August 2025, Asia-Pacific: Landmark commitment by the Third Ministerial Conference on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics in the region

Government representatives from across Asia and the Pacific met in Bangkok recently  to address progress and remaining challenges in the development of universal and inclusive CRVS systems in the Asia-Pacific region. Their meeting concluded with the Ministerial Conference making a landmark pledge to ensure that every birth and death is recorded by 2030. The Declaration calls for inclusive, resilient, and digitally enabled CRVS systems that can withstand crises and reach the most marginalised populations, whilst also highlighting the importance of marriage registration, the role of civil registration in advancing gender equality, and the need for data sharing across ministries and agencies, while upholding privacy protections.

Indeed, whilst important progress has been made in Asia-Pacific in the past 12 years, with a reduction of 62% in unregistered births, there are still 14 million babies each year who still go unregistered by their first birthday. Child Identity Protection (CHIP) congratulates all participating governments for their renewed commitment to universal birth registration and a legal identity for all children, as well as their supporting development partners, including the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacifif (ESCAP), and looks forward to seeing further positive outcomes of this process in Asia Pacific.

See: Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, Third Ministerial Conference on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics in Asia and the Pacific, Draft ministerial declaration on a decade of action for inclusive and resilient civil registration and vital statistics in Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, 24–26 June 2025, ESCAP/MCCRVS/2025/L.2, 13 June 2025.