LHR Briefing paper: Towards Universal Birth Registration

Birth registration is a human right. It represents the starting point for the recognition of a person’s legal existence and is thus the key to the realisation of nearly all other fundamental rights and practical needs. Human rights are universal. Children born to asylum-seekers, refugees and undocumented foreigners hold this right equally to children of citizens. South Africa has made a clear commitment to these principles through ratification of the relevant human rights treaties, as well as through constitutional and other legal standards. To be sure that we honour this commitment, it is important that all children born on the territory are issued with a birth certificate without discrimination as to their or their parents’ legal status in this country.