G.T.B. v. SPAIN JUDGMENT Minors, Childhood and Family of the Government of the Canary Islands had also assumed legal guardianship over him. In his view, the public authorities had been ultimately responsible for him and should have assisted with the registration of his birth so that he could obtain an ID card. The applicant complained that the various centres in which he had served the correctional measures had been aware of his problem concerning the lack of documents yet had done nothing to solve it. 96. As to the second part of his complaint, the applicant emphasised that nine years had elapsed between 3 September 1997, when Ms X had first initiated the procedure for the late registration of her sons’ birth, and 13 March 2006, when the procedure had ended. He contended that since March 1999 the public authorities had been aware that Ms X did not have any documents to prove the births of her sons in Mexico, in spite of which she had been asked to submit documents over and over again until 2005, when they had finally decided that she would have to “recognise” her sons in court to make up for the lack of documentary evidence. 97. The applicant submitted that the section 24 of the Spanish Law on the Civil Registry as in force at the material time (see paragraph 72 above) had not only placed on his mother an obligation to ensure his registration, but also, in the absence of any steps taken by the parents or other legal guardians, it had placed that obligation on the public prosecutor’s office. In his view, while he was underage, the public authorities should have taken his best interests into consideration as the primary criterion, which should have resulted in them taking responsibility for initiating his late birth registration. In the applicant’s view, the public authorities should have therefore taken over the mother’s responsibilities in dealing with his situation. In particular, he argued that the public authorities should have compensated for a minor’s difficulties in the educational sphere and/or declared a situation of risk after hearing the mother. 98. Concerning the damage suffered as a result of the above issues, the applicant explained that he had been diagnosed with chronic posttraumatic stress disorder in relation to his lack of identity documents for many years, as shown by the many psychiatric and psychological reports. According to a forensic medical report from 4 November 2016, “his speech is centred on the ‘serious problems’ caused by his lack of an ID, which he blames on negligence on the part of the authorities” (see paragraph 30 above). The applicant insisted that he had spent 70% of his life undocumented and unidentified during the sensitive periods of his childhood and teenage years. He had had to fight a difficult battle against the public authorities, while opportunities for development and vocational integration had been denied to him because of his irregular situation. He pointed to many reports in which the psychologists and other specialists who had been working towards his rehabilitation and integration into the job market had stated that his irregular situation made it very difficult for him to find a job, which had made it hard 26