A/HRC/RES/22/7
Recalling the resolutions adopted by the General Assembly and the Human Rights
Council calling upon States to ensure the registration of all children immediately after birth,
the most recent being Assembly resolution 66/141 of 19 December 2011 and Council
resolution 19/9 of 22 March 2012,
Recognizing the importance of birth registration, including late birth registration and
provision of documents of proof of birth, as a means for 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 have limited or no access to services and
enjoyment of all the rights to which they are entitled; taking into consideration that persons
without birth registration are vulnerable to lack of protection; and aware that registering a
person’s birth is a vital step towards the promotion and protection of all his or her human
rights, and protection from violence, exploitation and abuse,
Recognizing also the importance of birth registration, including late birth
registration, for the development of vital statistics and the effective implementation of
programmes and policies intended to achieve internationally agreed development goals,
including the Millennium Development Goals,
Recognizing further the efforts made at the regional level to achieve universal birth
registration, including the Conference of African Ministers responsible for Civil
Registration, the Universal Civil Identity Program in the Americas, and the High-level
Meeting on the Improvement of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics in Asia and the
Pacific,
1.
Expresses concern at the high number of persons throughout the world whose
birth is not registered;
2.
Reminds States of their obligation to register births without discrimination of
any kind and irrespective of the status of his or her parents;
3.
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
number of birth registration facilities, paying attention to the local community level;
4.
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 situations;
5.
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;
6.
Calls upon States to continuously raise awareness at the national, regional
and local levels of birth registration, 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;
7.
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;
8.
Encourages States to request technical assistance, if required, from relevant
United Nations bodies, agencies, funds and programmes, including the United Nations
Children’s Fund, the United Nations Population Fund, the Department of Economic and
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