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

A/HRC/RES/28/13No 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 2015.

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?

8 topics

Anti-Discrimination Measures Birth Reporting Civil Registration Coordination Within UN System Equality Before the Law Human Rights Report Preparation Vital Statistics

What does this mandate say?

15 operative paragraphs

Expresses concern at the fact that, despite ongoing efforts to increase the global rate of birth registration, approximately 230 million children under the age of 5 worldwide are still not registered, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund;

Reminds States of their obligation to register births without discrimination of any kind and irrespective of the status of the parents of the child, and also reminds States that birth registration should take place immediately after birth, and that late birth registration should be limited to those cases that would otherwise result in a lack of registration;

Welcomes the report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on birth registration and the right of everyone to recognition everywhere as a person before the law, which documents the wide range of barriers to access to universal birth registration and the good practices adopted by States in fulfilling their obligation to ensure birth registration;

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 accessibility of birth registration facilities, either by increasing the number or through other means, such as mobile birth registration officials in rural areas, paying attention to the local community level, promoting community awareness and working to address the barriers faced by vulnerable groups, such as persons with disabilities, in their access to birth registration;

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 or armed conflict 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 raise awareness of birth registration continuously at the national, regional and local levels, including by engaging 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;

Also calls upon States to ensure that lack of birth registration or documents of proof of birth does not constitute an obstacle to access to and the enjoyment of relevant national services and programmes in accordance with international human rights law;

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, inter alia, barriers relating to poverty, disability, gender, nationality, displacement, illiteracy and detention contexts, and persons in vulnerable situations;

Invites States and other relevant stakeholders to work towards ensuring universal birth registration through, inter alia, the exchange of good practices and technical assistance, including through the universal periodic review and other relevant mechanisms of the Human Rights Council;

Encourages States to request technical assistance, if required, from relevant United Nations bodies, agencies, funds and programmes and other relevant stakeholders in order to fulfil their obligation to undertake birth registration as a means of respecting the right of everyone to be recognized everywhere as a person before the law;

Invites relevant 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;

Recognizes the importance of international cooperation in supporting national efforts to ensure universal birth registration;

Requests the High Commissioner to identify and actively pursue opportunities to collaborate with the United Nations Statistics Division and other relevant United Nations agencies, funds and bodies, as well as other relevant stakeholders, in order to strengthen existing policies and programmes aimed at universal birth registration and vital statistics development, and to ensure that they are based on international standards, taking into account best practices, and are implemented in accordance with relevant international human rights obligations, and also requests the High Commissioner to prepare a report on efforts made in this regard and to submit it to the Human Rights Council at its thirty-third 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