A/HRC/27/22 No. 11, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights defined “compulsory” as meaning that no one, including the State, is entitled to treat as optional the decision of whether a child should have access to primary education.21 Both above-mentioned treaties also prohibit discrimination based on birth. Making birth registration a prerequisite for enrolment into or completion of primary education would therefore not be in compliance with the right to education guaranteed under these treaties. B. Right to health 21. According to the World Health Organization, of the 6.6 million children who died before their fifth birthday in 2012, almost half died of infectious causes, nearly all of which were preventable.22 These children may be harder to reach for health-care workers and overlooked in public health planning. Furthermore, in some countries, they may not have access to immunization or other health-care programmes. OHCHR noted a correlation between children who are registered and those who are fully vaccinated, receive vitamin A supplementation, and/or are taken to a health-care professional when they are ill.23 22. In its general comment No. 3, the Committee on the Rights of the Child emphasized the critical implications of proof of identity for children affected by HIV/AIDS, including in safeguarding their rights to inheritance, education, health and other social services. According to the Committee, birth registration is necessary to minimize the impact of HIV/AIDS on the lives and human rights of affected children, and in particular to protect children from abuse and exploitation, especially where they have been separated from their family as a result of the disease.24 C. Statelessness, nationality and citizenship 23. Birth registration is fundamental to the prevention of statelessness. Not all children born without birth registration are stateless; but for those born in certain situations (for example, to parents from different countries, in a migratory setting, to refugee or asylum seeker parents or in border areas), lack of birth registration can cause statelessness.25 24. While birth registration does not in itself confer citizenship on a child, it is essential to ensure the right of every child to acquire a nationality, as it constitutes an important form of proof of the link between an individual and the State. It documents where a child was born and who the child’s parents are, thus providing important evidence of whether a child can acquire citizenship on the basis of place of birth (jus soli) or of descent (jus sanguinis).26 21 22 23 24 25 26 E/C.12/1999/4, para. 6. WHO, “Children: reducing mortality”, Fact sheet No. 178, September 2013, available from www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs178/en/. A/HRC/22/31, para. 81. CRC/GC/2003/3, para. 32. UNHCR and Plan International, Under the Radar and Under Protected, 2012 (available from http://plan-international.org/about-plan/resources/publications/campaigns/under-the-radar-and-underprotected/), p. 5. Ibid. See also UNICEF, A Passport to Protection (see footnote 3), p. 12. 7