Experts on Tuesday stressed the need for amending the Birth and Death Registration Act, 2004 to shift the responsibility of registering births and deaths from families to healthcare institutions, enabling automatic registration for nearly 67 percent of births that take place in health facilities.

In a statement marking the International Human Rights Day to be observed on Wednesday, ABM Zubair, executive director of PROGGA (Knowledge for Progress) said violations of human rights often 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 enjoy fundamental rights, including education, healthcare, legal protection and access to social safety nets,” he said.

Legal identity is one of the most essential foundations of human rights protection and can only be ensured through universal birth and death registration, he added.

Individuals without registration remain invisible to the state and face greater barriers in accessing basic services, he said .

Zubair said such reforms would help Bangladesh meet the CRVS Decade target of universal registration and achieve SDG 16.9, which aims to ensure legal identity for all.

The country’s average birth registration rate currently stands at only 50 percent, meaning nearly half of the population struggles to access fundamental services such as healthcare and education due to the lack of legal identity.

Experts warn that the absence of registration exacerbates various human rights violations, including child marriage, child labour and human trafficking.

Similarly, the lack of death registration causes major complications in establishing inheritance rights and increases the risk of property disputes, they said.