16 Macedonia… Egzon was born in Macedonia to stateless parents. According to the Macedonian law on citizenship, children born on the territory whose parents hold unknown or no citizenship shall acquire citizenship122. Despite this safeguard, Egzon is still stateless while well on his way to adulthood. Without the possibility of proving his parents’ statelessness, Egzon is without a nationality as well. Documents to demonstrate his parents’ statelessness have recently been presented to the Macedonian Section for Citizenship. Egzon is awaiting confirmation of his acquisition of Macedonian nationality following the submitting of these documents.123 Countries that already have laws in place to prevent statelessness for children born on their territory to parents of unknown or without nationality can easily remedy the gap in their nationality law. This was most recently achieved in Armenia. Article 12 of the Armenian citizenship law previously provided for the acquisition of nationality for children born on the territory only if the parents are stateless or of unknown citizenship.125 Amendments to the Armenian citizenship law of May 2015, however, widened the Armenian safety net for otherwise stateless children by also including the children born in Armenia to parents that are citizens of (an)other country(ies), but who are unable to transfer this citizenship.126 Indeed, this broader scope can be achieved through a simple, one-sentence provision, such as is present in Article 6(3) of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act, which provides: “A person born in the island of Ireland is an Irish citizen from birth if he or she is not entitled to citizenship of any other country”. VALENTINA’S STORY Safeguards contingent on residence status EGZON’S STORY Slovenia… Valentina is a young Roma woman who was born in Slovenia, as was her child. They are both stateless. Valentina was born when the country was still a part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Her father was born in Kosovo and her mother in Serbia. She does not know why exactly she was left stateless, but believes it may be because she was born in Slovenia and Serbian authorities were either not notified of her birth or had not registered her as a Serbian national upon notification. In 1992, after Slovenia became independent, her family was forced to leave the country when Valentina was only a child, because she and her family members were illegally erased from the permanent residence register. They went to Germany where they stayed for 13 years. At that time, she did not know that she has no citizenship as her life appeared normal – her family lived in an apartment, they had social security and the children attended school. Due to long term residency in Germany, the family could have acquired German citizenship but her father decided to bring the family back to Slovenia. Many years later she acquired a permanent residence permit on the basis of being erased but even with this permit she feels that the fact that she is stateless is a great burden: “I feel trapped and I cannot go where I want to go – to visit my sisters. I lack freedom”. In 2012, she gave birth to her son who is also without citizenship. His father is a Serbian national but according to the information they received from the Serbian embassy, because Valentina is considered of unknown citizenship, the father cannot formally acknowledge paternity before Serbian authorities and therefore cannot pass his citizenship onto their son. Despite safeguards in the Slovenian law that should mean that her son is entitled to Slovenian nationality, he has been unable to obtain it in practice.124 The third type of problem in evidence in the category of “partial safeguard” is where access to nationality for an otherwise stateless child born in the state’s territory is made contingent on the child and/or the parents’ residence status. As shown in figure B, 14 European countries require some form of residency from parents and/or child that is not in line with international standards. These countries all stipulate different forms of legal stay – in some cases even requiring a permanent residence status.127 FIGURE B Residence status of the child Denmark Iceland Netherlands Sweden Residence status of the parents Both Estonia Albania, Belarus, Czech Republic, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia Demanding that the child or his/her parents reside lawfully on the territory is a problematic issue. This is prohibited by the 1961 Convention which permits only the condition of a certain period of habitual residence.128 By allowing children to acquire citizenship, independent of the residence status they or their parents have, states not only comply with the terms of this convention and ensure respect for the child’s right to a nationality, but they are also acting in accordance with the principle of non-discrimination and the best interests of the child.129 The Committee on the Rights of the Child has commented on numerous occasions that all children should be protected from statelessness, in accordance with their right to a nationality, regardless of their parents’ immigration status: