A/HRC/33/22 I. Introduction 1. In its resolution 28/13, the Human Rights Council requested the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to prepare a report on efforts made with regard to strengthening existing policies and programmes aimed at universal birth registration and vital statistics development, including to ensure that they were based on international standards, taking into account best practices, and were implemented in accordance with relevant international human rights obligations, and to submit it to the Human Rights Council at its thirty-third session. That resolution built on Council resolution 22/7, in which it requested the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to prepare a report on the legal, administrative, economic, physical and any other barriers to access to universal birth registration and possession of documentary proof of birth, as well as on good practices adopted by States in that regard.1 2. Pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 28/13, the present report provides a summary of relevant international obligations and implementation status, followed by an overview of key considerations in relation to human rights-based monitoring and implementation, including in relation to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It then provides a stocktaking of the activities undertaken by OHCHR and partners to strengthen policies and programmes aimed at universal birth registration and vital statistics development. 3. Birth registration and the right of everyone to recognition as a person before the law are recognized as fundamental human rights, on the basis of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and as elaborated across a number of conventions and other relevant international instruments. As birth registration establishes the recognition of a person before the law, the registration of all children immediately after birth is fundamental to the protection and realization of all human rights. When children are not registered at birth, they are at risk of being deprived of other rights throughout their lives, including the right to citizenship, health, education and social welfare. Children who are not registered at birth also face increased vulnerability to marginalization, exclusion, discrimination, violence, statelessness, exploitation and abuse, including in the form of child labour, trafficking and child marriage. Moreover, the sound management of well-functioning civil registration and vital statistics systems is an important contributor to accountability and good governance within the State. 4. States must undertake due efforts to fulfil their obligation to ensure universal birth registration as part of well-functioning civil registration systems. Progress in this regard has been uneven, with evidence of substantial gaps in civil registration rates within and between countries. States must ensure that civil registration systems and vital statistics reflect the situation of all members of the population, regardless of their race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status. Special measures are needed to ensure birth registration, proof of identity and vital statistics for people living in situations of emergency and other vulnerable situations. 1 That report was issued as document A/HRC/27/22. 3