ACBAR

Operational environment

Legal identity and civil registration are a long-standing and complex issue in Afghanistan. Many Afghans have been unable to acquire legal identity documentation for multiple generations due to years of conflict leading to forced displacement, destruction of records and suspension of services. While up to date and comprehensive data are limited, the Work Bank reported in 2015 that only 42% of the births in Afghanistan were registered.  According to UNHCR’s Community-Based Protection Monitoring, 58% of households surveyed in 2023 reported at least one family member lacking proper documentation. Since August 2021, the Afghan Constitution of 2004 and all domestic laws were suspended, including laws relating to civil registration and documentation, further hindering access to civil documentation. Natural disasters, such as the Herat and Paktika earthquakes in 2023 and the floods in the Northern, Northeastern and Western regions in 2024, as well as 2025 earthquakes in Kunar and the North are aggravating factors, leaving many people with damaged or lost civil documents.

Civil documentation is instrumental in Afghanistan to claim and enjoy freedom of movement, access services such as education and healthcare and improve self-reliance including through employment. The absence of documentation exacerbates other vulnerabilities, especially for women, children, adolescents, persons with disability, returnees, the forcibly displaced, ethnic and religious minorities and nomadic communities. Of particular interest to UNHCR as per the organisation’s mandate, refugees and asylum-seekers in Afghanistan suffer from a lack of national framework on asylum, hindering their access to documentations including birth registration.

Strategic objectives

UNHCR Afghanistan aims at facilitating greater access to civil documentation for refugees, asylum-seekers, IDPs and refugee and IDP returnees via legal protection services.

Access to civil documentation through legal assistance is not only vital for enabling individuals to assert their rights but also essential for accessing public services and humanitarian aid, which is integral to attaining durable solutions. Ensuring access to documentation is also a critical element to preventing statelessness.

Priority problems

With this project, UNHCR aims at addressing:

• The issuance of birth registration and birth certificates among refugees, asylum-seekers, and all forms of civil documentation for refugee returnees, IDPs and IDP returnees through coordination and advocacy with NSIA and other relevant stakeholders in target locations.
• Limited local capacities to provide context specific legal assistance services to refugees, asylum-seekers, IDPs and refugee and IDP returnees for the purpose of civil documentation;
• Specific challenges faced by women, refugees, asylum-seekers and other vulnerable groups in accessing legal and documentation services.

Target populations

This project targets:

the call was amended and the summary of amendment is as below:

1. A summary of the amendments is provided below:
2. The application deadline has been extended to 29 March 2026.
3. The deadline for submission of clarification requests has been revised to 20 March 2026.
4. Budget submission is no longer required.
5. The Q&A document from the meeting held on 01 March has been uploaded for your reference