2020 Statelessness & Citizenship Review 2(2) an obligation on states to re-establish identity if ‘a child is illegally deprived of some or all of the elements of his or her identity’. 20 The CRC establishes the content of ‘identity’ through an open rather than closed list, allowing for other elements to be included beyond name, nationality, and family relations, as appropriate in the context. 21 In essence, it creates the obligation for child protection systems to move beyond welfare and take seriously the importance of establishing the legal connections of a child to his or her family, broadly defined, in the eyes of the government. This includes the case of abandoned or separated children whose biological parents should be sought, and independent legal recognition established if this is not possible. The right to recognition as a person before the law is thus, in international law, not dependent on existence in any register nor on holding official identification papers. Similarly, the right to preserve an identity in the CRC is not formally dependent on birth registration: a child’s nationality should be recognised, for example, if the criteria are fulfilled, even in the absence of an existing birth certificate or other document confirming that fact. Family relations should be recognised by the state even if never previously officially recorded. The documents are declaratory, not constitutive. However, it has for a long time also been clear that without official recognition that a person exists, and has rights set out in national law, the human rights protections established in international law may be worth little: ‘nonsense on stilts’, as famously denigrated by Jeremy Bentham. 22 The importance of birth registration as an essential safeguard for other rights is now everywhere emphasised by the UN system. 23 Universal birth registration is a central objective of UNICEF’s child protection work, aiming to overcome both weaknesses in state capacity and deliberate patterns of discrimination. 24 Treaty bodies have repeatedly highlighted the importance of both registration and the issue of a birth certificate: in combating trafficking of children, and providing proof of age for the purposes of criminal justice, immigration control, and marriage. 25 20 21 22 23 24 25 CRC (n 18) art 8. See generally Jaap E Doek, Article 8: The Right to Preservation of Identity; Article 9: The Right Not to Be Separated from His or Her Parents, ed André Alen et al (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 2006). Jeremy Bentham, Rights, Representation, and Reform: Nonsense upon Stilts and Other Writings on the French Revolution, ed Philip Schofield, Catherine Pease-Watkin and Cyprian Blamires (Oxford University Press 2002). Human Rights Council, Birth Registration and the Right of Everyone to Recognition Everywhere as a Person before the Law: Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN Doc A/HRC/27/22 (17 June 2014); see also Human Rights Council, Birth Registration and the Right of Everyone to Recognition Everywhere as a Person Before the Law, UN Doc A/HRC/RES/19/9 (3 April 2012); Human Rights Council, Birth Registration and the Right of Everyone to Recognition Everywhere as a Person before the Law, UN Doc A/HRC/RES/22/7 (9 April 2013). Every Child’s Birth Right: Inequities and Trends in Birth Registration (Report, UNICEF 2013); A Passport to Protection: A Guide to Birth Registration Programming (Handbook, UNICEF December 2013). Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No 21: Children in Street Situations, UN Doc CRC/C/GC/21 (21 June 2017); Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families and Committee on the Rights of the Child, Joint General Comment No 4 and No 23: State Obligations Regarding the Human Rights of Children in the Context of International Migration in Countries of Origin, Transit, Destination and Return, UN Doc CMW/C/GC/4-CRC/C/GC/23 (16 November 2017); Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, General Comment No 2: The Rights of Migrant Workers in an Irregular Situation and Members of Their Families, UN Doc CMW/C/GC/2 (28 August 2013). 252