►All laws in the region ensure some procedural guarantees in cases of loss and deprivation of nationality. Persons generally have the right to be informed before the decision takes effect, and the right to appeal to a court against procedural violations in nationality matters. Only Kyrgyzstan and, to some degree, Tajikistan, provide for the right to a judicial review of decisions. Other countries only give the right to seek reconsideration of the President’s decision. 2.6 Birth registration The CRC requires each state to register children immediately after birth and to ensure the right to acquire a nationality, in particular where they would otherwise be stateless.111 All five Central Asian States have well-established technical procedures for birth registration, largely adopted from the Soviet system. Hospitals certify the births of children they have delivered. Midwives and birth attendants certify home births, under general supervision of the Ministry of Health.112 The medical attestation of birth is then registered in a civil registry office of the Ministry of Justice – known as ZAGS113 from its Russian initials. Registration takes place in the ZAGS closest to the parents’ permanent residence or at the place of the child’s birth. In rural areas with no ZAGS, a birth is registered at the local community council. Parents who are resident abroad register births in their consulate, if there is one. If no consulate is accessible, Tajikistan allows parents to register the child when they return to Tajikistan, on the basis of hospital attestation from the foreign country where the child was born. Each State requires prompt registration of births114 – although each also provides for late registration, including self-registration by adults. In Kazakhstan, the registration procedure is printed on the medical attestation form given to parents. In Soghd region of northern Tajikistan, mobile ZAGS units have recently started to register births before mothers are allowed to leave hospital.115 Registration is free of charge in Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has expressed concern at the existence of fees for the issuance of birth certificates both in Tajikistan116 and Uzbekistan, in particular for families living in poverty. In 2006 it urged Uzbekistan to abolish the fees and take all measures to ensure that children are registered immediately after birth.117 111 Article 7(1) and (2), 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child. In Turkmenistan the birth of a child delivered outside a hospital can also be certified by witness testimony, according to Article 18 of the Presidential Decree ‘On Registering Civil Acts’ No 141, 2004. Witness testimony, counter-signed by a general medical practitioner, is also sufficient to certify the birth of a child born not in a hospital in Uzbekistan, according to Article 18 of Supplement No 1 to the 1999 Rules for the Registration of Civil Acts in Uzbekistan, No 171. 113 ZAGS stands for “записи актов гражданского состояния”. 114 From within one month in Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, to within 3 months in Tajikistan. According to Article 10 of the Law on the Registration of Civil Acts in Kazakhstan, hospitals should send records of new births to ZAGS by the third day of each birth and it is the responsibility of ZAGS to contact parents who are registering their child’s birth late. 115 Interview with the Migration Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Soghd region, northern Tajikistan. UNHCR did not interview anyone with firsthand experience of this. 116 In 2000, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended Tajikistan to make greater effort to ensure free registration of all births, see CRC/C/15/Add.136. The current fee – the equivalent of 5 US Dollars – amounts to one quarter of the average monthly income of 60 Somoni in June 2009, according to the National Statistics Committee of Tajikistan , see http://www.stat.tj/english_tables/table_20.xls. The UN Committee also recommended greater effort to ensure timely registration in rural areas. In Uzbekistan, UNHCR does not know how much birth registration costs. For Uzbek citizens living abroad, it should be carried out free of charge, according to Article 6 of Supplement No 1 to the 1999 Rules for the Registration of Civil Acts in Uzbekistan, No 171. In practice, the website of the Uzbek Ministry of Justice quotes a registration fee of 15 euros (www.uzbekembassy.es/formularios/Birth-Certificate, accessed on 9 February 2010 [in Russian]. 117 Concluding Observations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on Uzbekistan, CRC/C/UZB/CO/2, 2 June 2006. The 2008 Uzbekistan Law on the Child states that every child has the right to nationality and citizenship from birth and the right to retain it (Article 9). 112 ~ 20 ~