W HO WE ARE SERV I N G A N D W HY 1.2 Who Can You Help by Using this Guide? C AS E ST U DY The NGO ASKV assists undocumented migrants in the Netherlands to obtain nationality documents or official recognition of their statelessness. The organization uses many methods to obtain papers such as birth certificates, school records, and passports from countries of origin or former habitual residence. ASKV documents all the steps taken in the client’s file, as these efforts may be important for future procedures. The NGO’s staff provides faceto-face guidance to clients, helps clients get documents by providing funds for related costs, refers cases to social services and lawyers, and assists in preparing individual and strategic litigation cases. ASKV is building a global network of pro bono organizations and legal advisors to access local authorities abroad that they would not otherwise be able to reach. These organizations must also show immigration authorities whether documents are obtained following official procedures according to the laws of these countries. This guide was designed to cover as wide a variety as possible of potential case types and their particularities. A key aim of the guide is to help eliminate situations of statelessness and undetermined nationality. Certain groups of people who lack proof of citizenship may be considered at risk of statelessness. Foundational documents like birth certificates often serve as evidence or proof of citizenship. Clients may be stateless if it is impossible for them to fulfill the requirements to obtain documentary evidence of any nationality, or if they have been repeatedly refused nationality documentation to which they are entitled by law, or if the reasons a state gives for refusing them documentation indicate that no state considers them a national. Paralegals can also help when states are unresponsive to clients seeking access to documentary proof of their nationality. Communities can be highly diverse, with a range of characteristics, facing different or compounded barriers to documentation and effective nationality rights. Projects are encouraged to distinguish among such factors. Such strategic analysis will help you design services that respond to clients’ differing experiences according to their socio-economic status, tribe or caste, disability status, gender, age, literacy level, and other characteristics. Usually, projects serve populations with one or more of the following attributes, although this is not an exhaustive list: • Nomadic • Minority • IDP • Border • Stateless • Migrant • Urban • Rural • Refugee • In situ • Indigenous Proof of nationality can take many forms that vary by country, including ID cards or numbers, digital certificates, nationality certificates, consular cards, passports, and, in jus soli regimes, birth certificates. The form of proof that best ensures clients’ protection and effective access to citizenship rights will vary from context to context. Where parents’ documents need to be obtained, this can increase project costs, particularly when fees to obtain documents for adults are higher than fees for children. Acquiring nationality documentation often depends on producing proof of birth registration, and in systems based on parents’ nationality (jus sanguinis), proof of parents’ nationality. In these cases practitioners will need to help clients obtain birth registration, a birth certificate copy, 12 | A C O M M U N I T Y- B A S E D P R A C T I T I O N E R ’ S G U I D E : D O C U M E N T I N G C I T I Z E N S H I P A N D OT H E R F O R M S O F L E G A L I D E N T I T Y