Riekinnen M.A. Registration of Birth in the European Countries: Legal Problems and Solution Models

Abstract: Registration of birth is not only the necessary condition for implementing the full volume of our rights. It is also an inviolable human right per se which is guaranteed by the most significant human rights treaties. Although a high standard of living is intrinsic to the European states, these states also face certain problems concerning birth registration. This article provides the reader with the outline of legal problems, accompanying registration of birth in Europe. In the European context, the following such problems can be identified: issuing citizenship for the refugee children, lack of travel documents, trafficking in newborn children, and child abandonment at birth. The author systematizes recommendation of international human rights organs, regarding the development of the system of birth registration. The examples of the Nordic statutory regulation concerning birth registration (including the legislation of Finland) are addressed to.

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