Human Rights Council - 28th Session

Introduction by Turkey of the Resolution A/HRC/28/L.23

Mr. President,

I have the honour to introduce the draft resolution L.23 entitled “Birth Registration and the right of everyone to recognition everywhere as a person before the law” on behalf of Mexico and Turkey, and supported by more than 50 co-sponsors.

We believe that as the “first right”, birth registration has a great significance. It serves as a gateway to all other rights and provides an official record of the existence of a person.

This is the third time that Turkey and Mexico bring this important issue to the agenda of the Human Rights Council. As a response to the considerable support that our initiative gathered during the 22.Session of the Council, we made our best to strengthen our previous resolution on many aspects.

We would like to express our appreciation to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights for having prepared the report on the good practices and barriers related to birth registration, pursuant to our previous resolution. This comprehensive study provided us with useful inputs to be integrated into this new draft.

At the preparatory stage, we have closely worked with the relevant UN agencies and NGOs operating in this field. Also, we organized three rounds of informal consultations with the active participation of many delegations and other interested partners, which generated a productive discussion.

We sincerely thank all the delegations that contributed to the draft with their valuable comments and suggestions. The broad number of co-sponsors enjoyed by the draft is a clear reflection of the constructive spirit that stands behind this initiative. Therefore, we look forward to the adoption of this resolution by consensus.

Now, I would like to hand over to my distinguished friend, Permanent Representative of Mexico.

Thank you.