Civil Registry Act

South Sudan enacted a Civil Registry Act in 2018 “to record and regulate essential facts about South Sudanese and residents so as to create legal documents for use in establishment and protection of civil rights of individuals by creating a data source for compilation of essential statistics” (Section 3). The act defines a child as any person under the age of 18 years old (Section 5). The law requires that, upon birth, children will be registered and issues a birth certificate. In practice, however, proof of age endures as a problem in South Sudan, including due to a lack of implementation of the regulations detailed in the Civil Registry Act.