UNHCR, APRIL 2023 REFUGEES FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION refugees in a protracted situation.8 The question of local integration and future legal status for these refugees and their descendants born in the country of asylum is a pressing concern. The Regional Durable Solutions Secretariat for the Great Lakes (ReDSSGL), a coalition of ten international NGOs, has carried out studies exploring the integration of displaced populations in all three of the countries covered by this study, as well as Tanzania, which provide important information on other aspects of local integration, complementary to the analysis presented in this report. 9 Relevant international law A comprehensive account of international standards in relation to proof of legal identity and access to nationality is provided in Annex 3 to this report. The most important standards are as follows 10: Birth registration: The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child provide that it is the right of every child to be registered immediately after birth. This is emphasized by the Migrant Workers Convention and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.11 Identity of children: The Convention on the Rights of the Child requires states to respect the right of the child “to preserve his or her identity (including nationality, name and family relations)” and, “where a child is illegally deprived of some or all of the elements of his or her identity, to provide appropriate assistance and protection, with a view to re-establishing speedily his or her identity.”12 Recognition as a person before the law: A range of international and regional human rights establish the right of every person to recognition as a person before the law, meant to ensure legal status and capacity to exercise rights and enter into contractual obligations. 13 Identity documents for refugees, stateless persons and IDPs: The 1951 Refugee Convention requires states to provide every refugee with identity documents.14 Similar obligations apply to stateless persons and the internally displaced. 15 8 ‘Outcome Document: Peer-Learning Event on Comprehensive Durable Solutions for Refugees in the Great Lakes Region’, ICGLR, UNHCR, ReDSS, & European Union, 31 January – 1 February 2023, Bujumbura, Burundi https://icglr.org/ova_doc/outcome-document-peer-learning-event-on-comprehensive-durable-solutions-forrefugees-in-the-great-lakes-region/. Annex 2, on terminology, discusses the definitions used in this report. 9 ‘Levels of self-reliance, livelihood opportunities and alternatives to encampment among displaced populations in the Great Lakes Region of Africa: Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania & Democratic Republic of Congo’, ReDSS, March 2022. ReDSS is a coordination and information hub for ten NGOs: ACTED, CARE International, Concern Worldwide, the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), the International Rescue Committee (IRC), Mercy Corps, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), Oxfam, Save the Children, and World Vision. See https://www.redssgreatlakes.org/. 10 Adapted from Bronwen Manby, ‘Identification in the Context of Forced Displacement’, Identification for Development Initiative (Washington, D.C.: World Bank, June 2016), https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/24941. 11 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Article 24(2); Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Article 7; Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (Migrant Workers’ Convention) Article 29; Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Article 18. 12 CRC, Article 8. 13 Including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) Article 6; ICCPR, Article 16, and Migrant Workers' Convention, Article 24. 14 UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (Refugee Convention), Articles 27 and 28. 15 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, Article 27; UN Guiding Principles on IDPs, Principle 20; Kampala Convention, Article 13. 7