484 Melbourne University Law Review [Vol 40:456 births registered … in their first year of life.’157 Further, they estimate that ‘tens of thousands of Australian citizens across all age groups remain unregistered throughout their lives.’158 This is thought to be due to a number of barriers, including ‘onerous identity requirements to obtain a birth certificate’,159 poor literacy, a lack of understanding of procedures, administrative costs, a lack of knowledge of the importance and advantages of birth registration, and a lack of support from authorities.160 Groups that are most commonly affected include culturally and linguistically diverse communities (including refugees)161 and Indigenous peoples. Gerber and Castan observe that: a number of Australians ---- predominantly Indigenous people and those from culturally and linguistically diverse … communities ---- miss out on the benefits of citizenship and struggle to fully participate in society because their birth has never been registered …162 Indeed, these issues have not escaped international scrutiny: the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has urged Australia ‘to review its birth registration process in detail to ensure that all children born in Australia are registered at birth, and that no child is disadvantaged due to procedural barriers to registration’.163 For children born in immigration detention in Australia or in a regional processing country, there may be an additional practical difficulty in accessing birth registration. For children born to asylum seekers in Australia, the Department of Immigration and Border Protection has indicated that ‘contracted service providers are required to assist the parents to register the 157 Will Winter, ‘The Minimbah Project: Facilitating Birth Registration and Birth Certificates in Rural and Regional Communities’ in Melissa Castan and Paula Gerber (eds), Proof of Birth (Future Leaders, 2015) 73, 78. 158 Ibid 79. 159 Aivee Robinson et al, UN Children’s Fund Australia, ‘Birth Registration’, Submission to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, November 2013, 2. 160 Victorian Law Reform Commission, Birth Registration and Birth Certificates, Report (2013) 24 [3.47] quoting Concluding Observations ---- Australia, UN Doc CRC/C/AUS/CO/4, 8--9 [35]. 161 Many asylum seekers have also experienced discrimination and disenfranchisement by authorities in their country of origin or country of former habitual residence, and may have little knowledge of the right to, and requirements for, birth registration: see Heap and Cody, above n 140, 20. 162 Paula Gerber and Melissa Castan, ‘The Right to Universal Birth Registration in Australia’ in Melissa Castan and Paula Gerber (eds), Proof of Birth (Future Leaders, 2015) 3, 3. 163 Concluding Observations ---- Australia, UN Doc CRC/C/AUS/CO/4, 9 [36].