The CRVS Laws Database is an interactive website designed for policymakers, advocates, researchers, legal professionals, and civil society to access analysis of countries’ CRVS legal frameworks.
Legal analysis featured on the database is based on GHAI’s D4H Program undertaking a legal review – an evaluation of the legal and regulatory frameworks that govern a country’s CRVS system – using the CRVS Legal and Regulatory Review Toolkit that comprises thirteen distinct topics. Since 2018, CRVS legal reviews based on the toolkit have been conducted in over 30 countries.
These legislative reviews are the work of lawyers at the GHAI D4H Program in collaboration with in-country lawyers, wherever possible. The insight, skill, and knowledge of in-country lawyers greatly increase the likelihood of accurate legal interpretation.
To ensure a high degree of consistency and accuracy in analyses across countries, reviewers are provided with a legislative review template (called “database metrics” or “metrics”), comprising of more than 100 individual legal questions across 6 topics and 3 cross-cutting themes. In addition to the template, reviewers are provided with an internal Standard Coding Protocol detailing the methodology for conducting a legal analysis.
The metrics are based on the UN Guidelines on Legislative Frameworks for CRVSID Systems and the GHAI CRVS Legal Review Toolkit. They are structured to incorporate relevant international guidelines, standards and recommended practice on CRVS systems, including the WHO ICD-11 and UN Principles and Recommendations for Vital Statistics System (Rev 3).
Reviewers consult all publicly available and applicable CRVS legal instruments, including legislation, regulations, decrees, resolutions, guidelines, circulars, notices and any other enactments that have legal force and effect. In addition to laws governing birth and death registrations, the reviewers include public health laws and criminal laws in their collection, amongst other relevant instruments. The collected laws are categorized into four sub-categories: primary legislation; secondary legislation; circulars, guidance and forms; and case law (in limited countries).
Reviewers use the completed legal reviews of D4H countries, database metrics, all applicable CRVS legal instruments and the internal Standard Coding Protocol, to analyze and make determinations about the degree to which the legislation complies with international guidelines, standards and recommended practice on CRVS systems.
Virtually every determination of a legal measure’s regulatory status is accompanied by a legal analysis explaining the reasoning and interpretation used to arrive at the regulatory status code that was assigned. The analysis clearly states whether the law meets or aligns with the international guidelines, standards and recommended practices. The analysis is accompanied by a downloadable copy of the relevant legal instrument cited by the reviewer, where available.
Questions of legal interpretation are addressed through close collaboration between in-country legal experts and D4H lawyers, ensuring careful and context-specific analysis. While the data has not been formally reviewed or endorsed by individual governments, it is based on comprehensive legal analysis conducted in collaboration with in-country experts.
The completed metrics are reviewed and then uploaded to the database.
Limitations
While every attempt is made to review all applicable laws and to partner with in-country lawyers, this is not always possible. Therefore, the legislative reviews may be incomplete and/or contain uncertain findings. In addition, legal provisions are often susceptible to more than one interpretation, giving rise to the possibility of interpretation error, especially where we do not have in-country lawyer assistance. If you have suggestions or information on updates to add, please contact us.
No sub-national level analysis: CRVS Laws Database does not currently contain sub-national legislation, which may vary from the national legal enactments that are analyzed here.
Country Practice and procedures: The primary purpose of the database is to examine what is provided for in mandatory legal instruments and conduct a gap analysis. There may be instances where practice in a country differs from the law, either because it is not in accordance with the law or because the law does not address the issue. Where we have clear firm evidence of practice that is different from the law, we may indicate this in the analysis, but this database is not intended to provide information on practice and procedures. Please help us update the database so we may include reference to that within the detailed analysis.
Updates to CRVS Laws Database: Updates to countries' CRVS laws are not made in real-time. As a result, some information on the website may not always reflect the most recent developments. A "Last Updated" date is located at the top of each country’s Summary page. The "Last Updated" date is only changed when the legal analysis is modified.
Gendered Language: The GHAI Data for Health team strives to advance CRVSID systems that are accessible, equitable, and inclusive of all people. We recognize that gender and sex exist beyond the binary. We strive to use language that is gender-inclusive and culturally specific accordingly. Our materials, such as crvslaws.org, sometimes use binary language. This reflects that in many settings gendered language is used, including legal and policy instruments.
