recognition of the child’s legal status across borders, from another State.11 Challenges equally arise when information about origins is not stored appropriately, including in perpetuity and/or accessible, including in emergency situations, where records may be lost. Current efforts related to the right to identity Significant efforts are now underway within the UN Legal Identity Agenda and other frameworks to ensure universal birth registration and legal identity to all. Whilst these efforts have primarily focused on strengthening civil registration and implementing digital identity systems, other aspects of identity such as nationality12 and family relations13 have received far less attention. Given the risks and opportunities associated with the legal identity agenda for the enjoyment of these identity rights, further work is needed in terms of preserving all these key elements of a child’s right to an identity – including addressing new questions that arise around the use of new technologies, such as biometrics, especially its relevance for children under five and newborns, data protection and privacy, and assisted reproductive technology. Concrete and innovative efforts are required in terms of improving access to justice (SDG 16.3) and the States obligation to speedily re-establish the child’s identity whenever there are missing elements. This must include ensuring CRVS systems are set up to include information about the child’s family or birth histories, including when they are modified. Greater political will is needed to change laws, policies and practices, including lifting the statute of limitations for cases involving children to restore missing or falsified elements. The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a communications procedure (OPIC)14 provides an opportunity for the restoration of the child’s identity. For example, the case of W.M.C15 shows the potential scope of the Convention in relation to the child’s right to identity. The joint UNHCR-UNICEF Coalition on Every Child’s Right to Nationality, seeks to expand and strengthen international cooperation to combat childhood statelessness, complementing UNHCR’s 10-year #IBelong Campaign to End Statelessness by 2024 and offering an important framework in which to centre attention on the child’s right to a nationality. A High-Level Segment on Statelessness was convened in 2019 to mark the halfway point of the campaign where States made pledges to address statelessness within their respective countries. However, many States with large stateless populations failed to make pledges. Engagement by the CRC Committee is critical to elevating the issue and to ensuring a rights-based approach to the avoidance and eradication of statelessness – one focused on the positive realisation of the right of every child to acquire and preserve their nationality as a right that informs and is informed by broader child rights principles. Another avenue that could provide remedies in the context of establishing family relations when grave past abuses have occurred, is exploring transitional justice through the work of the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence (UN SR on transitional justice), who has provided a comprehensive report on the design and implementation 11 Michaels, R., Ruiz Abou-Nigm, V., and van Loon, H. (eds). (2021). The Private Side of Transforming our World - UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and the Role of Private International Law, Intersentia Online, https://www.intersentiaonline.com/library/the-private-side-of-transforming-our-world-unsustainable-development-goals-2030-and-the-role-of-p 12 For example, see the #IBelong campaign to End Statelessness by 2024, spearheaded by UNHCR (https://www.unhcr.org/ibelong/) and the related the Coalition on Every Child’s Right to a Nationality (https://www.unhcr.org/ibelong/unicef-unhcr-coalition-child-right-nationality/); and the work of Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (www.institutesi.org). 13 See work of Child Identity Protection (www.child-identity.org). 14 UN General Assembly. (2011). Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a communications procedure (A/RES/66/138) https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N11/467/10/PDF/N1146710.pdf?OpenElement. 15 https://juris.ohchr.org/Search/Details/2748