Experts have stressed that legal identity is a fundamental pillar of human rights protection, one that can only be guaranteed through universal birth and death registration.
Bangladesh’s average birth registration rate currently stands at only 50 percent, leaving nearly half the population struggling to claim basic rights, including education and healthcare, according to a press release of PROGGA Knowledge for Progress.
Without registration, individuals remain invisible to the state and face serious barriers in accessing essential services. The lack of legal identity also exacerbates human rights violations such as child labour, child marriage, and human trafficking, it said.
The release was issued to mark International Human Rights Day on 10 December (Wednesday), which this year is being observed under the theme “Human Rights: Our Everyday Essentials”.
Similarly, the absence of death registration creates significant complications in establishing inheritance rights and fuels property disputes within families.
More than half of all deaths nationwide remain unregistered, with the lowest rates reported in rural areas, riverine islands (chars), hill tracts, and urban slums.
Experts note that amending the Birth and Death Registration Act, 2004 to shift registration responsibility from families to healthcare facilities would allow the automatic registration of nearly 67 percent of births that occur in such institutions.
They say this reform is essential to achieving the CRVS Decade target of universal registration and fulfilling SDG 16.9, which calls for legal identity for all.
In a statement issued ahead of International Human Rights Day 2025, Executive Director of research and advocacy organization PROGGA Knowledge for Progress, said, “Violations of human rights begin with the absence of legal identity. The registration process must be made more citizen-friendly through legal reform, so that no one remains without identity and everyone can equally enjoy fundamental rights, including education, healthcare, legal protection, and social safety net programs.”
