A Guide to Litigating Identity Systems EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1. Some of the largest, data-intensive government programmes in the world are National Identity Systems – centralised government identity schemes that link an individual’s identity to a card or number, often using biometric data and requiring identity authentication within the system for the provision of public benefits and participation in public life. The discussion surrounding these systems has largely centred on their perceived benefits for fraud protection, security, and the delivery of services. Although some national identity systems have been challenged in national courts, court analyses of the implications of identity systems have largely mirrored this broader public discourse centred on arguments in favour of identity systems. Two of the three most prominent national court judgments analysing identity systems – the Aadhaar judgment in India, the Madhewoo judgment in Mauritius, and the Huduma Namba judgment in Kenya – upheld the systems, lauding perceived benefits while under-developing critiques. Human rights advocates may find this largely one-sided discussion discouraging, as it limits the extent to which groups and individuals concerned about the human rights impact of identity systems can organise around strong arguments challenging those systems, in whole or part. 2. This argumentation guide seeks to fill that gap by providing a clear, centralised source of arguments advanced in and discussed by national courts that review the negative implications of identity systems, particularly on human rights. It gives advocates a tool for developing arguments in any given national context challenging an identity system, informing debate from a human rights perspective, and further building the repertoire of arguments that can be advanced in the future. The purpose of this guide is not to comprehensively describe the human rights implications of identity systems, or weigh identity systems’ benefits against their disadvantages. While identity systems can have positive effects on human rights – helping to secure the right to a legal identity being the most obvious example – these aspects have been set out extensively in other spaces. This guide illuminates 4