WHAT IF THE BIRTH OF A FORCIBLY DISPLACED AND/OR STATELESS PERSON CANNOT BE REGISTERED? In some settings, despite the efforts to support authorities to provide birth registration to forcibly displaced and stateless children, there may be some children whose births cannot be registered and who cannot be issued with a birth certificate. In such cases, UNHCR should: • Continue to work with national competent authorities and other partners to address the barriers to universal birth registration and remove discriminatory practices. • Refer families to legal aid services to pursue access to birth registration, including delayed or late birth registration. • Where possible, support families to access other forms of documentation including information about the child’s identity such as birth notifications, and/or complete as much of the birth registration process as possible. • Where the UNHCR registration and identity management system (PRIMES/ProGres) is in use, register the child (see above) and provide the registration record to the family. In some cases, UNHCR may also provide a document to families with information about the child’s birth when they are unable to register the births with the national civil registration authorities. • Advocate for alternative forms of documentation to be accepted for the child to access services, e.g. education or health services. interoperability of the national civil registry with the national foundational identification system, such as the national population register or, when relevant, digital identity management system permitting to ensure the generation of a single identifier number at birth. Digital legal identification systems may also be beneficial for forcibly displaced and stateless persons with movement restrictions and/ or barriers due to cost and bureaucracy associated with travel, by reducing the need for physical travels to various government offices. Nonetheless, digitalization does carry specific risks inherent in large-scale processing of personal data, including the risks of discrimination, profiling and social exclusion. The full benefits of digitalization can only be achieved, and risks minimized, when it is implemented along with robust legislative, administrative, and technical safeguards and procedures.30 Data protection risks are particularly 30 31 pronounced for asylum-seekers, refugees and stateless persons, if such information is processed without clear and adequate data protection and privacy laws and accessed, used or shared for illegitimate purposes, such as immigration enforcement. As such, ensuring that digitalization of birth registration records is undertaken in line with the highest data protection, privacy and security standards is essential for the protection of the data of forcibly displaced and stateless persons. As more personal data records are made available to a larger number of (governmental) actors – often for legitimate reasons – there is an increased need to prevent access for illegitimate purposes. National data protection legislation should be established and consistently implemented to ensure that birth registration data is processed for specific, explicit and legitimate purposes.31 Birth registration data should not be UNDESA, “Guidelines on the legislative framework for civil registration,” (New York, United Nations, 2023), section IV.G. See Ana Brian Nougrères, “Legal safeguards for personal data protection and privacy in the digital age: Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy”, Human Rights Council, fifty-fifth session, A/HRC/55/46 (18 January 2024). https://documents. un.org/doc/undoc/gen/g24/000/32/pdf/g2400032.pdf. Ana Brian Nougrères, “Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy: Proposal for the updating of General Assembly resolution 45/95 of 14 December 1990, entitled ‘Guidelines for the regulation of computerized personal data files’”, United Nations General Assembly, seventy-ninth session, A/79/173 (17 July 2024). https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/ n24/212/49/pdf/n2421249.pdf. Both refer to Global Privacy Assembly, “Achieving global data protection standards: Principles to ensure high levels of data protection and privacy worldwide”, forty-fifth session (October 2023). https://globalprivacyassembly.org/wp-content/ uploads/2023/10/3.-Resolution-Achieving-global-DP-standards.pdf. Birth registration of forcibly displaced and stateless persons 19