UNHCR, December 20251 Cover photo: © UNHCR/Charity Nzomo Asha Suleiman, a Kenyan mother is happy to get a birth certificate for her daughter. One of the factors contributing to statelessness in Kenya is discriminatory practices and/or challenges in obtaining civil registration and nationality documents. Access to birth registration and birth certificate is important to establish an individual’s legal identity and contains key elements to establish an entitlement to a nationality. 1 This Issue Brief on Birth registration updates, replaces and supersedes the UNHCR Child protection Issue Brief : Birth Registration, August 2013 available at: https://www.refworld.org/policy/opguidance/unhcr/2013/en/94148