CRC Concluding Observations: Mauritania, 2018
Published: 11/Oct/2018
Source: UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
CRC/C/MRT/CO/3-5
Extract:
Birth registration
- The Committee welcomes the measures taken to promote birth registration, including reforms of the civil registration system, introduction of biometric registration and expansion of registration centres. However, it remains concerned about the persisting low rate of registered children, including among asylum-seeking and refugee children, and the limited awareness of the population of the importance of birth registration.
- Taking note of target 16.9 of the Sustainable Development Goals on providing legal identity for all, including birth registration, the Committee recommends that the State party adopt a comprehensive national strategy to accelerate birth registration and:
(a) Take all measures necessary to ensure that free birth registration is available to all children, including by removing fees for late birth registration, implementing mobile registration units in rural areas and refugee camps, integrating registration units into health facilities, conducting birth registration campaigns and abolishing fees for late registration;
(b) Provide the human, technical and financial resources necessary for the effective functioning of civil registration centres, including through training for registration officials;
(c) Simplify birth registration procedures and make them available in all national languages;
(d) Intensify its efforts to raise awareness among the population of the importance of birth registration and encourage parents to register their children.
Nationality
- Noting with concern that the procedures for conferring citizenship to children of Mauritanian women and non-Mauritanian fathers are different from those for children of Mauritanian fathers, the Committee recommends that the State party review its legislation on nationality in order to ensure the equality of procedures for transmitting nationality to children through both the maternal and paternal line, in particular for those children who would otherwise be stateless. The Committee also recommends that the State party consider ratifying the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of the Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.
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