1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Convention on the Rights of the Child, universally ratified by European countries, obliges governments to fulfil the right of every child to acquire a nationality. Yet, childhood statelessness persists. States are failing to take adequate steps to ensure that all children born within Europe’s borders or to European citizen parents acquire a nationality. For those affected, statelessness can mean lack of access to other rights and services, denied opportunities, unfulfilled potential and a sense of never quite belonging. It brings hardship and anguish to children and their parents alike. The European Network on Statelessness (ENS) is campaigning for an end to childhood statelessness in Europe. This goal is very relevant in a region in which over 600,000 people are stateless today, where intergenerational statelessness remains a problem and where stateless children can be found throughout the continent (section 1 of the report). It is also an aim that is central to the #ibelong campaign, spearheaded by UNHCR, to end all statelessness globally by 2024. This report maps out the task ahead by highlighting why some of “Europe’s children” – children born in the region or to European citizen parents – remain without access to any nationality. It offers a synthesis of the findings of eight country studies, carried out by ENS members, on the scope and implementation of domestic laws and policies designed to prevent childhood statelessness. Drawing on other sources of data, it also offers a detailed comparative analysis of legislative safeguards designed to ensure that stateless children born in Europe acquire a nationality. As this report reaffirms, childhood statelessness is a solvable issue: realising every child’s right to a nationality is neither complicated nor arduous. Simple, legislative safeguards that address the situation of children who would otherwise be left stateless are key in this regard, and are directly prescribed by relevant international norms (section 2 of the report). Currently, far too many children are falling through the cracks – denied a nationality due to either gaps in the formulation of nationality laws, or a failure in their implementation. While almost all countries in the region have some law provisions designed to protect against childhood statelessness, remarkably few provide all children born in their territory who would otherwise be stateless the opportunity to acquire nationality immediately upon or as soon as possible after birth – a provision that is clearly in the best interests of the child. In particular, procedural requirements and additional stipulations in the law nullify relevant safeguards for some of the children who should benefit from them (section 3 of the report). 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 should be introduced with retroactive effect so as to cover children left stateless under the previous law. The establishment of inclusive legislative safeguards must go handin-hand with measures to remove practical and administrative hurdles in accessing or confirming nationality. This means adopting special measures to actively facilitate access to nationality where statelessness arises, including the enhanced identification of relevant cases, in order 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 constitutes an important complement to identifying stateless children, where the remedy is not automatic under the law (section 3 of the report). It is also crucial to resolve structural problems that have the effect of inhibiting the enjoyment of nationality, in particular through 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 (section 6 of the report). These solutions are relatively straightforward to achieve, but ENS’s research also unveiled other emerging, and sometimes more challenging, contexts where children are vulnerable to statelessness but 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 (sections 3-5 of the report). In any and all such cases, it is vital to recall 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 (even perceivably controversial), the best interest of the child to be protected from statelessness must prevail over any questions which may arise from his or her 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. States must do more to defend children’s right to a nationality, whatever the circumstance, and ensure that their laws and practice reflect this commitment. 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 measures which strengthen law and practice around the avoidance of childhood statelessness as they can help 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 standardsetting or doctrinal guidance – as needed – can help states to identify and implement effective solutions. Having discussed the most significant gaps and obstacles, and drawing lessons from existing trends, developments, challenges and good practices, the report offers a series of recommendations designed to guide action to more effectively address – and ultimately end – childhood statelessness in Europe. These recommendations are targeted towards those stakeholders whose engagement will be most critical: governments, regional actors, UN human rights bodies, UN agencies and civil society, including academia. 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.