Birth Registration and the Right of Everyone to Recognition Everywhere as a Person Before the Law

A/HRC/RES/22/7No PDF available

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 3Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, published in 2013.

What other versions does this mandate have?

7 versions · 2012–2026

This is an older version — the most recent is A/HRC/RES/61/24

2026A/HRC/RES/61/24Birth registration and the right of everyone to recognition everywhere as a person before the lawLatestCompare with previous version
2023A/HRC/RES/52/25Birth registration and the right of everyone to recognition everywhere as a person before the lawCompare with previous version
2020A/HRC/RES/43/5Birth registration and the right of everyone to recognition everywhere as a person before the lawCompare with previous version
2017A/HRC/RES/34/15Birth registration and the right of everyone to recognition everywhere as a person before the lawCompare with previous version
2015A/HRC/RES/28/13Birth registration and the right of everyone to recognition everywhere as a person before the lawCompare with previous version

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

What subjects does this mandate have?

6 topics

Anti-Discrimination Measures Birth Reporting Civil Registration Equality Before the Law Human Rights Report Preparation

What does this mandate say?

11 operative paragraphs

Expresses concern at the high number of persons throughout the world whose birth is not registered;

Reminds States of their obligation to register births without discrimination of any kind and irrespective of the status of his or her parents;

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;

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;

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;

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;

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;

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 Social Affairs, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the World Health Organization, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations Development Programme, and other relevant stakeholders in order to fulfil their obligation to undertake birth registration as a means to respect the right of everyone to be recognized everywhere as a person before the law;

Invites the above-mentioned 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;

Requests the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to prepare a report, in consultation with States, United Nations agencies, funds and programmes, non-governmental organizations and other relevant stakeholders, on legal, administrative, economic, physical and any other barriers to access to universal birth registration and possession of documentary proof of birth, as well as on good practices adopted by States in fulfilling their obligation to ensure birth registration, and to submit it to the Human Rights Council at its twenty-seventh session;

Decides to consider this issue in accordance with its annual programme of work.

Paragraph content is machine-extracted from UN documents. For authoritative content, please refer to the official UN document.

No headings found in this document.

Who created this mandate?

What other versions does this mandate have?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What does this mandate say?

Table of contents