The concept and legal nature of the legal fact of birth

The article examines the concept and legal nature of such a legal fact as birth, which has important legal significance and is a prerequisite for the participation of an individual in all legal relations. The statistics and comparative data presented by UNICEF on legal confirmation (birth registration) are studied. It is found that almost 1/4 of children in the world are not officially registered, which creates obstacles to access to public services, education, medical services, and the social protection system. It is proven that birth registration is a process that results in the issuance of a permanent and official document on the existence of a child, which ensures legal recognition of his or her identity (birth certificate). It has been established that so far every fifth child under the age of 5 (150 million) is not registered in the world, of which the majority live in Ethiopia (19 million), Pakistan (18 million), Nigeria (14 million), India (12 million) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (12 million). It was established that in Ukraine the above problem is mainly among people of Roma nationality. It was revealed that before the full-scale war, from 150 to 400 thousand people of Roma nationality lived in Ukraine, of which about 40% lacked documents (birth certificates, passports). The importance of registering the birth of a child as soon as possible, preferably immediately after birth, but no later than the age of five, is substantiated. To guarantee birth registration, a number of norms have been adopted at the international level (24 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 7 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Part 2 of Article 6 of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, Article 29 of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of the European Union). Given the scale of unregistered births in African countries, we conducted a comparative analysis of legislation and found that most countries provide for the registration of the legal fact of birth within 30 days after childbirth. Other features contained in special legislative acts have been identified, including those regarding liability for untimely registration of a child’s birth. It is substantiated that the legal nature and meaning of the legal fact of birth is of crucial importance, since it is the legal fact of birth that plays a qualifying and individualizing function for a person, inextricably linked to human dignity and natural rights.