• Access to rights and services for adults. As the first official document recognizing a person’s legal identity, birth certificates often serve as the foundation for the issuance of subsequent legal identity documents, including national ID cards, passports or citizenship certificates. As a result, a birth certificate is often a prerequisite for eligibility to access national foundational identification system, to obtain a passport to travel abroad, or even to access private sector services (such as banking). Furthermore, in many countries, a birth certificate is a legal prerequisite for concluding a civil marriage, applying for a nationality or securing a position in a country’s civil service. UNHCR and birth registration • Birth registration is a key component of UNHCR’s work to protect forcibly displaced and stateless persons and provide solutions.14 • Birth registration is a key component of UNHCR’s Child Protection Policy, Core Programme Action 1: Strengthening inclusive national child protection systems. • Birth registration is closely linked to UNHCR’s mandate on the eradication of statelessness, which comprises four key dimensions: identification, prevention, and reduction of statelessness, as well as the protection of stateless persons. It is also included in the UNHCR Global Action Plan to End Statelessness 2.0 (Action 7).15 Access of forcibly displaced and stateless children to national birth registration is part of UNHCR’s work on inclusion of forcibly displaced and stateless persons in national systems. Birth registration and access to birth certificates is also key to advancing durable solutions to their situation. It also closely linked to scaledup investments with development actors.16 14 15 16 8 While other actors often focus on broader issues of strengthening the overall civil registration system, UNHCR’s focus on birth registration includes: • Supporting access to universal birth registration though strengthening national birth registration systems to address specific birth registration obstacles affecting forcibly displaced and stateless persons and people at risk of statelessness. • Addressing birth registration across the life cycle from infancy to adulthood. While UNHCR promotes timely birth registration for infants, the barriers faced by forcibly displaced and stateless children to register their births means that many of UNHCR’s actions also address access to late or delayed birth registration. • Identifying options to document the birth in the country of asylum for refugees born outside the country of asylum who did not register their child’s birth, or who registered their birth but did not have evidence of the birth registration (see below). • UNHCR’s efforts to secure birth registration in order to prevent and reduce statelessness focus mainly on interventions that (1) reform the national civil registry system, along with the laws and practices governing foundational identification systems, to ensure they are sensitive to the risks of statelessness, (2) improve civil registration systems, including accessibility, (3) raise awareness, and (4) work through partnerships to achieve registration of vulnerable individuals and groups. For more information on the roles and responsibilities of UNHCR and UNICEF on birth registration, see the partnership section below. UNHCR, “Strategic directions 2022–2026” (Geneva, UNHCR, 2022), p. 20. https://www.unhcr.org/media/unhcr-strategicdirections-2022-2026. Birth registration is currently included under UNHCR’s Results Area 1: Access to territory, registration and documentation, but also contributes to other outcome areas, including Outcome Area 5: Child protection. UNHCR, “Global action plan to end statelessness 2.0” (Geneva, UNHCR, 2024). https://www.refworld.org/policy/strategy/ unhcr/2024/en/148761. UNHCR, “UNHCR’s strategy on engaging with development actors” (Geneva, UNHCR, 2023). https://globalcompactrefugees. org/sites/default/files/2023-05/UNHCRs%20strategy%20on%20engaging%20with%20development%20actors_FINAL.pdf. Birth registration of forcibly displaced and stateless persons