THE PROBLEM OF STATELESSNESS IN UKRAINE AND THE WAYS OF ADDRESSING IT III. 7 Convicts and children born in places of confinement This category is poorly studied. Among convicts there can be both stateless persons and those at risk of statelessness. Detainees’ identity papers are taken from them upon entering the detention center and only given back upon release from detention26. If, at the time of release, there is no passport in the convict’s personal file, the penitentiary institution’s administration must take timely measures to assist the person in obtaining a passport. In practice, however, the institutions pay no proper attention to citizenship issues. The lack of a mechanism for documentation of persons who, at the moment of their detention, had no passports or had ex-USSR citizen passports, complicates or even totally prevents their access to newly issued or renewed identity papers. This puts them at risk of statelessness, restricts rights and freedoms of convicts, and thereby violates articles 3 and 21 of the Constitution of Ukraine. A specific category worth paying attention to is children born in places of confinement, who are at risk of statelessness due to certain contradictions in the laws governing the matters of their birth registration. For example, pursuant to Section III(1)(7) of the Rules of State Registration of Civil Status Acts in Ukraine27, if a woman in a penitentiary institution or a pretrial detention center gives birth to a baby, registration of birth is effected at an official civil status registration body at the location of the institution, upon the mother’s application. The registration is requested by an authorized representative of the institution’s administration, who receives the birth certificate, and the document is kept in the woman’s personal file. In such a case, the mother’s passport is submitted for the purpose of birth registration only if there is one that is kept in her personal file. The mentioned provision is not compatible with Articles 17-22 of the “Procedure for proceedings on applications and claims concerning citizenship of Ukraine and for execution of decisions made” that prescribe a list of documents for acquisition of Ukrainian citizenship by birth and producing a passport is mandatory. Although the authorities of the places of confinement are responsible for registration of the newborn children with the city registries, practically, women kept in such places have no access to legalization of acquisition of Ukrainian citizenship by their children born during the mother’s detention. Therefore, children of such women are at risk of statelessness despite the fact that they acquired citizenship of Ukraine by birth pursuant to Article 7 of the Law of Ukraine on Citizenship of Ukraine. 26 Article 22, Regulations on the Ukrainian Citizen passport approved by the Resolution of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of 26 June 1992 as amended. Available at http://zakon2.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/2503-12 27 Available at http://zakon4.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/z0719-00 33