A/HRC/RES/19/9 vulnerable to statelessness and associated lack of protection; and aware that registering a person’s birth is a vital step towards his or her protection, Recognizing also the importance of birth registration, including late birth registration, for the development of vital statistics and the effective implementation of programmes and policies intended to achieve internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals, 1. Expresses concern at the high number of persons throughout the world whose birth is not registered; 2. Reminds States of their obligation to undertake birth registration without discrimination of any kind; 3. Calls upon States to establish or strengthen existing governmental institutions responsible for birth registration and the preservation and security of such records, and to ensure they have sufficient resources to fulfil their mandate; 4. Also calls upon States to ensure free birth registration, including free or lowfee late birth registration, by means of universal, accessible, simple, expeditious and effective registration procedures without discrimination of any kind; 5. Further calls upon States to continuously raise awareness at the national and local levels of birth registration, including by engagement in public campaigns that raise awareness of the importance of birth registration for effective access to services and the enjoyment of all rights; 6. Urges States to identify and remove physical, administrative and any other barriers that impede access to birth registration, including late birth registration, paying due attention to, among others, those barriers relating to poverty, disability, multicultural contexts and persons in vulnerable situations; 7. Encourages States to request technical assistance, if required, from relevant United Nations bodies, agencies, funds and programmes, including the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations Population Fund, the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the World Health Organization, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations Development Programme, and other relevant stakeholders in order to fulfil their obligation to undertake birth registration as a means to respect the right of everyone to be recognized everywhere as a person before the law; 8. Invites the above-mentioned United Nations bodies, agencies, funds and programmes and other relevant stakeholders to cooperate with States in providing technical assistance, upon request; work. 9. Decides to consider this issue in accordance with its annual programme of [Adopted without a vote.] 2 53rd meeting 22 March 2012