Download Promoting access to Civil Status Documentation BIRTH

Promoting access to
Civil Status Documentation
International Instruments and Guidance
BIRTH REGISTRATION
•
•
•
•
UNHCR Executive Committee Conclusion 111 on Civil Registration (2013)
Global Action Plan to End Statelessness (2014)
UNHCR Global Strategic Priority 2
Art 7, Convention on the Rights of the Child; Art 24, Convention on Civil and
Political Rights
MARRIAGE REGISTRATION
• Art 16, Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
• Women’s rights to family life and family unity, among others – and ability to
register births of children
Birth Registration: Protection Concerns
Statelessness:
•
Syrian children born abroad acquire nationality from their fathers.
•
The lack of a birth certificate does not make them stateless – but creates a risk of
statelessness if they cannot prove their paternity.
Child Protection Risks at Various Stages of Life:
•
Infancy – Preventing and resolving family separation
•
Early Childhood – Access to health, education, other rights and services
•
Adolescence – Preventing child marriage, child labour, child recruitment
•
Lifelong – IF the failure to register a child’s birth does result in statelessness, this condition
can be lifelong and passed on to subsequent generations
Marriage Registration
• Enhances enjoyment of women’s rights – property,
inheritance, alimony, child custody, ability to remarry
in cases where they are widowed or divorced
• Facilitates registration of births, including from
subsequent marriages
Approach with the 3RP
Multi-sectoral approach to delivering tailored support in registering new births,
with active coordination within local and national protection working groups
•
National And Regional Coordination
– 3RP brings together over 200 partners
– Advocacy through No Lost Generation and other platforms
– Protection Working Groups and specialised sub-groups
•
Greater integration with maternal health sector (with significant improvements)
•
Legal aid and counseling
•
Community engagement & awareness raising
•
Joint advocacy for accessible national systems and procedures
Lebanon: Birth Registration Procedures and Challenges
STEPS
CHALLENGES
1. Obtain Birth Notification
1 Year Deadline
• If birth certificate is not registered with the
Nofous within 1 year (step 3), a court case
must be filed
2. Obtain Birth Certificate from Mukhtar
3. Register with Nofous
4. Foreigner’s Register of the PSD
5. Lebanon’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs
6. Syrian Embassy
Lack of legal stay (only 40% have it)
• Limits freedom of movement to reach
necessary offices
• Prevents registering the birth certificate with
Foreigner’s Registry  birth will not be
included in national statistics
Jordan: Birth Registration Procedures and Challenges
STEPS
CHALLENGES
SOLUTIONS
1. Obtain Birth Notification
1 Year Deadline
Waiver of deadline
2. Register Birth with the
Civil Status Department
Informal Marriages
Loss and destruction of
Syrian identity documents
Children born in Syria but
never documented or
registered there
Remoteness of judicial and
civil registration services
Time-bound waiver periods in 2014
and 2015. Policy for informal
marriages in Syria.
Acceptance of photocopies and
witness testimony
Issuance of alternative documentation
Mobile and in-camp judicial and civil
registration services
Regional trends
 Increase in the number and percentage of Syrian refugee
children registered and documented at birth
 If all stages of an official birth registration procedure cannot
be completed immediately, refugee children have a minimum
level of documentation that: 1) helps to establish key facts
related to their protection; 2) allows for the official birth
registration procedure to be completed at a later date
 Governments, communities and humanitarian actors are
more engaged; civil registration systems, in many cases, are
becoming more accessible
UNHCR Registration
A protection tool to verify family composition & manage assistance
•
Marriages – Registration as a family not limited to those with formal marriage
certificates. Informal proof of marriage is also accepted. If there are no documents
proving marital status, UNHCR verifies family composition per established procedures.
•
Births – Record birth notifications and birth certificates. But our records capture the
documentation the family has when adding a newborn to their file – we encourage
refugees to bring new/updated documents to UNHCR as they obtain them, but this is not
always done. Need to triangulate data on birth registration with other data sources.
•
Deaths – Generally recorded upon provision of a death certificate.