Birth registration and the prevention of statelessness in Europe discriminatory barriers to birth registration and suggests key action areas for ensuring universal access to immediate, free birth registration as a way of safeguarding every child’s right to a nationality and preventing childhood statelessness in Europe. 9 Legal identity is defined by the UN as the basic characteristics of a person’s identity, such as, name, sex, place and date of birth conferred through birth registration and the issuance of a birth certificate by an authorised civil registration authority. In the absence of birth registration, legal identity may be conferred by a legally recognised identification authority. 9 The right to birth registration for all is enshrined in various international and regional human rights instruments, with three frameworks relevant to the European context: the United Nations, Council of Europe, and European Union. Most countries in Europe are Council of Europe members. Of the 46 Council of Europe Member States, 27 are also members of the European Union. Within each framework, different instruments may or may not apply, depending on whether the State in question is party to them. 101112 1. The child shall be registered immediately after birth and shall have the right from birth to a name, the right to acquire a nationality […]. 2. States Parties shall ensure the implementation of these rights in accordance with their national law and their obligations under the relevant international instruments in this field, in particular where the child would otherwise be stateless. The right to a nationality is a right that is ‘essential for the protection of every child’.10 As signatories to the CRC, all States in Europe must implement Article 7 to provide the right of every child to be registered immediately after birth and acquire a nationality, and Article 8 to respect the right of the child to preserve their identity, including nationality, in compliance with their obligations under relevant international instruments. Obligations deriving from the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness require States to grant nationality to children who would otherwise be stateless and must be interpreted in light of the CRC. 11 This includes the underlying principles of (i) non-discrimination (CRC Article 2) and (ii) that all actions concerning children, including in the area of nationality, must be undertaken with the best interests of the child as a primary consideration (Article 3). Birth registration is key to preventing statelessness and securing the child’s right to a nationality, due to the information it provides about a person’s links to a State.12 It is therefore key to implementing both the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the 1961 Convention. 3