birth registration and civil registration generally Birth registration is in all countries an important foundation for the protection of children and their access to public services.120 In addition, birth registration is critical to establishing in legal terms the place of birth and parental affiliation, which in turn underpins the right to attribution or acquisition of the parents’ nationality or the nationality of the state where the child is born. The importance of birth registration for the right to acquire a nationality is recognised by the inclusion of both rights within the same article of both the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC), as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention on the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.121 This significance has been reaffirmed by numerous statements from the UN treaty bodies 122, and by the African Committee of 117 Refugee Status Determination Procedural Standards – Processing Claims Based on the Right to Family Unity, UNHCR, 2016, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/577e17944.html. 118 ‘Guidance on Registration and Identity Management’, Chapter 5.3: Documentation, UNHCR, 2020 https://www.unhcr.org/registration-guidance/chapter5/documentation/ 119 “Handbook on Protection of Stateless Persons under the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons” UNHCR, 2014 https://www.refworld.org/docid/53b676aa4.html; “Good Practice Paper: Action 6 Establishing Statelessness Determination Procedures for the Protection of Stateless Persons” UNHCR July 2020 https://www.refworld.org/docid/5f203d0e4.html. 120 UNICEF, ‘A Passport to Protection: A Guide to Birth Registration Programming’ (Geneva: United Nations, December 2013), https://www.refworld.org/docid/52b2e2bd4.html. See also ‘Under the Radar and Under Protected: The Urgent Need to Address Stateless Children's Rights’, UNHCR and Plan International, June 2012 https://www.refworld.org/docid/514acd3e2.html. 121 Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 7; African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, Arti cle 6. 122 In the migration context, see in particular: UN Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, ‘General Comment No. 2: The Rights of Migrant Workers in an Irregular Situation and Members of Their Families’, 28 August 2013, CMW/C/GC/2; UN Committee on the Protection of the Rights of 47