P a g e | 27 5.0 CIVIL RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS 5.1 Name, nationality, identity and registration at birth (Article 6) Legislative The Constitution at Article 38 provides persons born in Lesotho automatic citizenship of Lesotho. Article 39 says a person born outside of Lesotho, who has one or both parents who are Basotho, will become a citizen of Lesotho. Article 41 provides for dual citizenship in some circumstances. This is currently under public debate. The Citizenship Act (1967) provides for these same rights in more detail. The Registration of Births and Deaths Act (1973) makes registration of births and deaths compulsory. This Act says that registration will be considered late if it is made one year or more following the triggering event. The CPW Act differs in its section 8 requirement that a birth be registered within three months. The Act requires registration whether still born or alive. Section 9 extends the right to registration to orphaned and vulnerable children explicitly. It further requires that the child be given a decent name under section 7. This is a reference to the cultural practice of naming a child born after the death of a previous child, in order to avoid further bad luck. The name usually given to these children is derogatory. A child who is adopted is named by the adoptive parents, which may be a name different from the one given by the biological parents. Lesotho's Identity Cards Act (2011) will provide a child with an identity card from the age of sixteen (16) years. Administration The Office of the Registrar was in 2013 transferred from the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftainship (MoLGC) to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MOHA). This will harmonise birth registrations as they will now be in the same Ministry as that which houses the National Identity Card System. Progress In the Situational Analysis of VC in 2011, just over one-third of all children had a birth certificate (38.6%). A higher percentage had a baptismal certificate (57.3%). As there was some overlap between the two categories, a total of 29% of all children had neither a birth certificate nor a baptismal certificate. There was no difference across orphan status (39.7% for orphans vs. 38% for non-orphans), nor by type of orphan, or sex of child (38.1% for males vs. 39.1% for females) on the likelihood of having a birth certificate. A national system of registration should prevent multiple registrations in more than one District. Ongoing decentralisation of registration will allow better access to this service to people residing in rural areas. The issuance of birth certificates with no fee will also be