Submission Identity Rights Working Group (IDRWG) for the OHCHR study on the impact of mental health challenges on the enjoyment of human rights by young people, pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 57/30
The IDRWG welcomes the opportunity to provide inputs for the OHCHR study on the impact of mental health challenges on the enjoyment of human rights by young people, pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 57/30. The organizations within the IDRWG represent a wide range of civil society groups and UN agencies working on issues linked to preservation of identity including birth registration, nationality and/or family relations as established in Arts. 7-8 CRC. This submission examines the intersection between lack of these identity elements and impact on mental health.
Having an identity allows a child to belong. A child’s development needs are closely linked to their identity including their cultural and community network, physical or emotional needs, physical and mental health considerations and educational needs. Not having a birth certificate means that the child is legally invisible. Not having a nationality leaves a child stateless and excluded from society. Not knowing family relations origins can limit the child’s enjoyment of their family’s “ethnic, religious, cultural and linguistic background” as well impact physical health. Not having such essential elements of one’s identity can have lifelong and inter-generational adverse consequences including on the child’s mental health. Whenever a child is missing identity elements, States have an obligation to speedily re-establish them. The State’s to preserve a child’s identity and restore missing elements is a source of frustration affecting mental health.
States should promote and protect the mental health and psychosocial wellbeing of every child by ensuring all elements of their full identity is protected. This includes legal identity (name and birth registration) , nationality and family relations; and where these elements may be unfulfilled pr partially realised, that States are held to account, and made to speedily re-establish them in accordance with principles of the best interest of the child.
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