A/HRC/30/42 no registration of their birth and lacked the means to trace their identity and identify their families or communities. 20 41. Officially recognized identity, substantiated through birth certificates or identity documents, is a gateway for the realization of most fundamental rights. Legal identity is important for the purpose of having rights respected, for claiming them and for obtaining redress when they are violated. Addressing the challenges of legal registration in the aftermath of conflict or repression provides an opportunity to establish, restore or strengthen the foundations of a national registry that is compulsory, universal, permanent and continuous, which secures the c onfidentiality of personal data and is sensitive to cultural circumstances, including of minorities and religious or indigenous groups. By facilitating statistical data, legal registration can assist a Government to better plan, implement and monitor its service provision and efforts towards the realization of the rights of the individuals and development objectives. Addressing legal identity concerns in post-conflict or post-authoritarian contexts provides a way for transitional justice mechanisms to have an impact beyond their direct sphere of influence. B. Ratification of treaties 42. While legal identity is a precondition for the exercise of rights, there are measures that can proactively promote rights, both retrospectively, by redressing their violation, and prospectively, by trying to prevent the violations. Some of these tools have received legal expression in international treaties. A basic step in the articulation of a non-recurrence policy, therefore, consists in the ratification of relevant treaties concerning gross human rights violations and serious violations of international humanitarian law. 21 States should avoid, or withdraw, any reservation that could raise doubts as to their compatibility with the obj ect and purpose of the treaty. 43. Because no law is self-executing, ratification alone can at best be taken as a signalling device, which has the potential for misuse as “window dressing”, in which case ratification can be followed by a worse human rights performance. 22 Nevertheless, ratification, exemplifying what has been called “the paradox of empty promises”, 23 can lead to greater compliance if accompanied by various forms of advocacy. 24 44. Except for pure “monist” legal systems, ratification can lead to greater compliance only if accompanied by the incorporation of treaty obligations into domestic legislation. In such systems, therefore, a basic element of a non -recurrence policy will require, in addition to ratification, a strategy of incorporation (and desirably of monitoring and enforcement). 20 21 22 23 24 Ibid. See key international instruments, available from www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/TruthJusticeReparation/ Pages/InternationalInstruments.aspx. See Oona A. Hathaway, “Do Human Rights Treaties Make a Difference?”, Yale Law Journal, Vol. 111, No. 8 (2002). See Emilie M. Hafner-Burton and Kiyoteru Tsutsui, “Human Rights in a Globalizing World: The Paradox of Empty Promises”, American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 110, No. 5 (2005). See Tomas Risse et al, The Persistent Power of Human Rights (Cambridge University Press, 2013). 11