"Stateless people can look forward to some light at the end of the tunnel following Deputy Prime Minister Chaturon Chaisaeng's proposal that their children be issued with birth certificates. This step would help secure basic rights, on health and education, for hundreds of thousands of babies languishing in limbo in the border provinces because their existence has not been acknowledged by the state. It also would help Thailand fulfil its commitment as a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which calls for every child to be registered ''immediately after birth..."