A/HRC/27/22 66. Lack of birth registration and therefore of official statistics can lead to an underestimation of marginalized groups and therefore diminish their visibility.64 Nonregistration may stem from a deliberate policy or simply a lack of political will to change the situation, but can also be caused by less overt obstacles, such as illiteracy and language barriers, which prevent families from gaining access to information about birth registration procedures and requirements, and its benefits. 1. Children with disabilities 67. Birth registration is recognized as a right for all children with disabilities under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Committee on the Rights of the Child has highlighted this issue, and made clear that all children should be registered at birth, including those with disabilities, without discrimination of any kind, as required under article 2 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.65 Unfortunately, children with disabilities are often overrepresented among those who are not registered at birth. 68. The non-registration of children with disabilities is often due to the families themselves. The reluctance of parents of children with disabilities to register them renders the children invisible to social services, health-care workers and educational facilities.66 In its general comment No. 9, the Committee on the Rights of the Child noted that children with disabilities not registered at birth are at a greater risk of neglect, institutionalization, and even death.67 2. Gender discrimination 69. Although differences in rates of civil registration by sex are minimal, discrimination is seen in countries that allow only the most senior male household member to register a child’s birth, or refuse to register a child at all without the presence of the father or of both parents. Such laws discriminate against mothers, and may result in children not being registered owing to the lack of the father’s consent or because the child was born out of wedlock.68 Children born out of rape, for instance, cannot be registered; thus, a woman who has survived sexual violence is revictimized. Furthermore, some gender-neutral laws, while not specifically prohibiting a mother from registering her child, make it difficult or impossible for her to do so as a result of indirect discrimination and cultural practices.69 This is particularly the case where a child is born out of wedlock, and a single mother might be reluctant to approach the authorities out of shame and the stigma attached. 70. Discrimination against women can also be seen in countries where a woman is legally incapable of conferring her nationality to her child. In such circumstances, if the father does not acknowledge the child, there is a high risk that the child will be left stateless.70 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 UNICEF, Birth Registration (see footnote 34), p. 13. CRC/C/GC/7/Rev.1, para. 25. UNICEF, Promoting the Rights of Children with Disabilities, Innocenti Digest No. 13, 2007 (available from www.un.org/esa/socdev/unyin/documents/children_disability_rights.pdf), p. 4. CRC/C/GC/9, para. 36. Plan International, Mother to Child: How Discrimination Prevents Women Registering the Birth of their Child, March 2012 (available from https://planinternational.org/files/global/publications/campaigns/mother-to-child-how-discrimination-english), p. 9. Ibid., p. 6. Contribution received from University of Western Cape, South Africa, available from www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Children/BirthRegistration/Pages/Contributions.aspx. 15