The purpose of this report is to compare the legal frameworks governing birth registration in eleven jurisdictions. Birth registration is the process by which a child's birth is recorded in the civil register by the applicable government authority. It provides the first legal recognition of the child. The questionnaires have been prepared by lawyers from the UK and other jurisdictions performing desk based research. The questionnaires focus on the registration of births occurring within the relevant jurisdiction. A number of questionnaires also refer to the registration of children born outside the jurisdiction to citizens of that country, i.e. consular birth registration, but this information has not been included in every questionnaire.The scope of the questionnaires is limited to the domestic legal framework in relation to birth registration for each of the relevant jurisdictions. A small number of questionnaires refer to specific international treaty obligations relating to child rights or birth registration in order to provide a fuller picture of the situation within that jurisdiction. However, the absence of a reference to an international treaty does not imply that a country is not a party to it or that the treaty itself is not relevant to the issue of birth registration as a matter of international law.
