CRC/C/VNM/CO/3-4 D. Civil rights and freedoms (arts. 7, 8, 13-17, 19 and 37 (a) of the Convention) Birth registration 37. The Committee is aware of the significant increase in birth registration rates in recent years due to multiple legislative and administrative measures adopted by the State party. These include the legal recognition of the right to birth registration in the 2004 Law on Protection, Care and Education of Children, as well as the abolishment of the birth registration fee as of 2007. However, the Committee expresses its concern at the persisting geographical and ethnic disparities in birth registration rates whereby the lowest rate remains in the two poorest regions, the North West and the Central Highlands. The Committee is further concerned that parents, particularly in remote areas, are not always aware of birth registration requirements and of the importance attached to birth registration. 38. The Committee, recalling its previous recommendation (CRC/C/15/Add.200, para. 32), recommends that the State party continue and strengthen its efforts to secure the registration at birth of all children, giving particular attention to children living in rural and mountainous areas, and undertake awareness-raising campaigns on the right of all children to be registered at birth, regardless of social and ethnic background and the resident status of parents. Preservation of identity 39. The Committee is concerned about the limited possibilities that children of ethnic and indigenous populations enjoy as regards preserving and exercising their distinct identities. 40. In the light of article 8 of the Convention, the Committee urges the State party to ensure full respect for the preservation of identity for all children, and to take effective measures so as to eliminate all efforts to assimilate ethnic minority populations with the Kinh majority. To this end, the Committee urges the State party to adopt legislative and administrative measures to account for the rights, such as name, culture and language, of children belonging to minority and indigenous populations. Freedom of association, expression and access to information 41. The Committee takes note of the information provided by the State party during the dialogue, that children have the formal possibility to form associations in the State party. However, the Committee notes with concern that in practice children’s freedom to association is severely restricted. It further expresses its concern at the extensive limitation on the freedom of expression of children, and at the limited access to information children enjoy in the State party. In this context the Committee is concerned about the fact that all sources of information – and media in particular – are subject to Government control and do not allow for diversity. 42. The Committee urges the State party to amend its legislation by, inter alia, expediting the adoption of the draft law on associations, in order to establish a genuine and real freedom of association which is necessary for children. The Committee moreover urges the State party to take effective measures to remove all restrictions on the freedom of expression of the child, and to ensure the right of the child to access to information and material from a diversity of national and international sources of all forms, including through access to the Internet, with a view to guaranteeing the child’s exposure to a plurality of opinions. 9