Under the umbrella of The Coalition on Every Child’s Right to a Nationality, UNICEF and UNHCR have produced this background note to explore the issue of sex discrimination in birth registration.5 By providing an overview and country specific examples6 of the kinds of legislative provisions7 and cultural norms that can negatively affect women’s ability to register the birth of their children, it is hoped that it will support advocacy efforts, and action by States, that advance a number of the Coalition’s objectives, including: • • • Ensuring that no child is born stateless; Eliminating laws and practices that deny children nationality on discriminatory grounds; and Improving birth registration to prevent statelessness. Birth registration is defined as “the continuous, permanent, compulsory and universal recording, within the civil registry, of the occurrence and characteristics of birth in accordance with the national legal requirements of a country.”8 It involves the official recording of the birth of a child and entry in the State’s civil registry by an administrative body of the government, which is usually followed by the issuance of a birth certificate. Birth registration, particularly the 5 6 7 8 4 issuance of a birth certificate, is vital to establishing legal identity and also in preventing statelessness. A birth certificate contains key information on parentage, date and place of birth which is used as proof of legal identity and evidence of links to a State needed to establish nationality. In countries where nationality is primarily acquired on the grounds of descent ( jus sanguinis), information about the identity of a child’s parents recorded in the birth certificate provides key evidence of eligibility for nationality; in countries where nationality is acquired on the grounds of birth in the territory ( jus soli), the information on place of birth in the birth certificate provides the evidence of entitlement. The date and time of birth recorded in a birth certificate are also potentially relevant to eligibility for nationality, as this information informs the authorities about the nationality law in force at the time of a person’s birth. In the absence of proof of relevant links to a State, a child can be left at risk of statelessness. The lack of a birth certificate does not on its own render a person stateless, but as noted above the possession of a birth certificate containing relevant information on parentage, place and time of birth helps to establish entitlement to nationality. In certain cases, a birth certificate is a prerequisite for obtaining nationality documentation (such as a national ID card or a passport) or is regarded as proof of nationality. This aligns with UNICEF’s pledge to advocate to remove gender discrimination in nationality laws and civil registration laws at the 2019 High Level Segment on Statelessness. UNHCR, High-Level Segment on Statelessness: Results and Highlights, May 2020. See https://www.refworld.org/docid/5ec3e91b4.html This paper does not provide a comprehensive listing of, or information about, all countries with legislative and regulatory provisions, and/or cultural norms that can negatively affect women’s ability to register the birth of their children. The country examples herein come from a legal analysis into sex discrimination in birth registration laws and practices commissioned by UNICEF and UNHCR in 2020 to support this publication. That legal analysis, which was conducted by independent consultants, was complemented by key informant interviews with UNHCR and UNICEF staff in a number of countries. This paper focuses on sex discrimination in law (i.e., legislation and implementing regulations). The situation may vary considerably in practice, and as a general matter examinations of State practice are outside the scope of this paper. OHCHR, Birth registration and the right of everyone to recognition everywhere as a person before the law, 17 June 2014, para. 4. See https://ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Children-OHCHR/Pages/ReportBirthRegistration.aspx B AC KG R O U N D N O T E O N S E X D I S C R I M I N AT I O N I N B I R T H R E G I S T R AT I O N