All individuals have the right to be registered in the record book, right of citizenship and personal identification documents, because this is the way realize the rights they are entitled to. Therefore, the state needs to invest efforts into filing all individuals who do not have a birth registry number, as well as help them obtain personal identification documents, agreed participants at Tuesday's presentation of publication "The Right to Have Rights-Legal Identity, Civil Registration and Citizenship, key towards social inclusion of marginalized communities".

"The right of citizenship is a fundamental human right, whereas the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says no individual should be deprived of citizenship", stressed Minister of Labor and Social Policy Spiro Ristovski.

According to him, the ones concerned with the problems of obtaining personal identification documents are residents of the state and members of ethnic communities, such as Roma.

"The Government has noted the problem of Roma's access to personal identification documents. An inter-sectoral working group has been established, comprised of representatives from the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, Ministry of Interior, Cabinet of Minister without Portfolio, Record Books Administration, UNHCR, UNICEF, Civil Society Information Center, Roma NGOs and experts. The group has developed recommendations to the Government for the problem's overcoming, which need to be implemented by the end of 2012", added Minister Ristovski.

EU Delegation to Macedonia Charge d'Affairs Dieter Thiel agreed that individuals having no personal identification documents cope with numerous problems.

"They cannot use health insurance, cannot complete any education, have no right to vote", said Thiel.

He added the state needs to use its resources to deal with the problem, "which is most obvious with the Roma population".

According to estimates, 12 million people worldwide do not have nationality or citizenship, and cannot therefore realize their rights.

The publication presents the findings of regional project "Social Inclusion: regional support to marginalized communities", through which UNHCR, supported by the civil society and ministries concerned, has secured legal assistance to more than 4,300 persons without documents.