30 Despite living his entire life in Europe, Roman never enjoyed a nationality and spent his final 14 years living destitute on the streets of Slovakia. He suffered the indignity of an anonymous cremation – the result of compounded administrative glitches that stemmed from Roman’s lack of nationality and lack of legal status in Slovakia (he was never formally recognised as stateless either).238 His story powerfully illustrates just how critical it is to prevent or resolve childhood statelessness, before it becomes entrenched and leaves an indelible mark on the lives of those affected. Fortunately, childhood statelessness is by no means an intractable problem. In fact, as this report reaffirms, realising every child’s right to a nationality is neither complicated nor arduous. This conclusion provides a summary of key measures that are needed to prevent and resolve childhood statelessness, before offering – on the basis of existing trends, developments, challenges and good practices in the region – a series of recommendations directed towards those stakeholders whose engagement will be most critical in ending childhood statelessness in Europe. Simple, legislative safeguards that address the situation of children who would otherwise be left stateless form the cornerstone of efforts to avoid childhood statelessness, and are directly prescribed by relevant international norms. States must put in place provisions that prevent, for example, the inheritance of statelessness and confer nationality when a child is the victim of a conflict between the nationality laws of the country of birth and the country of his or her parent(s). These safeguards can be introduced into national law without changing or undermining a state’s main doctrinal approach to nationality, and taking into account the real connections that a child has to the country, such as by granting nationality to all children who would otherwise be stateless and who are born in the country. Critically, such safeguards must be comprehensive, in both their formulation and their implementation – or else children will continue to fall through the cracks. This report reveals that currently there are far too many gaps in the nationality laws of European states. While almost all countries in the region have included some provisions in their laws which are specifically designed to prevent cases of childhood statelessness, remarkably few provide any child who would otherwise be stateless the opportunity to acquire nationality immediately upon or as soon as possible after birth – a provision which is clearly in the best interests of the child. As shown in section 3 of this report, procedural requirements and additional stipulations in the law can nullify relevant safeguards for some of the children who should benefit from them. Moreover, in a worrying number of cases, these deficiencies in the law are overtly in violation of the international obligations undertaken by the state in question. Law reform is urgently needed to prevent the creation of new cases of childhood statelessness in Europe and, wherever possible, should be introduced with retroactive effect so as to cover children left stateless under the previous law. The establishment of inclusive legislative safeguards for the avoidance of childhood statelessness must go hand-in-hand with measures to remove practical or administrative hurdles in accessing or confirming nationality. Simply put: where a child is entitled to a nationality under the law, he or she must be able to be recognised as a national in practice. This means both resolving structural problems that have the effect of inhibiting the enjoyment of nationality, as well as adopting special measures to actively facilitate access to nationality where statelessness arises. Key among the former is the identification and elimination of barriers that restrict access to birth registration for vulnerable groups, especially those who face a significant risk of statelessness if left without official evidence of the facts of their birth. With regard to the latter, these must include the enhanced identification of relevant cases, so as to avoid such scenarios as where a child is labelled as being of “unknown nationality” for a prolonged period of time. Improving the provision of information on applicable nationality procedures to those affected likewise constitutes an important complement in identifying stateless children, where the remedy is not automatic under the law. In general, the solutions outlined above are relatively straightforward, largely uncontroversial and firmly embedded in international legal standards. It simply requires states to follow through on the principle of the avoidance of childhood statelessness – which they have unanimously embraced through their ratification of the CRC and other instruments – with strengthened law, policy and practice. Nevertheless, as this report has shown, there are certain contexts, where children are vulnerable to statelessness, which European states have not adequately identified or addressed. These include: stateless children born to irregular migrants or to refugees, children of same-sex couples, children commissioned by European parents through international commercial surrogacy and children who have been abandoned, including where the mother has been seen but her identity unconfirmed. In any and all such cases, states must respect the fact that the right to acquire a nationality is a right of every child. Even if the circumstances of the child’s conception or birth are complex (and may even be considered controversial or problematic), the best interest of the child to be protected from statelessness must prevail regardless of the parents’ status or choices. Similarly, a child’s right to preserve his or her identity, including nationality, must be assured – including where the parents’ action is what jeopardises this. Strengthening existing frameworks is therefore essential to achieving the goal of ending childhood statelessness in the region. At the same time, improved data collection on children’s access to nationality by relevant stakeholders, as well as closer monitoring by human rights bodies, are important complements to these measures, helping to track and encourage progress towards this goal. For those contexts in which children’s enjoyment of the right to acquire a nationality continues to pose particular challenges, further research and additional standard-setting or doctrinal guidance – as needed – can help states to identify and implement effective solutions. This report, presenting the findings of eight in-depth country studies and further regional analysis, is intended as a contribution towards this process. The following recommendations are addressed, where appropriate, to specific stakeholders who are well placed to help end childhood statelessness in Europe. It is hoped that the recommendations and report will also serve as a basis for the development of more targeted strategies for action at the national level, in accordance with the specific context and challenges encountered.