A/HRC/27/22 (a) Ensure that birth registration is accessible to all without discrimination of any kind, including on the basis of the child’s, or the child’s parents’, immigration status, social origin, sex, ethnicity, language, disability or birth out of wedlock; this is essential for children and families living in an irregular migration situation, for refugees and for asylum seekers, as well as for children belonging to marginalized groups; (b) Improve access to registration for individuals living in rural areas, including by taking advantage of the most recent advances in information technology and innovative technical solutions to improve birth registration and civil registration and vital statistics systems; (c) Adopt simplified administrative procedures that allow flexibility in birth registration requirements to ensure that individuals are not denied registration; (d) Review laws and administrative regulations that impose a fee on birth registration or impose penalties for late or delayed registration. Registration should be completely free of charge, and measures should be taken to ensure the registration of older children and unregistered adults, in an integrated, inclusive and protective approach; (e). Carry out a comprehensive assessment of their existing civil registration and vital statistics system, including by monitoring and measuring its functionality and alignment with human rights standards and principles; this should be done with a view to developing a coherent strategy to achieve universal birth registration that details budgetary responsibilities, and allocates sufficient human and financial resources to the civil registration and vital statistics system. Staff should be adequately trained to apply a child-sensitive and rights-based approach, which takes account of specific vulnerabilities of children, and complies fully with the obligations of States under the Convention on the Rights of the Child and other international and regional human rights instruments; (f) Ensure that responsibilities and accountabilities between key stakeholders working on birth registration, as well as civil registration and vital statistics, have aligned mandates and work in a coordinated manner. Actions should also be taken to remove existing obstacles to the effective administration of civil registration and vital statistics systems around which donors and development partners can align their support. Strategies aimed at improving such systems should be innovative and consider the use of technology, where appropriate. States should ensure that practitioners engage and partner with relevant stakeholders, including technology providers, to seek solutions that meet the needs of national civil registration and vital statistics systems, in accordance with international human rights standards; (g) Participate in regional government initiatives to improve the operation of the civil registry; (h) Consider the interoperability between birth registration and existing services and structures, such as health and education, to allow registration as close as possible to the population. (i) Mobilize communities, in collaboration with other stakeholders, to raise awareness of the importance of birth registration, particularly among marginalized groups. The help of respected community members, such as religious leaders, village elders and locally elected councillors, should be considered, allowing communities to find their own solutions, and thus make the process more sustainable in the long term. Authorities should draw on pre-existing community structures and leaderships to 18