Lee-Winter & Kirabira tool in protecting the rights of refugee and stateless children in the region, including the Rohingyas. Obstacles to Birth Registration: The Case of Thailand As a state hosting one of the largest stateless populations in the world, “according to data from the Ministry of Interior in 2019, Thailand is home to more than 539,000 stateless persons, among which around 206,000 or 40 per cent are children.”28 Under Thailand’s Civil Registration Act, which was revised and implemented in September 2010, “all children born in the country are entitled to birth registration even if their parents are not Thai nationals.”29 Thailand considers this to be “one of the key conditions for the prevention of human traf cking and statelessness, and ensuring access to basic rights of children in various elds, especially education and health services”30 and has extended the access to birth registration for “all children born in Thailand, including cross-border migrants and ethnic populations.”31 However, almost a decade later, the impacts of the legislation still remain unclear. This is largely due to challenges related to the situation of access to birth registration of children, further compounded by a lack of data on the actual number of the sub-groups living in Thailand at any given time.32 A recent quantitative study, conducted by the Legal Research and Development Centre at the Faculty of Law in Chiang Mai University with support from the European Union (EU) and UNICEF, indicated that the “challenge remains largely in translating policy into practice especially at the local level...[which include] inadequate human and nancial resources, complex and overburdened procedures and negative attitudes among of cials toward stateless families.”33 This corroborated the ndings of a previous study which also indicated a lack of awareness among parents on how to access birth registration.34 Despite this setback, the data did indicate that some parents wanted “the child to have Thai health and education rights” as a reason for why they complied with the birth registration law, alluding to their understanding of the importance of birth registration as a right and an equity improvement strategy.35 Optimizing Legislation to Enhance State Practic In recent years, ASEAN states have used legal instruments like the Convention against Traf cking in Persons especially in Women and Children (ACTIP) to guide state practice.36 A 28 “Progress Must be Accelerated to End the Cycle of Statelessness: EU and UNICEF,” UNICEF Thailand, April 9, 2021, accessed August 30, 2021, https://www.unicef.org/thailand/press-releases/progress-must-be-accelerated-endcycle-statelessness-eu-and-unicef. 29 Vivian Tan, “In Thailand, Birth Registration Gives Refugee Babies a Good Start in Life,” UNCHR, September 24, 2012, accessed August 30, 2021, https://www.unhcr.org/news/latest/2012/9/50604a959/thailand-birth-registrationgives-refugee-babies-good-start-life.html. 30 Chalermpol Chamchan, Kanya Apipornchaisakul and Phongsak Muensakda, “An Assessment of Access to Birth Registration among Migrant Children: The Quantitative Study,” (Salaya: Mahidol University, Thailand, June 2021), 1, accessed October 8, 2021, https://www.unicef.org/thailand/media/6456/ le/BR%20Assessment.pdf. 31 Ibid. 32 Ibid. 33 UNICEF Thailand, Progress Must be Accelerated. Link to the study “Invisible Lives: 48 Years of the Situation of Stateless Children in Thailand (1972–2020)” is in the press release. The nal report has been published in the Thai language. 34 Chamchan et al., Assessment of Access to Birth Registration, 55–56; see also Joint submission of: Franciscans International (FI) and Marist International Solidarity Foundation (FMSI) for the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Thailand in 2016, paras. 8–12, accessed August 29, 2021, https://fmsi.ngo/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/2016.UPR-ThailandFI-FMSI-EN.pdf. 35 On the importance of equity, see Harry Jones, “Equity in Development: Why It is Important and How to Achieve It” (London: Overseas Development Institute, November 13, 2009), accessed October 8, 2021, https://cdn.odi.org/ media/documents/4577.pdf. 36 Yusran, The ASEAN Convention. fi fi e Genocide Studies and Prevention 15, no. 2 https://doi.org/10.5038/1911-9933.15.2.1863. fi fi fi fi © 2021 fi fi 6