REFUGEES FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION UNHCR, APRIL 2023 Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. 123 At the same time, birth registration in itself is not sufficient to resolve statelessness, without additional attention to legal protections, given the very complex rules of private international law relating to recognition of documents and interpretation of the laws of other countries – especially, but not only, when the nationality of parents is not documented. 124 The Declaration on the Eradication of Statelessness adopted by Heads of State and Government of the ICGLR in 2017 committed Member States to the strengthening of civil registration systems. 125 The Regional Action Plan accompanying the Declaration, updated in 2020, includes the objective to strengthen civil registration systems and ensure universal birth registration, as well as to Issue nationality documentation to those entitled to it.126 The Global Compact on Refugees, adopted in December 2018, also calls on states to provide “access … to civil and birth registration and documentation” to refugees and stateless persons.127 Supplementing these commitments on the importance of birth registration and civil registration generally, Target 16.9 of the Sustainable Development Goals is for states to “provide legal identity to all, including birth registration”. 128 It is often a requirement for a person registering a birth to have to produce an identity document. An identity document issued to a refugee or asylum seeker will usually serve as sufficient proof of identity for this purpose. UNHCR also seeks to facilitate birth registration for the children of asylum seekers and refugees, but it is the host government that must carry this out. 129 Difficulties are commonly reported.130 In the absence of birth registration, the children and other dependents of recognised refugees born in the country may be included in a refugee “family book” issued by UNHCR or host country authorities. This record is not, however, formal legal proof of the connection between pare nt and child. All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families and UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, ‘Joint General Comment No. 4 and No.23: State Obligations Regarding the Human Rights of Children in the Context of International Migration in Countries of Origin, Transit, Destination and Return’, 16 November 2017, CMW/C/GC/4-CRC/C/GC/23 . 123 African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, “General Comment No. 2 : Right to a Name, Birth Registration and a Nationality (Art. 6)”, 2014, https://www.acerwc.africa/general-comments/. 124 Bronwen Manby, ‘“Legal Identity for All” and Statelessness: Opportunity and Threat at the Junction of Public and Private International Law’, Statelessness & Citizenship Review 2, no. 2 (2020): 248–71. See further below on acquisition of nationality by refugees. 125 Declaration of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) Member States on the Eradication of Statelessness, Regional Conference on Statelessness, Kinshasa, June 2017, para 7 https://data2.unhcr.org/en/documents/details/86210 endorsed by the 7 th Summit of ICGLR Heads of State and Government, Brazzaville, 19 October 2017 (press release available here http://citizenshiprightsafrica.org/7th ordinary-summit-of-icglr-heads-of-state-and-government/); 126 Consolidated Action Plan of the ICGLR on the eradication of statelessness in the Great Lakes (2017 -2024), objectives 4.1 and 4.2 https://www.refworld.org/docid/60e70b3f4.html. 127 Global Compact on Refugees, adopted by the UN General Assembly on 17 December 2018 , UN Doc A/RES/73/151), section 2.8 (paragraph 82: “States and relevant stakeholders will contribute resources and expertise to strengthen the capacity of national civil registries to facilitate timely access by refugees and stateless persons, as appropriate, to civil and birth registration and documentation….” 128 See operational definition and other resources at https://unstats.un.org/legal-identity-agenda/. 129 UNHCR Executive Committee, ‘Conclusion on Civil Registration No. 111 (L XIV) - 2013’ (Geneva: United Nations, 17 October 2013), https://www.refworld.org/docid/525f8ba64.html. 130 Katelyn A. Horne, ‘Navigating Nationality: The Rights to Birth Registration and Nationality in Refugee Magnet States’, Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 53 (2014): 114 –57; UNICEF, ‘Birth Registration and Armed Conflict’ (Geneva: UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, 2007), http://www.unicef.org/protection/birth_registration_and_armed_conflict%281%29.pdf ; UNHCR, ‘Child Protection Issue Brief: Birth Registration’ (Geneva: United Nations, 2013). 48