Universal Birth Registration Birth registration is fundamental for acquiring nationality because it documents where a person was born and who a person’s parents are. It is also essential that a birth certificate is issued upon registration because, in practical terms, it enables the child to access other fundamental children’s rights and child protection services: Birth registration is a fundamental human right in itself and was first acknowledged at an international level in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the 1990 African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, which have both been ratified by South Africa, also specify that every child is entitled to immediate birth registration. On a domestic level, birth registration is enshrined in the Constitution. Section 28 is a dedicated section on children’s rights and states that: “Every child has a right to a name and a nationality from birth”. This right applies to all children born in South Africa, irrespective of the child’s legal status or that of the parents.