France
Consolidation of postcolonial state control over territorial borders and borderlands through birth registration
In French Guiana, a territory of France, birth registration has been used to consolidate control over lands. The historically mobile Indigenous peoples of French Guiana were subject to a campaign of “Frenchification” in the 1960s through the practice of registering births. The Amerindian peoples and France have had continued tension over land claims since the establishment of French Guiana as a territory. The French government (2015) has stated to the CRC that there are significant challenges to registering births of Amerinidian peoples that live in isolated Amazonian areas, but that the state has established outreach teams to improve civil registration. The CRC (2009, 2016, 2023) has recommended that France strengthen its efforts to ensure birth registration for children in French Guiana.
