A/HRC/39/30
for refugees and displaced children at risk of statelessness, including, where relevant, to
facilitate their repatriation. Permanent storage of birth registration records safeguards
against the loss or destruction of birth certificates and related data that often occurs during
conflict and humanitarian situations. The digitization of civil registration systems and birth
registration data is important in order to achieve this.
72.
Humanitarian organizations seeking to maintain birth registration may also rely on
mobile registration units to reach remote, conflict-affected areas or displaced populations,
alongside other approaches such as the integration of birth registration with the delivery of
emergency services at the local level. 53 And yet, measures to maintain birth registration
once a conflict or other emergency has broken out tend to be temporary, and inadequately
integrated with core national civil registration systems, which are often disrupted in such
situations. It is crucial that emergency birth registration programmes be integrated in a
sustainable manner into national systems, even if it is only once the situation has begun to
stabilize.54
73.
In Lebanon, UNHCR has raised awareness among Syrian refugees of the right to
and processes for accessing birth registration, in partnership with multiple actors.
Procedures have been implemented to ensure that data on children from refugee families
who are registered with UNHCR is updated with all new births occurring in Lebanon
among refugee families. Parents are advised on an individual basis by UNHCR staff about
processes for accessing birth registration, and those in situations of particular vulnerability
are referred to legal partners trained to assist them throughout the birth registration
process.55
74.
Plan International carried out mass birth registration drives to support the issuance
of birth certificates for South Sudanese refugee children born in the country. As a result,
additional continuous birth registration services were established in certain health facilities
and refugee registration points, which benefited from the raised awareness about birth
registration that had been generated during its campaigns. 56
G.
Monitoring and data management
75.
Ensuring that birth registration is integrated within comprehensive well-functioning
civil registration systems is fundamental to national planning, and to the design of policies
that take account of the situation of all children living within a country. There is an
important commitment to ensuring improved and disaggregated data in the 2030 Agenda
for Sustainable Development. Human rights principles and standards should be applied to
support this aim, and throughout processes of monitoring, data collection and data
management.
76.
Any data that may be used to discriminate against a child should not be recorded on
their birth certificate or in civil registries, such as those pertaining to race, ethnicity,
religious beliefs or his or her parents’ marital status. Only the minimum information
necessary should be recorded, such as the child’s and parents’ names and address, the
child’s gender, and the date and place of birth. The father’s name and other details should
not be required, as this can lead to discrimination or prevent a child’s registration in certain
circumstances.
77.
Birth registration and other civil registration data should be stored by governments
in a manner that is secure and permanent. The rights to privacy and access to information
must be consistently respected and upheld, and children’s personal data should be managed
in a manner in which it cannot be destroyed, is kept confidential by law, and can be easily
retrieved at any stage of their lives. Implementing digital birth registration and civil
53
54
55
56
Plan International, Birth Registration in Emergencies.
Ibid.
UNHCR, “Ensuring birth registration for the prevention of statelessness”.
Submission from Plan International.
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