In today`s world, there are about 1.1 billion people who do not have an official form of identification. The ability to prove your identity is crucial for social, political and economic inclusion, enabling better access to basic services such as healthcare and education. As technology advances and governments, NGOs and other stakeholders explore new ways to bridge the “identity gap,” the idea of a digital identity has taken hold. Proof of legal identity is defined as a certificate such as a birth certificate, identity card or digital proof of identity, which is recognized as proof of legal identity under national law and in accordance with emerging international standards and principles. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz asserted that the law of identity, which he expresses as “all that it is, is the first primitive truth of reason that is affirmative, and the law of non-contradiction is the first negative truth (Nouv. Restoration. IV, 2, § i), with the argument that “the assertion that a thing is what it is precedes the assertion that it is not another thing” (Nouv. Restoration. IV, 7, § 9). Wilhelm Wundt attributes the symbolic phrase “A is A” to Gottfried Leibniz.

[4] Leibniz`s law is a similar principle that if two objects all have the same properties, they are actually one and the same: Fx and Fy iff x = y. In first-order logic, identity (or equality) is represented as a predicate or a two-part relationship =. Identity is a relationship with individuals. It is not a relationship between the propositions and does not deal with the meaning of the proposals or ambiguity. The law of identity can be expressed as ∀ x ( x = x ) {displaystyle forall x(x=x)}, where x is a variable that extends across the domain of all individuals. In logic, there are different ways to deal with identity. In first-order logic with identity, identity is treated as a logical constant and its axioms are part of logic itself. According to this convention, the law of identity is a logical truth. In the formal logic of analytic philosophy, the law of identity is written “a = a” or “for all x: x = x”, where a or x refer to a term and not to a sentence, and therefore the law of identity is not used in the logic of proposition. This is expressed by the equal sign “=”, the concept of identity or equality.

It seems obvious that universal and easily accessible identity documents should be a fundamental right for all citizens, so much so that it was included in Sustainable Development Goal 16.9 – “Create a legal identity for all by 2030, including birth registration”, but especially in developing countries, there are a number of barriers that can restrict access. These include barriers such as costs, inefficient and fragmented registration systems, lack of perceived benefits, discriminatory measures and illiteracy, all of which tend to disproportionately affect the most vulnerable citizens. These challenges are particularly acute in sub-Saharan Africa: a recent GSMA analysis found that registration rates in sub-Saharan Africa were significantly lower than in other regions where only 54% of citizens were registered (see chart below). It is worth noting the number of countries, especially developing countries, that have switched to the use of digital identities despite low registration rates in regions such as sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, many developing countries are exploring new and innovative ways to offer more online services, including e-government services such as tuition payment, taxes, land registration and social payments. Examples of some of these new official digital identities are the Algerian biometric ID card and the Nigerian biometric ID card with payment function. Other examples in other regions include the Aadhaar program in India, which allowed citizens to register for an official Aadhaar number (similar to a social security number) and access the country`s social services, as well as the e-ID and ePassport system in Chile. Legal identity is defined as the fundamental characteristics of a person`s identity. for example, name, sex, place and date of birth, which are conferred by registration and issuance of a certificate by an authorized civil registration authority after the occurrence of the birth. In the absence of birth registration, legal identity may be conferred by a legally recognized identification authority. This system should be linked to the civil registry in order to ensure a holistic approach to legal identity from birth to death.

Legal identity is revoked by the issuance of a death certificate by the professional authority at the time of death registration. “Law of Identity.” dictionary Merriam-Webster.com, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/law%20of%20identity. Retrieved 11 October 2022. However, when people refer to identity, what do they mean by that? In a series of three blogs, we will define and explore three common identity terms and explore how technology (especially mobile technology) can play a role in expanding access to these different types of identity: SDG Goal 16.9: Provide legal identity for all by 2030, including the birth registration indicator 16.9.1 Proportion of children under 5 whose births are registered with a civil authority were, by age. In first-order logic without identity, identity is treated as an interpretable predicate and its axioms are provided by theory. This allows the use of a broader equivalence relation, which can allow a = b to be filled in by the different individuals a and b. According to this convention, a pattern is said to be normal if no different individual encounters a and b a = b. Sustainable Development Goal 16.9 (“Legal identity for all, including birth registration, by 2030”) is key to advancing the 2030 Agenda`s commitment to leave no one behind, and SDG 17.19 – Support statistical capacity building in developing countries, followed by the indicator “Proportion of countries that have achieved 100% birth registration and 80% death registration”. However, of all technologies, mobile is currently the most widely used, offering the possibility of going all the way to get full coverage of national identity systems. Last year, the GSMA estimated that by 2020, about 70% of people in developing countries will subscribe to mobile services (see chart below). In the case of refugees, Member States are primarily responsible for issuing proof of legal identity.

The issuance of proof of legal identity for refugees may also be managed by an internationally recognized and mandated authority. In the basics of arithmetic, Gottlob Frege associated number one with the property of being autoidentical. Frege`s article “On Sense and Reference” begins with a discussion of equality and meaning. Frege wondered how a true statement of the form “a = a,” a trivial instance of the law of identity, could differ from a true statement of the form “a = b,” a true extension of knowledge, if the meaning of a term was its reference. Martin Heidegger gave a lecture in 1957 entitled “TheOrem of Identity”, in which he presented the law of identity “A = A” with the fragment of Parmenides “to gar auto estin noien te kai einai” (.. for the same can be thought of and can exist).