REFUGEES FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION UNHCR, APRIL 2023 because their law recognises only jus soli attribution, or discriminates on the basis of birth in or out of wedlock.72 In Uganda a child found in the territory up to the (apparent) age of five is presumed to be a citizen 73; however, there is no similar provision for otherwise stateless children. In Rwanda, an application for nationality on behalf of a foundling requires only that the person be found in the territory of Rwanda; an application on the grounds of statelessness requires that the person is a stateless person resident on the territory of Rwanda on the date of application and does not pose a threat to national security. 74 (Notably, and very positively, acquisition of nationality on the grounds of statelessness does not require birth in Rwanda.) Although requirements to recognise the nationality of foundlings are generally quite straightforward to interpret and apply, provisions on otherwise stateless children are more complex. It is not necessarily obvious if a child born outside the country of nationality of a parent has been granted th e nationality of that parent at birth; and this analysis is especially complex in case of refugee children. Many countries require parents to register their children born abroad with state authorities in order for nationality to be acquired by the child – and refugees may compromise their status if they approach the consulate of their country of origin. Refugees who are also stateless are rarely registered as such; and many refugees have no documents from their country of origin, meaning that even if they are nationals of that country under the strict interpretation of the law, they could be unable to prove nationality if they were to return there. It is thus not possible to make the assumption that the child of refugees has acquired the nationality of a parent: their nationality is often unclear. 75 Access to nationality for those born outside the country of the parent’s nationality The 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness includes provisions that a state shall grant nationality to a child born outside the territory of parents who are its nationals if the child would otherwise be stateless (does not acquire the nationality of the state of birth). It does not include specific provisions governing the situation of the children of refugees. The nationality laws of DRC, Rwanda, and South Sudan are relevant in assessing the right to nationality of the country of origin by the refugee populations considered in this study. The Congolese nationality code does not provide additional conditions for those born abroad; however, where nationality is based on the assertion that one parent is a Congolese national (as opposed to membership of one of the ethnic communities of DRC) the parentage of the child has no effect on nationality unless it is established during the child’s minority in accordance with Congolese law (that is, through the procedures in the civil code). 72 DRC Nationality code, art.9. 73 Citizenship and Immigration Control Act 1999, sec.13. 74 Organic Law N° 002/2021.OL of 16/07/2021 governing Rwandan Nationality, arts. 8 & 9. The previous nationality code provided for nationality to be attributed to children born in the territory of unknown or stateless parents, or who could not acquire the nationality of one of their parents, and for abandoned infants to be presumed born in Rwanda: Organic Law No. 30/2008, art. 9. 75 Gábor Gyulai, ‘The Long-Overlooked Mystery of Refugee Children’s Nationality’, in The World’s Stateless: Children (Tilburg, NL: Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, 2017), 242 –47, https://children.worldsstateless.org/3/migration-displacement-and-childhood-statelessness/the-long-overlookedmystery-of-refugee-childrens-nationality.html; Bronwen Manby, ‘“Legal Identity for All” and Statelessness: Opportunity and Threat at the Junction of Public and Private International Law’, Statelessness and Citizenship Review 2, no. 2 (2020): 248–71. 20