North Macedonia

Temporary identity, migration management, and statelessness solutions

In 2019, Macedonia reported to the UPR that it planned to create a special register for recording all unidentified persons so it could fully resolve the problem of unidentified persons in the future. In 2018 the government put out a call for all unregistered persons to request ‘additional registration’ in the separate register. Multiple laws were passed or changed to provide a special legal status, a temporary ID number/documents, and ‘special registration.’ However, government officials did not subsequently provide regular identification documentation and birth registration. Additionally, the temporary registration and documents provided were not officially recognized.

Promising Practices and Updates

In 2023 the government amended the Law on Civil Registry to regularise the situation of people identified through the 2018 public call, and to simplify and facilitate the procedure for birth registration. This had the aim of ensuring that everyone identified in the 2018 public call was registered in the regular birth register by the end of 2023.