A/HRC/33/22 stigma faced in these contexts, parents often do not disclose the birth of children in order to protect their offspring. Special measures must be put in place to address these real and serious concerns. 20. In situations of armed conflict, natural disaster and other emergencies, civil registration may be disrupted, and existing barriers to registration tend to be exacerbated. Populations may be displaced within or beyond State borders, causing problems with regard to retrieving vital documents and continuing to register vital events. Moreover, civil records may be destroyed due to natural disasters and other emergencies, particularly where civil registration systems are not digitized. 21. The fulfillment of universal birth registration also strongly relies upon its implementation as a part of well-functioning civil registration and vital statistics systems. Civil registration systems officially register vital events, including births, deaths and causes of death, adoptions, marriages and divorces. Well-functioning civil registration and vital statistics systems provide the best source of continuous, reliable and universal national data about the vital events of the population. They are also essential to the fulfilment of core obligations of the State, including the progressive realization of human rights, as vital statistics about the population are necessary for effective planning of development policies and programmes, including public services. Moreover, information from civil registration systems can be crucial to identifying, monitoring and remedying human rights abuses against certain individuals or groups within a country, whereas a lack of data on births and deaths concentrated among specific population groups has resulted in the systematic underestimation of child mortality among these groups. 17 22. Yet, some countries still do not acknowledge the importance of well-functioning civil registration systems to development. In some cases, civil registration has been used to control the population or as a tool for persecution, seriously affecting public trust in the State. Civil registration laws and procedures are often outdated, failing to reflect the present realities and information needs, and inadequate capacity and resource allocations pose a significant barrier to the development of civil registration systems in many countries. For example, inadequate resources can lead to non-registration due to inadequate registration stationery and supplies. Countries also highlight the capacity challenges of insufficient staffing, inadequately trained staff, deprioritization of registration activities by low-paid officials and problems of fraud and corruption. B. Priorities to support universal registration 23. Realizing the right to birth registration for all children requires that registration be available and accessible for all. Special measures must be undertaken to ensure access for those children most at risk, marginalized and living in situations of vulnerability, particularly children from minority groups, children with disabilities, children from indigenous communities and stateless children. Effective implementation strategies for achieving universal registration have involved improvements in the enabling environment, including the introduction of laws and policies to support and implement registration within an equitable legal framework, increasing infrastructure for improved registration services and training personnel.18 Interoperability has been particularly effective in promoting access to civil registration services, whereby such services are provided via existing health or other public service facilities. 17 18 8 Ibid., p. 11. UNICEF, “A passport to protection: a guide to birth registration programming” (New York, 2013).