Legal obstacles in registering the birth of a child who has reached the age of one or more according to the civil law of Ukraine
Authors: Bigunets R. R. 
Published: March 2024

The article is devoted to the study of the issue of legal obstacles in the registration of the birth of a child who has reached the age of one or more, in civil registry offices. It was analyzed a number of legal acts of domestic legislation in the field of civil and family legislation of Ukraine, scientific research on birth registration was done. An analysis of the legal acts regarding the registration of the birth of children in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine, for which the general rules for the registration of newborns apply: it is carried out in the nearest departments of civil registry offices in the safe territory of Ukraine.

The article analyzes the international document - the Convention on the Rights of the Child, according to which the participating states undertake to provide the child with such protection and care as is necessary for his well-being, taking into account the rights and obligations of his parents, guardians or other persons who meet for her by law, and for this purpose all appropriate legislative and administrative measures are taken.

Thanks to the analysis of data from the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), was investigated the issue of the lack of birth registration for a significant number of newborns in the areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions not under the control of the government of Ukraine, due to which they may be at risk of statelessness, since at the age of 14 they will not be able to apply for a passport of a citizen of Ukraine. It was emphasized that there is a need to protect the rights and interests of children regarding their birth registration.

Since parents, when applying to the civil registry offices with an application for state registration of the birth of a child who has reached 1 year or older, may face an obstacle in registering the birth of their children, due to the lack of a complete package of documents, namely: certificates of the child’s stay under the supervision of the institution health care, certificates from the child’s place of residence. Proposals regarding the simplified procedure for the state registration of the birth of children have been provided.

It was emphasized that there is a need to protect the rights and interests of children regarding their birth registration, and proposals were made for a simplified procedure for registering their birth. In particular, it is proposed to amend Article 13 of the aforementioned Law of Ukraine «On State Registration of Civil Status Acts» regarding state registration of the birth of a child, namely: regarding the possibility of carrying out state registration of birth at the place of residence of the child and at the place of residence of the parents or one of them, excluding the requirements for presenting a certificate from the place of residence of the child during the state registration of the birth of a child who has reached one year or more, a certificate about the child’s stay under supervision healthcare facility.