A/HRC/33/22 leave any country, and not be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter their own country (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 12). 9. The right to birth registration is also addressed in both international refugee law and international humanitarian law,4 including in the conclusions on international protection of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees of 17 October 2013. The conclusions emphasize the importance of birth registration in relation to refugees, asylum seekers and stateless persons, and outline how a lack of civil registration and related documentation makes persons vulnerable to statelessness and associated risks. 10 The obligation for States to ensure that all marriages are registered in an appropriate official register is stipulated in the Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages. The obligation to register deaths is implicit in article 12 (2) (a) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which stipulates that necessary measures to realize the right to health include “reduction of the still-birth rate and of infant mortality”, as the information necessary to monitor these mortality rates is available only from a State’s register. The obligation to register deaths is also implicit in the realization of other human rights, including rights concerning property, inheritance and social security, and the right to remarry after the death of a spouse. B. Implementation progress 11. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the average rate of birth registration has been increasing moderately in recent years, from approximately 58 per cent in 2000 to 65 per cent in 2010.5 In 2015, 123 countries reported having a birth registration service within a civil registry which was free, continuous or permanent, accessible, universal in coverage, timely and accurate. This reflects an increase from 114 countries in 2014. However, it is of great concern that the births of nearly one fourth of the global population of children under 5 have never been registered.6 The largest gaps in absolute terms persist in Asia, which accounts for 59 per cent of the global gap, followed by sub-Saharan Africa, which accounts for 37 per cent.7 Nonetheless, certain countries within South Asia and East and Southern Africa have made significant gains in registration rates in recent years.8 12. On the basis of disaggregated data available on birth registration rates worldwide, questions of equality and non-discrimination have become central to the implementation of universal birth registration. Rates of registration continue to vary greatly within and between countries – with the highest reaching 100 per cent, and the lowest merely 5 per cent.9 In countries where registration rates have improved and reached high levels overall, children from the poorest households are still twice as likely to be unregistered as those from the richest.10 Moreover, implementation experience reflects that the children who are most marginalized and discriminated against are those who remain unregistered and uncounted. Even when countries reach registration rates as high as 70-90 per cent, it is the 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 See the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, arts. 1-6; and the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, art. 50. UNICEF, Annual Results Report 2015. http://data.unicef.org/child-protection/birth-registration.html#sthash.U8UQ0bXj.dpuf. UNICEF, “Every child’s birth right: inequities and trends in birth registration” (New York, 2013), p. 15. UNICEF, Annual Results Report 2015. Ibid. UNICEF, Progress for Children: Achieving the MDGs with Equity, No. 9 (September 2010), p. 45. 5