ISI Database on Statelessness and
Human Rights

19. The Committee urges the State party:

(a) To strengthen measures to ensure birth registration and the issuance of certificates for all children born in its territory, particularly those born in remote areas or outside of hospitals, including by ensuring the availability and proximity of civil registry offices throughout the State party and by sending regular civil registration brigades to places where there is a higher prevalence of late or non-registration;

(b) To ensure that birth registration is free in all cases and circumstances, regardless of the person’s age or place of birth.

29. Taking note of target 16.9 of the Sustainable Development Goals, the Committee recommends that the State party:

(a) Review its legislation on and the record management process for birth registration and speed up the digitalization of birth registration;

(b) Abolish the requirement for the full cost associated with childbirth to be paid in order to receive a birth certificate, particularly in Nevis, and ensure that all children are properly registered at birth and have access to their birth certificate;

(c) Consider ratifying the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness;

(d) Seek technical assistance from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and UNICEF, among others, for the implementation of the recommendations on birth registration.

18. The Committee urges the State party:

(a) To ensure free birth registration and the issuance of birth certificates immediately after birth for all children born in its territory, regardless of the child’s or parents’ immigration status, official documentation or asylum-seeking status, paying particular attention to children born in the border areas of the Amazon Basin, Indigenous children, children in rural and remote areas and migrant and refugee children;

(b) To remove any requirement for parental documentation as a prerequisite for the issuance of birth certificates.

19. Concerned at the insufficient timely registration in rural and Indigenous areas, the Committee urges the State party:

(a) To establish coordinated and cross-sectoral mechanisms between national, provincial and local-level governments for the early detection and referral of children lacking birth registration or national ID documents;

(b) To consider ratifying the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, of 1961.

45. (...) the Committee recommends that the State party:

(e) Adopt protocols and procedural mechanisms to address the obstacles faced by asylum-seeking, refugee and migrant children, mainly Venezuelan children who do not possess identity documents, in obtaining residence permits and identity documents for foreigners;

23. The Committee notes with concern the lack of progress made in implementing its previous recommendations to ensure access to birth certificates for non-Israeli, asylum-seeking and migrant children and to Israeli nationality for children born to an Israeli parent and a parent from the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and the system for issuing documents, passports and residence permits, which establishes categories that violate fundamental rights, prevent family reunification and severely restrict the movement of children. The Committee recommends that the State party:

(a) Repeal all legal provisions that result in denying the right of Palestinian children and children in the Occupied Palestinian Territory to be registered immediately after birth, to acquire a nationality and to be cared for by their parents, regardless of where they were born, and address the discriminatory effect of the system of live birth notifications on non-Israeli children;

(b) Ensure registration at birth and issuance of birth certificates for all children, including Palestinian, asylum-seeking and migrant children, born in its territory and their access to essential services, for example by including such children in the national identification system or issuing them with visas to ensure their inclusion in a common system of registration granting them access to health, welfare, education and other services;

(c) Ensure legal pathways for all children, including children of asylum-seekers without a regular residence status, to acquire a regular residence status and nationality;

(d) Ensure that Israeli parents with a spouse from the Occupied Palestinian Territory can confer Israeli nationality on their children.

53. Drawing attention to Security Council resolutions 2712 (2023), 2720 (2023), 2728 (2024) and 2735 (2024), the Committee reiterates its previous recommendations26 and urges the State party:

(j) To take targeted measures to ensure that children born in Gaza are registered immediately after birth and prevent loss of identity for children separated from their parents, including wounded children without surviving family members.

40. (...) and recommends that the State party:

(b) Further strengthen safeguards for accessing State-funded legal aid at all stages of the asylum and statelessness determination procedure, specifically for unaccompanied and separated children;

19. While welcoming the State party’s efforts to eliminate statelessness and ensure the registration and issuance of birth certificates for all children born in its territory, the Committee recalls its previous concluding observations7 and recommends that the State party:

(a) Facilitate the naturalization process for stateless children and their eligible family members under the Law on Citizenship;

(b) Remove the requirement for former refugee and stateless children, and children from mixed families who are recognized as Turkmen citizens, to provide a certificate of absence of a second citizenship during each passport renewal;

(c) Improve data collection on the number of stateless individuals, including children, and individuals of undetermined nationality in Turkmenistan and actively cooperate with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees by sharing disaggregated statistics to support the efforts of the Office.

