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    • Opinion
    • Inclusive Development

    Opinion: Ensuring legal ID for all is a step to leaving no one behind

    "We have the relevant frameworks in place to scale up efforts and address most legal identity challenges. Now is the time to leverage these frameworks," write UNDP's Haoliang Xu and Sarah Lister.

    By Haoliang Xu, Sarah Lister // 19 June 2023

    The frameworks and know-how do exist to provide legal documentation to the nearly 10% of the world’s population who do not have it. Now, funding is needed for the development and implementation of legal identity systems and to address the broader social and economic challenges that can prevent people from obtaining legal identity.

    The principle of “leaving no one behind” is the central, transformative promise of the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals. Unfortunately, this promise is at risk of being broken for those who do not possess legal documentation. This is often due to the difficulty and cost of reaching people across whole territories, coupled with the need for stronger capacities within national systems, but it can also be a more deliberate attempt to exclude certain groups and populations.  

    The globally recognized frameworks in place to address this challenge include Article 6 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights for example, or SDG target 16.9: “legal identity for all, including birth registration” by 2030. These and more promote the principle of a right to birth registration.

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    • Social/Inclusive Development
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    The views in this opinion piece do not necessarily reflect Devex's editorial views.

    About the authors

    • Haoliang Xu

      Haoliang Xu

      Haoliang Xu is U.N. assistant secretary-general and UNDP assistant administrator and director for the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support.
    • Sarah Lister

      Sarah Lister

      Sarah Lister is UNDP’s head of governance and oversees policy and program support to its governance portfolio globally, including electoral cycle support, parliamentary development, anti-corruption, information integrity, digital governance, legal identity, youth empowerment, and disability inclusion. She is also the co-chair of the U.N. Legal Identity Agenda Task Force.

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