2016] The Prevention and Reduction of Statelessness in Australia 483 child.149 The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has interpreted immediate birth registration to mean that it should take place as soon as practically possible, within ‘days rather than months’ after birth.150 The ‘right to a birth certificate is necessarily implied into the right to [immediate] birth registration’,151 since ‘[i]t is the birth certificate that provides the substance to the right to birth registration.’152 The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has recommended that a standard birth certificate should be provided free of charge at the time of the registration of the birth.153 In Australia, it is a legal requirement to register the birth of a child in each state and territory.154 However, ‘birth registration is not automatic upon the birth of a child, and a birth certificate is not automatically issued upon birth registration.’155 To register a birth in Australia, parents or guardians must complete and submit a birth registration application to the relevant state or territory authority. The required supporting documents and fees to apply for a birth certificate vary between each state and territory.156 The Minimbah Project, an Australian non-governmental organisation that assists young Australians with birth registration processes, estimates that ‘[a]pproximately 35 000 children (12% of [annual births]) fail to have their 149 See UN Children’s Fund, Implementation Handbook for the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN Children’s Fund, 3rd ed, 2007) 97--8 (citations omitted). 150 Ibid 100. 151 Paula Gerber, Andy Gargett and Melissa Castan, ‘Does the Right to Birth Registration Include a Right to a Birth Certificate?’ (2011) 29 Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights 434, 436. 152 Ibid 435. 153 Committee on the Rights of the Child, Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties under Article 44 of the Convention: Concluding Observations ---- Australia, 60th sess, UN Doc CRC/C/AUS/CO/4 (28 August 2012) 9 [36] (‘Concluding Observations ---- Australia’). See Guidelines on Statelessness No 4, UN Doc HCR/GS/12/04, 11 [54]. 154 Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1997 (ACT) s 7(1); Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1995 (NSW) s 13(1); Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1996 (NT) s 13(1); Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 2003 (Qld) s 6(1)(a); Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1996 (SA) s 13(1); Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1999 (Tas) s 12(1); Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1996 (Vic) s 13(1); Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1998 (WA) s 13(1). 155 Gerber, Gargett and Castan, above n 151, 437. 156 See, eg, Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria, Department of Justice and Regulation (Vic), Fees (13 January 2017) <http://www.bdm.vic.gov.au/utility/about+bdm/fees/>; Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Department of Justice (NSW), Birth Certificate (28 November 2016) <http://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/Pages/births/birth-certificate.aspx>.