A/HRC/39/30 I. Introduction 1. In its resolution 34/15, the Human Rights Council requested the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to prepare a report on best practices and specific measures to ensure access to birth registration, particularly for those children most at risk, marginalized and living in situations of conflict, poverty, emergency or vulnerability, including children belonging to minority groups, children with disabilities, indigenous children, and children of migrants, asylum seekers, refugees and stateless persons, taking into account the commitment to implement target 16.9 of the Sustainable Development Goals, and to submit the report to the Human Rights Council at its thirty-ninth session.1 2. The present report follows two prior reports to Human Rights Council addressing the right to birth registration, entitled “Birth registration and the right of everyone to recognition everywhere as a person before the law” 2 and “Strengthening policies and programmes for universal birth registration and vital statistics development”.3 It provides examples of good practices, informed by written contributions received from 16 States and 14 civil society organizations as well as United Nations agencies and other international entities.4 3. All children have a right to birth registration and to be recognized as persons before the law, and States must register all children immediately at birth without discrimination of any kind. Birth registration is a key step to establishing the legal recognition of a child, and subsequently to upholding their rights throughout their lives. For example, birth registration provides a fundamental basis for claiming the right to citizenship, and associated civil and political rights, such as the right to vote, and is often requested when a person is seeking to access employment, health care, education, or welfare services. 4. Ensuring birth registration is crucial to protecting children from abuse, exploitation and violence. When a child is not registered at birth, he or she faces a heightened risk of statelessness, discrimination and abuse, particularly in the form of child labour, recruitment into armed forces, trafficking, or child marriage. 5. The Convention on the Rights of the Child defines the obligation of States to ensure the right to birth registration and to legal identity for all children. These obligations are further reflected across multiple human rights conventions and instruments. In the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, States committed themselves to implementing the right to legal identity and universal birth registration for all children by 2030, under target 16.9. 6. Although global birth registration rates have increased in recent decades, it is of great concern that, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 290 million children still do not have a birth certificate. 5 Children born into certain circumstances are much more likely to miss out on birth registration, particularly those living in situations of poverty, conflict or other emergencies, and children belonging to minority groups, children with disabilities, indigenous children, and the children of migrants, asylum seekers, refugees or stateless persons. The birth registration measures currently in place are therefore failing millions of the most excluded children worldwide, who are rendered even more vulnerable to violence, abuse and exploitation. 7. Effective, human rights-based approaches are crucial to make the substantial improvements necessary to achieve universal birth registration, by reaching those who are the most marginalized and living in vulnerable situations. Active and targeted measures must be taken to reach them, and the examples of good practice summarized in the present 1 2 3 4 5 See Human Rights Council resolution 34/15, para. 19. A/HRC/27/22. A/HRC/33/22. Available at www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Children/ThematicReports/Pages/ BirthRegistrationVulnerableMarginalizedChildren.aspx. UNICEF, Every Child’s Birth Right: Inequities and Trends in Birth Registration (New York, 2013). 3