Overview of childhood statelessness in the OSCE region Refugees and migrants from countries that do not recognize the nationality of their ethnic or other minority groups. Children whose mothers are nationals of countries that restrict or prohibit the transmission of nationality through women, where fathers are stateless or are missing, absent or dead. People from States or territories that have no nationality law, are occupied and/or are not universally recognized as States. People from countries or communities with low birth registration rates who lack documents confirming nationality. Children in countries where laws do not recognize the validity of the parents’ marriage and/or permit transmission of nationality through both parents for reasons relating to the parents’ gender or sexual orientation. Children born through surrogacy or assisted reproduction, where laws do not recognize the surrogacy agreement or the parentage of the intended parents and the child does not have nationality through the biological mother. Descendants of the above groups. The wide range of causes and contexts of statelessness shows the need for solutions based on stateless people’s particular context — there is no single remedy that applies in every situation. However, there are some common standards and approaches that are effective in various contexts. One common safeguard against childhood statelessness present in most OSCE participating States is the enactment of jus sanguinis laws, allowing transmission of nationality by descent from parents, both mothers and fathers. However, this is only a partial safeguard against statelessness. Some countries’ laws do not extend nationality by descent to all children of their nationals, especially those born outside the territory after the first generation. Several OSCE participating States have safeguards that ensure nationality for children born on their territory (jus soli laws) or for children born on the territory who would otherwise be stateless. However, some of these laws have wording variations or extraneous requirements that do not comply with the 1961 Convention (such as lawful residence requirements or requirements to apply to register as a citizen of another State which has a discretionary citizenship regime). Many OSCE participating States have legal 22