14 Preventing Statelessness Among Migrants and Refugees countries.30 Given these quite closed nationality regimes, procedural protections against statelessness are even more important. The civil registration systems in both countries date back to 1912, and birth registration rates are high: reported to reach 99 percent in Egypt,31 and 94 percent in Morocco.32 Nonetheless, UN treaty bodies have regretted the particular difficulties faced in Egypt in registering children born out of wedlock;33 the situation of abandoned children in Morocco;34 and difficulties in both countries for the children of migrant workers.35 The Egyptian law on civil registration36 continues to discriminate on the basis of sex: births are expected to be registered by the father, although (since amendments to the Child Law in 200837) the mother may also report a birth if the father is not available. The parents (or other informants) must present valid identity documents, as well as the birth notification from a clinic or other recognised source, and a marriage certificate. In case the father is deceased, a death certificate must accompany the marriage certificate. Births are required to be registered within 15 days. There are further requirements if the birth is not registered within the 15 day time period. In Morocco, both the civil registration law38 and the 2004 family code39 establish the duty for parents to register the births of their children. To do so, a parent needs a birth notification from a doctor or legally registered midwife or from the local authority, and, if the parents are Muslims, a copy of the marriage certificate.40 Births must be registered within 30 days; late registration is possible, through a declaratory judgement of the lowest level civil tribunal. Although Egypt is a party to the relevant treaties, there is no national legislation on asylum In recent years, no more than a handful of people have been naturalised in any one year in Morocco, while it has been reported that only 6,228 people were naturalised from independence in 1956 until 2006: http://o-maroc.com/obtenir-nationalite-marocaine; see also naturalisation decrees published in the Bulletin Officiel for Morocco at http://www.sgg.gov.ma/Legislation/BulletinsOfficiels.aspx; there are no official statistics available from Egypt. 31 Ministry of Health and Population/Egypt, El-Zanaty and Associates/Egypt, and ICF International, ‘Egypt Demographic and Health Survey 2014’, Cairo, Egypt: Ministry of Health and Population and ICF International, 2015. See also statistics reported at https://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/egypt_statistics. html 32 See statistics reported at https://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/morocco_statistics.html 33 UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, ‘Concluding Observations on the combined third and fourth periodic reports of Egypt’, CRC/C/EGY/CO/3-4, 15 July 2011. 34 UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, ‘Concluding observations: on the combined third and fourth periodic reports of Morocco’, CRC/C/MAR/CO/3-4, 14 October 2014. 35 UN Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, ‘Concluding observations on the initial report of Morocco’, CMW/C/MAR/CO/1, 8 October 2013; ‘Concluding observations on the initial report of Egypt’, CMW/C/EGY/CO/1, 25 May 2007. 36 Law No. 260 of 1960, amended by Law No. 11 of 1965 and Law No. 158 of 1980. 37 Law No. 12 of 1996 promulgating the Child Law amended by Law No. 126 of 2008. 38 Loi n° 37-99 relative à l’état civil, promulguée par le dahir n° 1.02.239 du 25 rejeb 1423 (3 octobre 2002). 39 Loi n°70.03 portant code de la famille, promulguée par le Dahir 1.04.22 du 3 février 2004. 40 Décret pris pour l’application de la loi n° 3 -99 relative à l’état civil, 9 octobre 2002, article 17. 30