Examples of impacts on women: • Emergency measures that include the suspension of the processing of asylum claims compromise the right to a legal determination of status, as well as interconnected human rights. Travel bans and the suspension of asylum hearings as part of emergency measures led to a 43 per cent decline in asylum applications in the EU in March 2020. As discussed elsewhere in this publication, other emergency measures connected with border closures have limited free movement and confined asylum seekers to reception centres and camps. The delayed processing of asylum cases impacts women, who are often accompanied by their children and are especially vulnerable if they must remain in overcrowded reception or transit centres during lockdown periods (heightening their risk for gender-based violence, sexual harassment and, potentially, trafficking in human beings), and those who have an undetermined legal status (which itself impacts their right to access other benefits and services, such as healthcare, employment and education). The right to legal recognition is central, as it expresses the core principle that each person is a bearer of human rights under the law. It is one of the non-derogable rights during emergencies.145 Legal identity is especially crucial during pandemics or other emergencies, as lack of documentation impacts the enjoyment of other human rights, such as the right to property, to reside in a country, to citizenship, to vote and to access national health care systems, humanitarian assistance and other social services. The UN Legal Identity Task Force has stated that civil registration should be considered an “essential service” that is mandated to continue during a pandemic. While some registration processes may be temporarily suspended, the “registration of births, deaths, foetal deaths and recording of causes of death, should continue as a priority.”146 Right to legal recognition Examples of impacts on women: • Limitations on or the suspension of civil registration processes during emergencies may disproportionately impact women. Women are more likely than men to have “gaps in legal identity”, which, in turn, restrict their rights to property, housing, marriage and the registration of children’s births, as well as the right to benefits and social services.147 For instance, prior to the COVID-19 health crisis, unregistered marriages were prevalent in rural areas of Central Asia and, as a consequence, women faced difficulties protecting their rights.148 It is a grim reality that men have died at a higher rate than women after contracting COVID-19. If civil registration processes are suspended under emergency measures, 145 ICCPR, op. cit., note 80, Art. 16. 146 UN Legal Identity Agenda Task Force, “Maintaining Civil Registration and Vital Statistics During the COVID-19 Pandemic”, 9 April 2020, <https://unstats.un.org/legal-identity-agenda/documents/COVID-19-Guidelines.pdf>. 147 UN Women, IDLO, UNDP, UNODC, World Bank and The Pathfinders, “Justice for Women Amidst COVID-19”, op. cit., note 150, p. 11. 148 OHCHR, “Rise in Unregistered Marriages in Kyrgyzstan Called ‘Worrying’”, 11 February 2015, <https://www.ohchr. org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/RiseinunregisteredmarriagesinKyrgyzstancalledworrying.aspx>; Odinaeva, M., 44