Syrian refugee Fahemyh registers baby Ali © UNHCR/Lilly Carlisle. For example, in Fiji, the Law on Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration16 only permits the mother to register the birth of the child where the father has died, fallen ill, is absent or unable to register the birth. In Oman, the Civil Status Law 17 stipulates that responsibility for registering the birth of the child falls first to the father. The final person eligible to register the child’s birth, should a successive list of individuals following the father be unavailable, is the mother. In Eswatini, the Birth, Deaths and Marriages Act18 also specifies that it is the father’s responsibility to register the child. No mention is made of the mother and it is only where the father has died, is absent or unable to register the birth that any other person present at the time of birth may register the birth. This presumably includes the mother. Women can only register the birth of their children if they can prove that the child was born in wedlock In addition to the issues discussed above, in many countries, women may register the births of their children only if they provide additional documents – generally, a marriage certificate. This effectively excludes registration by mothers of children born out of wedlock. In most countries that require presentation of a marriage certificate, the requirement applies to both men and women, i.e., a child can only be registered upon proof that his or her parents are in a legal marriage. In some countries, however, the requirement to present a marriage certificate applies only to women. The requirement to provide additional documents particularly affects families that have been forcibly displaced, as these documents are often left behind during flight. 16 Article 11, Laws of Fiji, Chapter 49, Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration, 1975. 17 Article 16, Civil Status Law, 1999. 18 Article 15(1) of the Births, Deaths and Marriages Act, 1983. B AC KG R O U N D N O T E O N S E X D I S C R I M I N AT I O N I N B I R T H R E G I S T R AT I O N 9