N O PAPeRS – NO BI RTH C e RTI F I CATe ? obligations to notify the immigration authorities because fear of being deported should not lead to parents refraining from registering their newborns. The argument that notification obligations are an inevitable result of ensuring that administration is coherent23 was already refuted for the same objective reasons when the notification obligations of schools were removed (see section 87(1) of the German Residence Act (AufenthG)): the parents, and not the children, are responsible for the decision to stay in the country illegally.24 Non-discriminatory access to birth registration also needs to be free of charge.25 While it is free to certify a birth, fees are regularly charged to issue the birth certificate or the certified extract from the registry. They vary region by region and are between eUR 5 and 15. Free certificates are generally only available for designated purposes such as for maternity assistance, parental allowance, child benefit or the state pension. The price of the certified translation of documents in foreign languages required in accordance with section 2(1) PStV may amount to hundreds or even thousands of euros, making access to birth registration difficult. even for people who fall under AsylBLG, covering the costs is discretionary in accordance with section 6(1) AsylBLG. For non-discriminatory access to birth registration, administrative provisions or statutory regulations need to explicitly guarantee that the costs incurred for the certified translation of documents in foreign languages will be covered. Certificates must be issued with the utmost care after hearing the parents. This also includes taking into account the possible consequences of issuing a certificate in Germany. For example, this is relevant with regard to statelessness, which can be “inherited”. If only the mother’s name is entered in the Birth Registry because the parents’ marriage certificate is missing, this causes problems because, in countries such as Syria, mothers cannot pass on their nationality.26 entering the mother alone may also mean that the child will be deemed a child born out of wedlock in their home country, which in turn may lead to legal or inheritance-related disadvantages as well as social stigmatisation. Although these forms of discrimination would have no effect under German jurisdiction, certificates issued in Germany could potentially be the cause. 3 It is also necessary to exhaust the existing legal options for this reason – a marriage does not have to be proved with a marriage certificate; there are also other documents that may be used, or a declaration in lieu of an oath, see section 9(2) PStG – so that the facts to be certified are correct and complete and related discrimination outside German jurisdiction is avoided as far as possible. Recommendations In order to guarantee that the duty to register births immediately under article 7(1) UN CRC is fulfilled without restriction, the Monitoring Mechanism for the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child recommends that the German Government and the state governments ensure that 1 every newborn receives a birth certificate or certified extract from the registry within a reasonable period of time; 2 access to state services and medical care is possible without restriction as soon as the document attesting to the deferment of the issue of the certificate in accordance with section 7(2) PStV has been received; 3 access to the registration of births is organised without discrimination, in particular by removing the obligations to notify the immigration authorities and by covering the costs of the officially certified translations required; 4 the issue of a certified registry extract does not lead to the certification process being terminated. The registry offices’ objective must be for every child born in Germany to receive a birth certificate; 5 the number of unregistered newborns in Germany is recorded, by central civil status registries at state level and an extension of the data and search fields in the civil status registries (Annex 1 PStV), for example. It is also necessary to determine how many children and young people have never received a birth certificate.