가족관계등록법상 출생신고와 친생자출생신고에 관한 소고 -‘태어난 즉시 출생등록될 권리’의 보장을 중심으로-

Every person becomes a subject of rights and obligations upon birth. However, to be recognized as a South Korean citizen with guaranteed fundamental rights and access to social benefits such as healthcare and education, birth registration through the report of birth is required. Children who are not registered at birth lack legal identity, placing them outside the public safety net and exposing them to significant risks such as infanticide, child abuse, and abandonment. To address this issue, 「United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child」Article 7 of the UN Convention on the Right of the Child (CRC) explicitly guarantees the right to immediate birth registration. Recently, both the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court have recognized the "right to birth registration upon birth" as an independent fundamental right. 「Act on Registration, Etc. of Family Relationships」 has mandated report of birth since its enactment and has been continuously amended to more effectively guarantee children's right to be registered at birth. However, until 2020, the law was primarily focused on protecting children's right to life rather than explicitly ensuring their right to be registered at birth. Even today, many children still face significant delays in the registration process, leading to difficulties in receiving social protection. Furthermore, as the Constitutional Court pronounced that the ststute prohibiting a non-marital biological father from reporting the birth of a child born to a married woman and a man other than her husband is nonconforming to the Constitution, it must be amended by May 31, 2025. This study analyzes the report of birth system and the report of recognitional birth system, identifies issues within the current legal framework, and examines potential legal improvements to ensure children's "right to immediate birth registration. In Section Ⅱ, it evaluates whether the period for the report of birth ensures the earliest possible registration after birth, whether non-marital biological fathers should be allowed to report the birth instead of the legal father, whether the report of birth process is accessible and convenient for all, and whether fines for failure to report births effectively enforce birth registration. Section III provides an in-depth analysis of the amendments to the report of recognitional birth system introduced through the ‘Sarang-i Act’ in 2015 and 2021. The first amendment in 2015 allowed biological fathers to report a birth independently with confirmation from the family court, even when the mother’s personal information was unknown. The second amendment in 2021 permitted birth registration even in cases where the mother’s information was known but a reporting obstacle existed, or where only partial information about the mother was available, making identification difficult, subject to confirmation by the family court. It is anticipated that the report of birth and the report of recognitional birth will be improved to more effectively guarantee the right to be registered immediately after birth of a child.