Registering and Documenting Each Syrian Refugee Child Registering and Documenting Each Syrian Refugee Child Within the 3RP framework, UNHCR has established a coordinated regional strategy that aims to ensure each Syrian refugee children is registered and documented at birth to prevent statelessness and enhance child protection. Five core objectives are at the centre of this strategy: The percentage of Syrian refugee children who go undocumented at birth was reduced from 35% in 2012 to 7% in 2015. ♦ All refugee births are registered in a timely manner by UNHCR; ♦ More children of concern to UNHCR receive an official birth certificate within 12 months of their birth through the strengthening of maternal health and civil registration systems, resolving gaps in law and policy, and supporting interventions for profiles at particular risk; ♦ Families and communities are positively engaged through two-way communication to create an environment where civil registration of vital events is valued, understood and supported; ♦ Where it is not possible to immediately obtain an official birth certificate, more children of concern benefit from alternative documentation that addresses their immediate protection concerns, while also serving as a foundation to complete official birth registration at a later date and improve access to durable solutions; and ♦ Advocacy, planning and programming are grounded in evidence through systematic data collection and analysis at the national and regional levels. Host governments have also adopted a range of interventions, in close partnership with UNHCR, to ensure that every Syrian refugee child begins life with a birth certificate serving as proof of its identity, parentage and nationality. Civil status documentation proving other vital events (such as marriage, divorce and death) facilitates birth registration and strengthens the enjoyment of women’s rights. UNHCR therefore works to strengthen national civil registration frameworks and systems as a whole, while emphasizing accessibility, affordability and appropriateness for refugees. With the benefit of these interventions, the percentage of Syrian refugee children born in the region who go undocumented at birth (receiving neither a birth certificate nor a medical birth notification) has been reduced from 35 per cent in 2012, to 7 per cent in 2015 regionally. Making Birth and Marriage Registration Procedures More Accessible As a core element of the 3RP child protection response, UNHCR works with government authorities, local and international NGOs and displaced populations in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt to mainstream birth registration within existing programmes and structures, including UNHCR reception centres, community-based activities and public health services. In Lebanon, the birth registration process for all nonnationals, including Syrians, is complex.35 UNHCR has worked in partnership with the authorities to facilitate the process. In 2013, Lebanon’s General Directorate of Personal Status simplified procedures by accepting a single document, the Syrian Family Booklet, as evidence of both parental identity and marital status for families seeking to register new births. Also in 2013, the Minister of Interior and Municipalities issued directives to local authorities reaffirming that birth certificates should be issued to 35 Non-nationals must first obtain a birth notification from the hospital or midwife, then obtain a birth certificate from the Mukhtar and then lodge the birth certificate with the local civil registry. If these three steps are not completed within 1 year of the birth, a court procedure is required to finalise the birth registration. Subsequently, the certificate needs to be registered with the foreigners department of the civil registry. Finally, if a family also wishes to transfer the birth record to Syria, the birth certificate must be authenticated with the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Syrian Embassy. 15