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and coded according to whether they mentioned people in mobility using key term searches:
“foreigner,” “migrant,” “refugee,” and “asylum seeker.” This helped to identify which UN recommendations referred explicitly to removing obstacles to birth registration for children born to
people on the move. In the second phase, I added depth by analyzing the context and significance of each mention.
Informed by feminist content analysis (Hesse-Biber et al., 2007; Reinharz & Davidman, 1992),
which pays attention to what is and what is not present, I printed and coded by hand the
country summaries of the relevant recommendations and background information. The goal was
to identify civil registration strengthening efforts under way in a given country, patterns in the
type(s) of discrimination, and affected groups. Coding was informed by the theoretical framework
of intersectionality, as well as feminist scholarship on women’s human rights discussed in the
second section of this article.
A second round of ISI database queries was conducted to identify patterns regarding gender
discrimination in both citizenship conferral and birth registration. The coding strategy was both
deductive and inductive (Pierce, 2008). Initially, findings were coded deductively as either direct
or indirect forms of gender discrimination. Subsequent inductive codes identified the types of
gender-based discrimination or violence that contributed to nonregistration of birth (marital
status, sexual violence, child marriage, etc.). The countries that received the highest number of
UN recommendations can be found in Table 1.
Table 1. Top 10 countries by number of UN Recommendations received on birth registration for people in mobility* by human
rights mechanism** and year.
CCPR
CEDAW
CMW
CRC
2016
2013
2021
2012
2013
2019
2018
2012
2019
2012
2019
2010
2014
Cambodia
2013
2019
2020
N/A
2011
2010
2014
Chile
2012
2018
2013
2011
2021
2015
2021
2014
2013
2022
2008
2013
N/A
2008
2015
2015
2010
2014
2019
2016
2010
2014
2019
Azerbaijan
Bosnia and Herzegovina
2012
2017
CERD
CESCR
CRPD
UPR
2019
Dominican Republic
2012
2017
Ethiopia
2019
N/A
2015
Mauritania
2013
2019
2016
2010
2018
Myanmar
N/A
N/A
2012
South Africa
South Korea
2019
2016
N/A
2021
2015
2018
2016
2018
2019
N/A
2015
2021
2019
2021
2015
2011
2016
2012
2017
2019
2012
2017
2012
Source: This table was compiled by the author using the recommendations included in the ISI Database on Statelessness
and Nationality as of June 2022. *“People in mobility” includes migrants, emigrants, refugees, asylum seekers, and return
migrants. **The human rights mechanisms included here are the UN Human Rights Committee, which monitors the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR); Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
(CEDAW); Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD); Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
(CESCR); Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (CMW); Committee
on the Rights of the Child (CRC); Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD); and the Universal Periodic
Review (UPR), which is a mechanism of the UN Human Rights Council. Blue shading = recommendations related to birth
registration for children of people in mobility. Grey shading = Not applicable (N/A) because the state is not party to the
Convention. Gold shading = general recommendations on improving birth registration and/or recommendations on addressing
obstacles for minority groups not necessarily in mobility.