12 INCLUSION 1 Ensure universal access for individuals, free from discrimination. • Legal identity for all. Everyone should be able to prove their legal identity. Countries must fulfill their obligations and commitments to provide legal identification to all residents11—not just citizens12—from birth to death, as reflected in international and domestic laws.13 This includes the obligation of universal birth registration for all children,14 which is essential for providing proof of legal identity from birth, and the timely registration of other vital events, such as marriages and deaths. It also includes the obligations and commitments to provide proof of legal identity to refugees, stateless persons, and migrants who do not have a valid credential or cannot otherwise prove their legal identity. • Nondiscrimination. All identification systems should be free from discrimination in policy, in practice, and by design. This includes ensuring that legal frameworks; requirements and procedures to register, obtain, or use identification; and the data that are collected or displayed on credentials do not enable or reinforce discrimination against particular groups, such as those who may face increased risks of exclusion for cultural, political, economic or other reasons. Such groups include people living in poverty; women; children; rural populations; racial, ethnic, linguistic, and religious minorities; persons with disabilities; sexual and gender minorities; migrants; asylum seekers, refugees, and the forcibly displaced; and stateless persons among others. Furthermore, identification systems and data should never be used as a tool for discrimination or to infringe on or deny individual or collective rights. 11 While states have the sovereign right to determine eligibility for citizenship and issue proof of citizenship in accordance with international law, they also have the obligation to provide proof of legal identity—or recognize legal identification issued by another state or international organization—to all persons resident on their territory, including birth registration. For example, the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees, Article 27 provides that States “shall issue identity papers to any refugee in their territory who does not possess a valid travel document,” and a similar provision for stateless persons is contained in the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons, Article 27. Providing everyone with proof of legal identity is critical to the prevention of statelessness (see www.unhcr.org/ibelong). 12 States should provide proof of citizenship to all persons entitled to it without discrimination of any kind. 13 The obligation of states to provide proof of legal identity does not necessarily mean that enrollment in identification systems should be legally mandatory. 14 For example, Article 7 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) states: “The child shall be registered immediately after birth and shall have the right from birth to a name, the right to acquire a nationality and, as far as possible, the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents.” The CRC has been ratified by every Member State of the UN except for the United States, which has signed but not ratified the treaty. In practice, however, virtually all births in the United States are registered.