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The Importance of Registering Births, Marriages and Deaths
[Centre of Excellence for Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems]Why register births, marriages, and deaths? Nadya Kassam provides the answers in this interview. -
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Making Civil Registration Accessible to All
[Centre of Excellence for Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems]This interview with Nicholas Oakeshott from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees explains why access to civil registration and vital statistics systems is critical. -
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Strengthening National CRVS Systems Using Public Health Campaigns
[Centre of Excellence for Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems]Nadya Kassam, formerly with the United Nations Children’s Fund, describes how linking birth registration with immunization or nutrition campaigns can dramatically improve birth registration. -
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How the Government of Uganda Strengthened its CRVS System
[Centre of Excellence for Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems]Find out how one Ugandan hospital allows new parents to leave with their child’s birth certificate in-hand. Gopalan Balagopal explains why this is an effective way to increase birth registration -
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Better Data for a Better World
[Centre of Excellence for CRVS Systems]This animated video explains why CRVS systems are important for ensuring legal identity for all and achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Recording vital life events such as birth, marriage -
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Boundless Potential
[Centre of Excellence for CRVS Systems]This animated video explains why well-functioning civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems are important for achieving gender equality. Recording vital life events such as birth -
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What if you didn’t have a birth certificate?
[Centre of Excellence for CRVS Systems]CRVS systems give people proof of their legal identity, age, and social relationships and enable access to essential public services including healthcare, education and social protection. -
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CRVS systems protect human rights and empower the vulnerable
[Centre of Excellence for CRVS Systems]This video explains how strong CRVS systems protect human rights and support inclusive development for all. -
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Webinar: Visualizing the Invisible: Registering deaths and tracking mortality in the era of COVID-19
[Vital Strategies]In this World Data Forum 2020 session, learn from country experiences in counting deaths and tracking mortality during a health emergency such as COVID-19. Organized by Vital Strategies, the World -
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Universal Declaration of Human Rights
[United Nations]Civil registration is a basic human right, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 6, "Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law."
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The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
[United Nations Children's Fund]Civil registration is supported by The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
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The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
[United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women]Civil registration is supported by The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
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The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
[Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights ]Civil registration is supported by The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
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The Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families
[Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights ]Civil registration is supported by The Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families.
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The Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons
[United Nations Refugee Agency]Civil registration is supported by The Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons.
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The Conventions Against Transnational and Organized Crime
[United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime]Civil registration is supported by The Conventions Against Transnational and Organized Crime.
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The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
[United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs]Civil registration is supported by The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
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The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child
[African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights ]Civil registration is supported by The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. -
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Questions of Legal Identity in the Post-2015 Development Agenda
[London School of Economics]A thought piece on the importance of and practical considerations for operationalizing SDG 16.9 legal identity.
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Birth Registration is the Basis for Advancing Gender Equality and Children’s Rights
[International Development Research Centre]A thought piece on how birth registration — the official recording of a child’s birth by a government agency — is one of the most important events in a child’s life. It is key to accessing a range of -
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Improving birth registration in Tanzania: The initiative that registered 220,000 children in four weeks
[Centre of Excellence for CRVS Systems]Tanzania’s Registration, Insolvency and Trusteeship Agency (RITA) launched an initiative in partnership with UNICEF and the telecommunications company Tigo to lower some of the barriers to birth -
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Four ways CRVS systems can support the UN Sustainable Development Goals
[Centre of Excellence for CRVS Systems]A civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) system records important life events, such as birth, death, marriage, and divorce. It connects this data with health information to produce vital -
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Improving birth registration for an inclusive Africa
[Centre of Excellence for CRVS Systems]“Most people in Africa and Asia are born and die without leaving a trace in any legal record or official statistic,” stated an article in a 2007 edition of The Lancet. The author referred to this fact -
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Why CRVS systems are essential to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals
[Centre of Excellence for CRVS Systems]CRVS systems are essential for monitoring progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which seek to eliminate poverty and improve lives everywhere. The data generated by a well -
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Counting on Each Other: How can we fight the spread of COVID-19 when half of deaths worldwide go unrecorded?
[Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development]The article is part of a series in which OECD experts and thought leaders address the COVID-19 crisis, discussing and developing solutions now and for the future. It aims to foster the fruitful
Our Resource Library provides access to curated resources related to CRVS systems, including research, tools, publications, CRVS eLearning course, our Expert Talks video series, and a glossary of terms and definitions.
A CRVS system is one that connects relevant data from the civil registry and the health information system for the purpose of producing vital statistics. In order to function well, CRVS systems depend on common elements. These are featured under a unique section of our library. Examples include resources that focus on training, assessments and evaluations, identity management, data security and privacy, information and communications technology, and more.