detailed guidance on the implementation of the right.351 The League of Arab States’ Declaration on Belonging and Legal Identity adopted in 2018 also provides for universal birth registration,352 as does the Covenant on the Rights of the Child in Islam adopted by the Organisation of the Islamic Conference.353 In 2023, the Inter-American Commission highlighted the right to birth registration and identity documents in a detailed resolution on the right to a nationality.354 The regional human rights courts and treaty bodies have repeatedly underlined these rights in their decisions on individual cases.  In the leading case of Yean and Bosico, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights condemned the fact that the two complainants had been placed “in fear of being expelled by the State of which they were nationals and separated from their families owing to the absence of a birth certificate.”355 The Court went on to provide detailed instructions to the Dominican Republic on the reform of civil registration procedures.356 Similar recommendations were made in the case of the Expelled Dominicans and Haitians.357  In a case concerning a surrogate parent and the right of the intended parents to register the child, the European Court of Human Rights stated that “respect for private life requires that everyone should be able to establish details of their identity as individual human beings, which includes the legal parent-child relationship ... an essential aspect of the identity of individuals is at stake where the legal parent-child relationship is concerned.”358  The African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child has emphasised the importance of birth registration and the right to a nationality in cases against Kenya359 and Sudan,360 and in a comprehensive General Comment.361 In the Kenyan Nubian Children’s case, the Committee stated that its view was that “the obligation of the State Party under the African Children’s Charter in relation to making sure that all children are registered immediately after birth is not only limited to passing laws (and policies), but also extends to addressing all de facto limitations and obstacles to birth registration.”362  The Inter-American Court decision in the Yean and Bosico case has been cited by both the Colombian and the Ecuadorian constitutional courts in cases relating to the registration and status of children of Venezuelan and other migrants, emphasising the importance of immediate registration.363  In the case of G.T.B. v Spain, the European Court of Human Rights found that “it was incumbent on the authorities to act in the best interests of the child whose birth registration was being sought in order to compensate for the mother’s failings and to prevent the child from being left unregistered and hence, without identity documents.” The authorities were thus under a positive obligation to act with due diligence in order to assist the applicant.364 Civil registration generally Birth registration alone may be insufficient to document the legal relationships necessary for acquisition of nationality. Registration and certification of marriage will in most countries be required for acquisition of nationality based on marriage (though there are countries that recognise marriages under customary or religious law); and registration of divorces to enable the creation of new links. Registration of the death of a father may be essential in certain countries for women to transmit nationality to their children. Registration of adoption is necessary to establish the legal parentchild relationship on which a claim to nationality may be based. 351 ACERWC General Comment on Article 6, supra n 55. League of Arab States, Arab Declaration on Belonging and Legal Identity, 28 February 2018. States should “ensure, without exception, that all children, including unaccompanied children are registered upon birth and are able to acquire a nationality, in particular by promoting laws enabling women to pass their nationalities to their children in compliance with the relevant international Conventions and Covenants.” https://www.refworld.org/docid/5a9ffbd04.html. 352 353 Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Covenant on the Rights of the Child in Islam, June 2005, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/44eaf0e4a. html. Resolution on the right to nationality, prohibition of arbitrary deprivation of nationality and statelessness, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights 23 - EN. 354 355 Case of the Girls Yean and Bosico, supra n 52, para. 173. 356 Ibid., paras 240-242. 357 Expelled Dominicans and Haitians, supra n 64, paras 461-465. 358 Mennesson v. France, supra n 162, para. 96. 359 Kenyan Nubian children’s case, supra n 35. 360 ACJPS & PLACE (Benjamin) v. Sudan, supra n 42. 361 ACERWC General Comment on Article 6, supra n 55. 362 Kenyan Nubian Children’s Case, supra n 35, para. 40. Sentencia T-006/20, supra n 29, pp.22-23, 52; Sentencia No. 2185-19-JP y acumulados/21, Inscripción del nacimiento de hijas e hijos de adolescentes migrantes, Corte Constitucional del Ecuador, Judgment of 1 December 2021, para. 149, https://www.refworld.org.es/docid/61b2d8204.html. 363 G.T.B. v. Spain, application no. 3041/19, European Court of Human Rights, Judgment of 16 November 2023, para 124, https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/?i=001-228837. 364 U N H C R | L I T I G AT I N G T H E R I G H T T O A N AT I O N A L I T Y: A G U I D E F O R P R AC T I T I O N E R S 81