A/HRC/39/30 19. Regulations and practices that discriminate on the grounds of gender and prevent registration can lead to statelessness. Children are at risk of being left stateless in countries where discriminatory laws prevent women from conferring their nationality on their child, particularly when the father does not acknowledge the child. Many countries give a woman unequal and lesser rights than a man to pass on citizenship to their children,15 and often mothers are only allowed to confer nationality to children in specific circumstances, such as where the father is unknown or stateless. In addition, procedural requirements for the conferral of citizenship may be imposed on mothers which are not placed on fathers.16 20. Intersex children are often discriminated against in the context of birth registration processes, and special measures are needed to ensure their registration. They are at risk of undergoing medical procedures seeking to “normalize” their gender in order to satisfy requirements that they be registered as either male or female, when they are too young to provide their consent and decide how they wish to register their gender status. 17 D. Children with disabilities 21. According to UNICEF estimates, between 93 million and 150 million children live with disability globally, and children with disabilities are overrepresented among those lacking a birth certificate. 18 They are thereby placed at risk of remaining invisible to society, institutionalized, and neglected or left out from essential health, education and other services.19 In many cases their non-registration is due to reluctance on the part of their parents or families to register their births, on the basis of cultural prejudice or social stigma. 20 Further to this, in some countries there are laws that directly or indirectly discriminate against the birth registration of children with disabilities. 22. Children with disabilities are at risk of infanticide at birth in contexts where they or their families are subject to intense social discrimination and stigma, and girls with disabilities are at the greatest risk of this violation of their right to life. 21 As a lack of birth registration leads to a child’s invisibility due to a lack of legal recognition by the State, in the absence of an official record of their birth such crimes occur with impunity. 22 The vulnerabilities precipitated by failures to register the births of children with disabilities are exacerbated in emergency settings, where they are at heightened risk of abuse, neglect, exploitation, abandonment and exclusion from humanitarian assistance. 23 E. Indigenous and minority children 23. Minorities and indigenous peoples are especially vulnerable to not being registered at birth, and face heightened obstacles when they live in remote or border areas, are nomadic or migrate, seek asylum or are refugees, or live in areas affected by conflict or humanitarian situations. 24 Registration systems often directly or indirectly discriminate against indigenous and minority children, for example due to prior documentary 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 6 Equality Now, The State We’re In: Ending Sexism in Nationality Laws (2016). Submission from Equality Now and submission from Women Enabled International. Submission from the Children Education Society. UNICEF, “Children and young people with disabilities: fact sheet” (2013), p. 10. See Committee on the Rights of the Child, general comment No. 9 (2006) on the rights of children with disabilities. See Committee on the Rights of the Child, general comment No. 7 (2005) on implementing child rights in early childhood; and UNICEF, Promoting the Rights of Children with Disabilities (2007). See Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, general comment No. 3 (2016) on women and girls with disabilities. See Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, general comment No. 1 (2014) on equal recognition before the law. See Committee on the Rights of the Child, general comment No. 9; and UNICEF and Handicap International, Guidance on Including Children with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action (2017). UNICEF, Every Child’s Birth Right.