Summary of Recommendations Below, we summarise our recommendations, which are elaborated on thereafter. 1. The SCCT recommends that the Draft Regulations are amended to require that parents provide an identity document, issued either by the Department of Home Affairs or their country of origin. The requirement to prove current legal stay in South Africa should be removed. In the alternative, we recommend that the department of Home Affairs comply with the judgment in the case of Naki and Others v Director General: Department of Home Affairs and Another (Case No 4996/2016) that rewords the Regulation to require parents to show legal stay ‘where possible’. 2. The SCCT recommends that the creation of the ‘confirmation of birth certificate’ is removed from the Draft Regulations, and that the Regulations ensure children born to foreigners in South Africa are issued with a birth certificate. All children born in South Africa should be issued a birth certificate, not a ‘confirmation of birth certificate’. 3. The SCCT recommends that Draft Regulation 9, which speaks to orphaned and abandoned children, must not make any mention of the nationality of the parents concerned. 4. The SCCT recommends that Draft Regulation 12 be amended to allow fathers of children born out of wedlock to register the birth of their child. 5. The SCCT recommends that the Late Requisition of Birth requirements reflect the reality faced by parents making such an application. The requirement that birth registration should be done within 30 days has proven to be onerous for those living in rural areas, and for foreigners awaiting verification from the Department of Home Affairs – which can take months and is often subject to delays. We would recommend that the 30 day rule is relaxed to allow birth registration of children to take place, which is the best interest of the child. 1. General Considerations It is submitted that the Draft Regulations further prevent the birth registration of foreign children in South Africa, which is not in the best interests of the child nor the South African state. We are concerned as the proposed Draft Regulations introduce discriminatory measures and are contrary to the findings of the High Level Panel which recommended that there should be legislative changes to the Births and Deaths Registration Act 51 of 1992 to ensure that children of foreign nationals are not discriminated against.1 Instead of addressing the already existing barriers, the Draft Regulations set out unnecessary and discriminatory proposals that are in contravention of a child’s right to a name and nationality, as set out at Section 28 of the Constitution of South Africa. Furthermore, the following conventions make it clear that all children regardless of their nationality, race, legal or other status are entitled to a name, nationality and immediate birth registration: 1 Report of the High Level Panel on the Assessment of Key Legislation and the Acceleration of Fundamental Change, November 2017, p. 355. Available at: https://www.parliament.gov.za/high-level-panel. 2