Objective 4: Provide All Migrants with Proof of Legal Identity, Proper Identification and Documentation

Abstract This chapter examines Objective 4 of the GCM, on legal identity. While presented as a straightforward administrative measure, legal identity is a deeply normative concept with profound implications for human rights, particularly in the context of statelessness. The chapter explores how the issue of legal identity developed in the GCM’s drafting, and how its link to the eradication of statelessness was erased. Although the normative foundations of a right to legal identity remain ambiguous in international law, it flows from states’ obligations to reduce statelessness, the right to be recognized as a person before the law, and the principle of non-discrimination. The chapter argues that Objective 4 should thus be interpreted and implemented in light of these norms and be recognized as a ‘gateway’ commitment: a prerequisite for fulfilling other GCM Objectives, such as those related to decent work, trafficking prevention, and protection from arbitrary detention.