WUNRN
http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?si=A/HRC/28/L.23
BIRTH
REGISTRATION–RIGHT OF EVERYONE EVERYWHERE BEFORE THE LAW–UN HUMAN RIGHTS
COUNCIL RESOLUTION – VITAL FOR GIRLS
Approximately 230 million children under the age of 5 worldwide are
still not registered, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund.
|
|
United Nations |
A/HRC/28/L.23 |
|
|
|
General Assembly |
Distr.: Limited 23
March 2015 Original:
English |
|
Human Rights Council
Twenty-eighth
session
Agenda item
3
Promotion
and protection of all human rights, civil,
political, economic, social and cultural rights,
including the right to development
Algeria, Angola,* Argentina, Australia,* Austria,*
Belgium,* Bolivia (Plurinational State of), Brazil, Bulgaria,* Canada,*
Colombia,* Costa Rica,* Croatia,* Cuba, Denmark,* Djibouti,* Finland,* France,
Georgia,* Germany, Guatemala,* Honduras,* Hungary,* Iceland,* Ireland, Italy,*
Latvia, Luxembourg,* Mexico, Montenegro, Netherlands, New Zealand,* Nicaragua,*
Norway,* Panama,* Paraguay, Peru,* Portugal, Romania,* Slovakia,* Slovenia,*
Spain,* Sweden,* Switzerland,* Turkey,* United States of America, Uruguay:*
draft resolution
28/… Birth registration and the right of everyone to recognition
everywhere as a person before the law
The Human Rights Council,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter
of the United Nations,
Reaffirming the human right of everyone to be recognized
everywhere as a person before the law, which is enshrined in, inter alia, the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on
the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and other relevant international
instruments,
Recalling the obligation of States to register all
children, without discrimination of any kind, immediately after birth, as
provided for in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the
Convention on the Rights of the Child, the International Convention on the
Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families
and other relevant international instruments to which they are party,
Recognizing the importance of a human rights-based
approach to birth registration, based on international human rights obligations
and commitments operationally directed to promoting and protecting human
rights,
Welcoming the continuing efforts of the Committee on the
Rights of the Child and other treaty-based bodies towards universal birth
registration, such as through recommendations widely addressed to States in
this regard,
Recalling the resolutions adopted by the General Assembly
and the Human Rights Council in which they call upon States to ensure the
registration of all children immediately after birth, and without
discrimination of any kind, the most recent being Assembly resolution 69/157 of
18 December 2014 and Council resolution 22/7 of 21 March 2013,
Recognizing the importance of birth registration,
including late birth registration and provision of documents of proof of birth,
as a means of providing an official record of the existence of a person and the
recognition of that individual as a person before the law,
Expressing concern that unregistered individuals may have limited
or no access to services and enjoyment of all the rights to which they are
entitled, and taking into consideration that registering a person’s birth is a
vital step towards the promotion and protection of all his or her human rights,
and that persons without birth registration are more vulnerable to
marginalization, exclusion, discrimination, violence, statelessness,
exploitation and abuse,
Recognizing that free birth registration and free or
low-fee late birth registration are part of a comprehensive civil registration
system that facilitates the development of vital statistics and the effective
planning and implementation of programmes and policies intended to promote
better governance and to achieve internationally agreed development goals,
Recognizing also the efforts made at the regional
level to achieve universal birth registration, including within the 2015–2024
Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Decade for Asia and the Pacific, and
the Decade on Civil Registration 2015–2024 in Africa,
Recognizing further that non-governmental organizations,
professional associations, media, the private sector and other members of civil
society, including those involved in public-private partnerships, can also
contribute to the improvement and promotion of community awareness of birth
registration in a manner that reflects national priorities and strategies,
1. Expresses
concern at the fact that, despite ongoing efforts to increase the global
rate of birth registration, approximately 230 million children under the age of
5 worldwide are still not registered, according to the United Nations
Children’s Fund;
2. Reminds
States of their obligation to register births without discrimination of any
kind and irrespective of the status of the parents of the child, and also
reminds States that birth registration should take place immediately after
birth, and that late birth registration should be limited to those cases that
would otherwise result in a lack of registration;
3. Welcomes
the report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights on birth registration and the right of everyone to recognition
everywhere as a person before the law,[1] which documents the wide range of
barriers to access to universal birth registration, as well as the good
practices adopted by States in fulfilling their obligation to ensure birth
registration;
4. Calls
upon States to establish or strengthen existing institutions at all levels
responsible for birth registration 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, as needed, the accessibility of birth
registration facilities, either by increasing the number or through other
means, such as mobile birth registration officials in rural areas, paying
attention to the local community level, promoting community awareness and
working to address the barriers faced by vulnerable groups, such as persons
with disabilities, in their access to birth registration;
5. Also
calls upon States to take all appropriate measures to permanently store and
protect civil registration records and to prevent the loss or destruction of
records due to emergency or armed conflict situations;
6. Further
calls upon States to ensure free birth registration, including free or
low-fee late birth registration, by means of universal, accessible, simple,
expeditious and effective registration procedures, without discrimination of
any kind;
7. Calls
upon States to raise awareness of birth registration continuously at the
national, regional and local levels, including by engagement in collaboration
with all relevant actors in public campaigns that raise awareness of the
importance of birth registration for effective access to services and the
enjoyment of human rights;
8. Also
calls upon States to ensure that lack of birth registration or documents of
proof of birth does not constitute an obstacle to access to and the enjoyment
of relevant national services and programmes, in accordance with international
human rights law;
9. Urges
States to identify and remove physical, administrative, procedural and any
other barriers that impede access to birth registration, including late
registration, paying due attention to, among others, those barriers relating to
poverty, disability, gender, nationality, displacement, illiteracy and
detention contexts, and to persons in vulnerable situations;
10. Invites States and
other relevant stakeholders to work towards ensuring universal birth
registration through, inter alia, the exchange of good practices and technical
assistance, including through the universal periodic review and other relevant
mechanisms of the Human Rights Council;
11. Encourages States
to request technical assistance, if required, from relevant United Nations
bodies, agencies, funds and programmes and other relevant stakeholders in order
to fulfil their obligation to undertake birth registration as a means of
respecting the right of everyone to be recognized everywhere as a person before
the law;
12. Invites relevant
United Nations bodies, agencies, funds and programmes and other relevant
stakeholders to cooperate with States in providing technical assistance, upon
request, and calls upon them to ensure that persons with no birth registration
are not discriminated against in any of their programmes;
13. Recognizes the
importance of international cooperation in supporting national efforts to
ensure universal birth registration;
14. Requests the High
Commissioner to identify and actively pursue opportunities to collaborate with
the United Nations Statistics Division and other relevant United Nations
agencies, funds and bodies, as well as other relevant stakeholders, in order to
strengthen existing policies and programmes aimed at universal birth
registration and vital statistics development, and to ensure that they are
based on international standards, taking into account best practices, and are
implemented in accordance with relevant international human rights obligations,
and also requests the High Commissioner to prepare a report on efforts made in
this regard, to be submitted to the Human Rights Council at its thirty-third
session;
15. Decides to
consider this issue in accordance with its annual programme of work.