UNHCR, APRIL 2023 REFUGEES FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION In some cases, a person seeking to register a birth may be required by civil registration authorities to provide other documents (such as a marriage certificate, or the death certificate of the other spouse, if relevant). Certificates of birth, adoption, marriage, divorce, or death may be important for the assertion of rights, including rights within the family as well as nationality. In some cases where a person seeks documents from a consulate, the host country may consider that the refugee “voluntarily re-availed himself of the protection of the country of nationality” and therefore, though UNHCR urges otherwise, that refugee protection ceases to apply. 131 For this reason, there are provisions in the 1951 Refugee Convention intended to govern the recognition of personal status (Article 12) or recognition or substitution of personal status events or documents issued in another country (Article 25), including delivery of “such documents or certifications as would normally be delivered to aliens by or through their national authorities” (Article 25(2)).132 There is, however, little guidance on the practical steps required to fulfil these obligations. 133 The UN Statistics Division published an updated set of guidelines on a legislative framework for civil registration, vital statistics, and identity management in January 2019, adopted by the Statistical Commission in 2020. The guidelines include a focus on the reduction of statelessness and on the registration of births to nationals occurring abroad.134 There is a lack of official guidance on what information related to nationality of the parents and child should be recorded in the birth registration and certificates of the children of migrants or of refugees, especially if the parents have no documents from the country of origin or are of different nationalities of origin. However, the interpretation of the law of another country in relation to attribution of nationality to a child born abroad is a complex question, especially in case of refugee s, and it is not advisable to give this task to district-level civil registration officials. In addition, it must be recognised that a determination by the country of a child’s birth that a child has another nationality does not in itself bind the authorit ies of that state. Most national laws establish procedures for birth certificates issued by another country to be transcribed into national records, whether by consular registration or another route. Recognition of civil status documents may thus become an issue of concern if voluntary repatriation is possible. UNHCR’s recommended template for tripartite agreement on repatriation, between the agency and the countries 131 Article 1 C of the 1951 Refugee Convention provides that: ‘This Convention shall cease to apply to any person falling under the terms of section A if: (1) He has voluntarily re ‑availed himself of the protection of the country of his nationality;…’. For commentary, see UNHCR, ‘Handbook on Procedures and Criteria for Determining Refugee Status and Guidelines on International Protection under the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees (Reissued)’ (Geneva: United Nations, February 2019), para. 121. 132 Similar provisions are included within articles 12 and 25 of the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons. 133 For commentary, see James C. Hathaway, The Rights of Refugees under International Law (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), chap. 3.2.4 & 4.10; ‘The Refugee Convention, 1951: The Travaux préparatoires analysed with a Commentary by Dr. Paul Weis’, UNHCR 1990 https://www.refworld.org/docid/53e1dd114.html. Article 25 is also considered in ‘Summary Conclusions on the Right to Family Life and Family Unity in the Context of Family Reunification of Refugees and Other Persons in Need of International Protection’ UNHCR, 2017 https://www.refworld.org/docid/5b18f5774.html ; Frances Nicholson, ‘The “Essential Right” to Family Unity of Refugees and Others in Need of International Protection in the Context of Family Reunification’, UNHCR, 2018, https://www.unhcr.org/protection/globalconsult/5a8c413a7/36-essential-right-family-unity-refugees-othersneed-international-protection.html. 134 UN Statistics Division, ‘Guidelines on the Legislative Framework for Civil Registration, Vital Statistics and Identity Management; Second Draft’ (New York: United Nations, January 2019), paras 3, 162, 304 –305, https://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic-social/Standards-andMethods/files/Handbooks/crvs/CRVS_GOLF_Final_Draft-E.pdf. 49