41. Recalling joint general comments No. 3 and No. 4 of the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families/No. 22 and No. 23 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (2017) on the human rights of children in the context of international migration and its general comment No. 6 (2005) on the treatment of unaccompanied and separated children outside their country of origin, the Committee recommends that the State party:

(c) Ensure that refugee and stateless children who do not have proof of residence registration (propiska) are not deprived of their rights to education, healthcare, social benefits and other essential public services by implementing alternative registration mechanisms or providing special provisions in line with the Convention

22. While welcoming the almost universal birth registration in the State party and noting that the draft General Act on Civil Registration Operations is pending before the Senate, the Committee recommends that the State party:

(a) Ensure particular attention to the birth registration of children of internally displaced parents or whose parents may be undocumented;

(b) Provide adequate guidance and resources to staff in consulates abroad in order to facilitate the birth registration of children whose parents may have foreign residence.

49. Recalling joint general comments No. 3 and No. 4 of the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families/No. 22 and No. 23 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (2017) on the human rights of children in the context of international migration and its general comment No. 6 (2005) on the treatment of unaccompanied and separated children outside their country of origin, the Committee recommends that the State party:

(l) Consider ratifying the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

10. Noting with concern significant data gaps on the situation of children, the Committee recommends that the State party:

(c) Improve the collection and analysis of data on birth registration (...)

16. While noting the efforts of the State party to address discrimination, the Committee recommends that the State party: (...)

(c) Ensure that children in disadvantaged situations have access to birth registration, education, adequate health services, housing and an adequate standard of living.

20. The Committee notes with appreciation the digitalization of birth registration but is concerned about barriers faced by children in disadvantaged situations. The Committee recommends that the State party:

(a) Strengthen its efforts to achieve universal birth registration and ensure that all children, including children in rural areas, children belonging to minority groups, asylum-seeking and refugee children, children whose place of birth cannot be determined and children without identity documents, have access to birth registration and identity documents, including by adopting the civil registration and identification bill, increasing mobile registration units and outreach visits to rural areas, strengthening multi-agency coordination between government departments, health-care facilities and schools and providing interpretation services;

(b) Conduct a comprehensive public awareness-raising campaign regarding the importance of registering children’s births and the associated procedures, particularly targeting rural areas and regions with low registration rates;

(c) Ensure that safeguards are in place for the protection of stateless children, in line with the State party’s harambee prosperity plan and the pledge made at the Global Refugee Forum to prevent and reduce statelessness;

(d) Take legislative measures, including by adopting the bill on statelessness, to facilitate the acquisition of nationality for children who would otherwise be stateless, including foundlings and orphans, and ensure that such provisions include a definition of foundling;

(e) Consider ratifying the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

21. The Committee notes with appreciation the decriminalization of “baby-dumping” but is concerned about the large number of abandoned babies and the lack of a legal framework for surrogacy. The Committee recommends that the State party:

(b) Consider adopting a regulatory framework for protecting the rights of children born through surrogacy, including their right to nationality and access to information about their origins.

40. Noting with appreciation the policy on inclusive education of 2013 and the establishment of schools in Osire refugee camp for asylum-seeking and refugee children, the Committee recommends that the State party:

(a) Strengthen measures aimed at ensuring that all children with disabilities, including forcibly displaced and stateless children, have access to inclusive education in mainstream schools, such as by: (i) incorporating innovative teaching methods and approaches for enhancing inclusion into the policy on inclusive education; (ii) allocating sufficient resources for ensuring reasonable accommodation within schools infrastructure; and (iii) adapting curricula and training, and assigning specialized teachers and professionals to integrated classes, so that children with disabilities receive individual support and due attention;

20. The Committee recalls its previous recommendations and urges the State party:

(...)

(b) To establish an effective and efficient identification and referral mechanism for children who are undocumented and at risk of statelessness, and ensure that its legislation is in line with the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons;

(c) To consider ratifying the European Convention on Nationality and the Council of Europe Convention on the Avoidance of Statelessness in relation to State Succession.