the overall significance of birth registration for children and for the country‟s development at large. The human rights-based approach to birth registration will also keep civil registry personnel alert to the fact that birth registration is a right for all children including migrants, refugee children and children of asylum seekers among others. 107. The Committee notes that in some States parties, the functions of birth registration constitute extra work for staff already overcrowded with their own normal duties. The job of civil registrar should, at certain levels of territorial administration, have a permanent status with all the employee benefits of a full career in the public service. 108. Civil registrars must also be kept updated on all the improvements and modifications made to the civil registration system. User friendly manuals must be developed and distributed at all levels of civil registration across the country. Training must also advocate a customer service orientation, as is expected of civil registrars. They must adopt a friendly attitude towards parents or caregivers who come to register their children, particularly when they are dealing with vulnerable children such as those born to indigenous peoples, refugees, asylum seekers and persons with undocumented status. 109. Capacity building programmes should also target legislators and policy makers with particular focus on both the human –rights approach to birth registration and its significance for the political, social and economic development of the country. An effective fully functioning, universal, free and accessible birth registration system, which is at the same time integrated with other civil registration services and government agencies that use vital statistics, plays an essential role in ensuring democratic governance in the country. For example, it informs the electoral process as to the numbers of the eligible voting population and those able to stand for elected positions. From a socio-economic point of view, a functioning birth registration system integrated with other civil registration services informs government social services agencies on the details of the current beneficiaries of services as well as on those who no longer qualify for them because they have died or exited the requisite age to benefit from those services. A fully functioning birth 40