A/HRC/RES/43/5
2.
Reminds States of their obligation to register all births without discrimination
of any kind, and also reminds States that birth registration should take place immediately
after birth, in the country where children are born, including the children of migrants, nonnationals, asylum seekers, refugees and stateless persons, in accordance with international
human rights law and national law, and that late birth registration should be limited to those
cases that would otherwise result in a lack of registration;
3.
Reaffirms that the provision of legal identity for all, including birth registration
by 2030, can contribute to prevent, inter alia, poverty, marginalization, exclusion,
discrimination, violence, statelessness, illegal adoption, abduction, sale, exploitation and
abuse, including when they take the form of child labour, human trafficking, child, early and
forced marriage and other harmful practices, and child recruitment, and can also assist in the
reunification of families separated by conflict, disaster or humanitarian crisis;
4.
Welcomes the report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights on best practices and specific measures to ensure access to birth registration,
particularly for those children most at risk,1 in which the High Commissioner addressed the
situation of children marginalized and living in situations of conflict, poverty, emergency or
vulnerability, including girls, children belonging to minority groups, children with
disabilities, indigenous children, and children of migrants, asylum seekers, refugees and
stateless persons;
5.
Calls upon States:
(a)
To identify and reform laws or policies that discriminate against women and
children and compromise access to birth registration and the realization of their right to
recognition everywhere as a person before the law;
(b)
To identify and remove physical, administrative, procedural, practical and any
other barriers that discriminate or impede access to birth registration, in order to ensure that
birth registration procedures are universal, accessible, simple, expeditious, effective and
provided at minimal or no cost, to remove documentation requirements that are difficult or
impossible to fulfil, and to pay due attention to, inter alia, those barriers relating to gender,
indigeneity, culture, religion, poverty, social or economic status, disability, women’s equal
nationality rights, age, adoption processes, nationality, statelessness, displacement, illiteracy,
detention contexts, armed conflict and humanitarian situations, and to persons in vulnerable
situations;
(c)
To establish or strengthen existing institutions at all levels responsible for birth
registration, including through the development of comprehensive civil registration systems
and the preservation and security of such records, to ensure adequate training for registration
officers, to allocate sufficient and adequate human, technical and financial resources to fulfil
their mandate, and to increase the accessibility of birth registration facilities within its
territory and, in accordance with relevant international and national laws, abroad, either by
increasing the number or through other means, such as mobile birth registration officials in
rural areas, promoting community awareness and working to address the barriers faced by
persons who may be in vulnerable situations, such as women and girls, persons with
disabilities, indigenous children, children belonging to minorities, children of migrants,
asylum seekers, refugees and stateless persons, in their access to birth registration;
(d)
To implement targeted programmes to reach children living in the most remote
and excluded circumstances, including by integrating the provision of birth registration with
the delivery of other essential services, particularly health services, and utilizing mobile
registration units, technology and other innovative solutions to advance decentralized
registration procedures;
(e)
To take all appropriate measures to permanently store and protect civil
registration records and to prevent the loss or destruction of records due to, inter alia,
emergency or armed conflict situations, including through the use of digital and new
technologies as a means to facilitate and universalize access to birth registration, to prevent
the loss of children’s personal data and to ensure continuity of birth registration during and
1
A/HRC/39/30.
3
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