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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.