Second South-East Asia Civil Registration Professionals Network Meeting

• His Excellency Lt. Gen. Top Neth, Director-General of the General Department of Identification, Ministry of Interior
• Excellencies, distinguished representatives, and esteemed colleagues 

First of all, on behalf of the United Nations in Cambodia and ESCAP, I am delighted to attend the opening and warmly welcome you all to this pivotal network meeting of the Civil Registrars from across South-East Asia today. This is the second event of its kind following the inaugural Manila meeting in 2023, and my deep appreciations go to the Co-Organisers, ESCAP and the Royal Government of Cambodia, represented by the General Department of Identification of the Ministry of Interior. I would also like to highlight my appreciation to many other partners supporting this event, from the UN family and beyond. This network meeting presents a good opportunity to discuss the future of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) improvement and promote peer-to-peer sharing and cooperation in South-East Asia and the broader Asia-Pacific region, as we have delegates from Papua New Guinea joining us as well. 

Birth registration, far more than a technical or administrative process, represents the first legal recognition of a person’s existence and their fundamental rights to be recognized before the law. It is, in essence, a person’s first claim to their human rights and dignity. CRVS is fundamental for ensuring everyone can exercise their rights and access essential services such as healthcare and education. Civil registration and vital statistics also form a building block for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with 67 SDG indicators benefiting from data produced by CRVS systems. In recognition of this importance, Heads of Government, Ministers and senior leaders from Asia and the Pacific convened in Bangkok in 2014 and admirably proclaimed the Asia-Pacific CRVS Decade 2015-2024. They shared one vision that by 2024, all people in Asia and the Pacific will benefit from universal and responsive CRVS systems that facilitate the realization of their rights and support good governance, health and development. 

In Cambodia, the General Department of Identification (GDI) has been at the forefront of CRVS system improvement since the start of the Decade. Their leadership should be recognized as Cambodia has significantly contributed to the rise in birth registration rate for children under five from 73.3% at the start of the Asia-Pacific CRVS Decade in 2014 to 91.7% in 2022. Furthermore, GDI has also coordinated among key stakeholders such as Ministry of Health, Ministry of Justice, and National Institute of Statistics, and led various initiatives, among which was the adoption of the Law on Civil Registration, Vital Statistics, and Identification (CRVSID) in 2023 marking a groundbreaking step toward establishing continuous, permanent, compulsory, universal and timely recording of the occurrence and characteristics of vital events, including births, marriages and deaths. The promulgation of the Law is also vital for recording and integrating key population information through the Integrated Population Identification System (IPIS) and issuing of unique digital legal identity to every individual in Cambodia through the Unique Identification Code (UIC). Recognition should also be given to development partners, including local and regional UN agencies, and non-UN agencies such as Vital Strategies and Global Health Advocacy Incubator, who have provided assistance throughout the process, highlighting their commitment to enhancing CRVS system in Cambodia.

Excellencies, colleagues and distinguished guests,

The UN Legal Identity Expert Group has advocated for a legal identity system that is universal and applied to everyone of all ages, regardless of nationality or citizenship, race or ethnicity, as long as they are living in any country. The promise at the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to “leave no one behind” cannot be realized unless all persons are recognized as full members of society. Crucially, SDG 16.9 calls for States to ensure that all persons have a legal identity, including birth registration, by 2030.

This must include the displaced and those without documentation or a nationality. While the enjoyment of most human rights should not be dependent upon having a nationality, in reality, without any nationality, stateless persons typically are not able to enjoy basic rights.  Statelessness affects socio-economic rights such as education, employment, social welfare, housing and healthcare, as well as civil and political rights such as freedom of movement, freedom from arbitrary detention, and political participation.

Birth registration prevents statelessness and ensures that all children have access to basic rights. Across the Asia-Pacific region, the number of children under five years old whose birth was never registered decreased from 135 million in 2012 to very recently published UNICEF data of 50 million. That is still 50 million too many. Such a lack of identity denies these children an existence before the law, and as they grow old, it also prevents them from participating in governmental processes, or from accessing social and financial services, employment markets and legal protections necessary for increasing their quality of life and for sustainable and inclusive development. In particular, women and girls are affected by lack of civil registration, as it can deny them access to inheritance rights, limit their ability to own property, increase their vulnerability to child marriage, and restrict their access to social protection and economic opportunities.

2024 has just gone by and while we have made significant progress, we need to accelerate efforts to ensure that access to and benefit from CRVS systems are truly universal. Promoting CRVS system resilience and inclusivity is one way to offer uninterrupted access to CRVS for everyone, including hard-to-reach populations and people in vulnerable situations, including stateless persons.

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

Looking ahead, I hope this three-day gathering will facilitate discussions on key CRVS achievements in South-East Asia to highlight at the Third Ministerial Conference on CRVS in Asia and the Pacific (24-26 June 2025) and the South-East Asia sub-regional forum to be held on 23 June 2025. In addition, thematic discussions will focus on digitalization of registration systems, inclusivity and resilience in civil registration and vital statistics systems and the 2025 review of progress in implementing the Regional Action Framework for CRVS in Asia and the Pacific. In light of this, I strongly encourage all participants, including development partners, to maintain the same level of commitment and collaborative spirits shown today leading up to the Third Ministerial Conference in Bangkok in June 2025.

Taking this opportunity, I would like to suggest the following recommendations for consideration.

1. Promote inclusive outreach and accessibility
2. Strengthen and implement the legal and policy frameworks
3. Enhance the capacity development of civil registrars and encourage peer exchange 
4. Maximize digitalisation to expand CRVS access and improve completeness of CRVS data for better policy and intervention designs that safeguard personal data.
5. Foster collaboration and partnership with all relevant stakeholders, including the private sector, civil society organisations.
6. Ensure meaningful participation of affected communities, particularly marginalized groups, in the design and implementation of CRVS systems, while upholding the principles of free, prior, and informed consent in all data collection processes.

Last but not least, on behalf of the UN, I would also like to sincerely thank the Royal Government of Cambodia, GDI for hosting this event​ and showing leadership. The UN remains committed to closely engaging in this important matter together with all member states, including Cambodia, to achieve 2030 Agenda, and to get everyone in the picture.  

Once again, I would like to thank you all for your strong commitment and participation in the joint efforts to strengthen civil registration in the region. I am now pleased to officially open this network meeting and look forward to fruitful discussions.