Universal Legal Identity and the Sustainable Development Goals

Establishing one’s legal identity has become fundamental to modern life. State credentials are now required to prove legal identity in a range of important aspects of life, be it for opening a bank account, using mobile phone services, registering land titles, graduating from school or accessing health services. The availability of digital technologies has propelled a proliferation and sophistication of identification systems that are reshaping traditional modes of governance. Yet, millions of people do not have any official government-issued proof of their legal identity. The interconnected nature of legal identity and state governance on the one hand and access to rights, services and protections on the other has therefore made legal identity a pressing issue for development and human rights. This is reflected in target 16.9 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aims to ‘provide legal identity for all’ by 2030.

Developing countries in particular have become a laboratory for new identification initiatives. Yet, research from different parts of the world suggests that the pursuit of universal legal identity is two-sided: it can simultaneously improve development and access to opportunities for some populations and heighten exclusion or inequality for others. Negative impacts disproportionately affect those already marginalised, including stateless people, minorities, mobile and indigenous peoples, refugees, trafficking victims and migrant workers, many of whom are undocumented.

Hosted by Macquarie University, this initiative seeks to examine the risks of exclusion and inequality associated with the pursuit of the universal legal identity target enshrined in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. By building research and engagement partnerships at country and international levels, including in Cambodia, Thailand and Indonesia, this initiative contributes to improving our understanding of how exclusion and inequality in identification frameworks and practices is produced and who it affects. The goal is to identify and consider more inclusive and equitable state and non-state approaches to legal and digital identity that provide improved protections and development opportunities for marginalised populations in different contexts.