the official recording of the birth of a child by some administrative level of the state and coordinated by a particular branch of government. It is a permanent and official record of a child‟s existence. Ideally, birth registration is part of an effective civil registration system that acknowledges the existence of the person before the law establishes the child‟s family ties and tracks the major events of an individual‟s life. 46. 19 Birth registration is a process that starts as soon as a child is born. It begins with a birth notification transmitted by a hospital, a midwife, a traditional leader, a chief or parent, as the case may be, and the notification is taken by a parent to the civil registry to declare the birth and apply for a birth certificate. In some instances the hospital sends directly the birth notification to the civil registry. The process is generally as follows: Birth – Notification – Declaration – Registration – Issuance of a birth certificate. The Committee encourages States parties to simplify that process in such a way that a birth certificate can be issued in a shortest period of time as possible after declaration and registration of the child. 47. It is also the responsibility of the State to issue a copy of a birth certificate, free of charge, immediately after the registration of birth. In many countries, a birth certificate is provided only upon request and quite often parents have to make separate effort to obtain a certificate, including further visits to registry offices, which entails additional transport costs. The first copy of the extract of the register (abridged birth certificate) should be provided immediately upon registration. It should be possible for either parent or both to register the child, and in the case of orphaned or abandoned infants, legislation should designate alternative authorities who can register the infant. 5.2.2 Features of the right to birth registration 48. Article 6 (2) of the African Children‟s Charter provides that “[e]very child shall be registered immediately after birth.” 19 Definition adopted by the Committee in the Kenyan Nubian Children Cate (note 8 above) para 38. See Cody, C. Count every child: The right to birth registration (Plan Ltd, Woking 2009) 10. See also UNICEF Birth Registration: Right from the Start (Innocenti Digest 2002) 2; and UNICEF ‘A Passport to Protection: A guide to birth registration programming (New York 2013). 18