SDG16.9 – The vital link between legal identity and statelessness?

Sustainable Development Goal 16.9 makes birth registration the focus for improving legal identity for all.  Since the adoption of the SDGs, the link between legal identity and the fight to end statelessness has been strengthened.  That is why SDG16.9 has come to be about more than birth registration.  Rather, it is about the importance of government identification systems and good quality, reliable civil registration and vital statistics.  In this blog, I look at what can be done to ensure that civil registration and vital statistics reduce the risk of statelessness.

 

Moving from legal identity to civil registration

In an early blog on legal identity, I discussed the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goal specifically targeting improving legal identity for all: SDG16.9.  SDG16.9 supports the overall goal of SDG16 to:

“Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.”

SDG16.9 makes birth registration the focus for improving legal identity for all: “By 2030 provide legal identity for all including free birth registrations”.  The measurable target for this SDG is how many new births are registered.  I have written about the importance of birth registration here.

But SDG16.9 has come to be about more than birth registration.  Rather, it is about the importance of government identification systems and good quality, reliable civil registration, and vital statistics.  That is why the UN Legal Identity Agenda now actively links SDG16.9 with SDG17 ¹ and its commitment to “Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development”.   SDG17.9 focuses on support for statistical capacity building in developing countries ² by enhancing:

“international support for implementing effective and targeted capacity building in developing countries to support national plans to implement all sustainable development goals, including through North-South, South-South, and triangular cooperation.”

SDG17.9 is monitored via an indicator, 17.9.2, which links directly back to SDG16.9 and birth registration by looking at the: “proportion of countries that have achieved 100 per cent birth registration and 80 per cent death registration” ³.

 

The importance of civil registration systems

An estimated 1 billion people are without any proof of identity ⁴.  As I have written before, legal identity provides a person with a formal identity and allows for that person to be recognised and to officially exist.  Poor civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems are considered by the World Bank as contributors to marginalisation and exclusion ⁵.  CRVS are defined by the UN as:

“Continuous, permanent, compulsory and universal recording of the occurrence and characteristics of vital events pertaining to the population, as provided through decree or regulation in accordance with the legal requirements in each country.  Civil registration is carried out primarily for the purpose of establishing the documents provided for by law” ⁶

Civil registration systems are essential for the collection and production of vital statistics, including on births and birth registration.  CRVS increases the number of individuals with legal identity within a state.  For example, in Malawi, enhanced CRVS has meant strengthening the digital identity capabilities of the state to improve uptake in the national ID system ⁷.  Quality CRVS within the state are also essential for the provision of basic services to citizens and residents and ensuring that those citizens and residents can access those basic services ⁸.

 

Linking the expansion of CRVS and legal identity with statelessness

Since the adoption of the SDGs, the link between legal identity and the fight to end statelessness has been strengthened, with the creation, in 2018, of the UN Legal Identity Agenda Task Force and a Legal Identity Expert Group.  The Task Force combines the efforts of 13 UN Agencies to work together and assist states to meet the SDG16.9 target.  But even with the structured support for improved statistical capacity promoted by SDG17.9, the focus on birth registration is likely to limit the impact of the Task Force and similar initiatives.  This is because, although birth registration is important, other key life events impact on an individual’s citizenship status.  Failure to record those in a timely and accurate manner can also increase the risk of statelessness.

Marriage is a good example.  Whether a child’s parents were married or not at the time of his or her birth can have an impact on their rights to acquire nationality.  The impact of marriage and marriage registration on children’s citizenship status is most evident in countries which still have discriminatory nationality provisions in domestic legislation.  Countries affected include Nepal, Iran and Malta.

A common problem that flows from discriminatory nationality provisions is that it limits one parent from passing on their nationality.  For example, several states prevent children born out of wedlock from acquiring the nationality of their father.  Conversely, children born to parents with a registered marriage may be unable to acquire the nationality of their mother.   Even where discriminatory provisions are not the issue, the effect of a marriage not being recognised in either the state where it occurred, or in the place of birth of the child, can affect the child’s citizenship status. All of which increase the risk of statelessness.

 

Interoperability is key

Successful CRVS are interoperable and integrated.  An integrated system is one which can be used for multiple social purposes ⁹.  An interoperable system is one whose databases and registers can communicate with each other and/or exchange information ¹⁰.  I have written about interoperability within states here.

Providing legal identity for all and supporting improved civil registration systems will not be a complete answer to reducing the risk and instances of statelessness while interoperability remains an issue.  While the interoperability of CRVS within the state is important, it is the lack of interoperability and consistency between states which needs to be urgently addressed.

The focus of states and of SDG16.9 and 17.9 is to ensure that every citizen and resident of a state has a legal identity and proof of that identity.  However, this does not adequately deal with the difficulties many individuals face in relation to proving their identity.  Having a legal identity does not resolve issues where legal identity documents, such as birth and marriage registration certificates, are not recognised in other jurisdictions.  As Bronwen Manby explains: “If a person’s civil status documents are not recognised in another jurisdiction, the rights that depend on those documents may also be unrecognised.” ¹¹.  To return to the impact of marriage on citizenship status, a child born in a state which recognises the parents’ marriage will potentially be treated differently than if he or she were born in a state which does not.

 

The next stage in linking legal identity with the reduction of statelessness

The next stage in linking legal identity with reducing the risk of statelessness must focus on two things.   First, expanding the range of key life events that a state records, over and above birth registration.  And second, ensuring that the interoperability of legal identity systems and documents goes beyond state boundaries, building on emerging international norms and principles.