children whose parents hold a nationality. Gender discriminatory nationality laws may for example prevent a mother from passing nationality to her children.47 The main challenge here is to ensure the right to a nationality for these children, ideally through a provision in the national law that enables otherwise stateless children born on Dutch territory to acquire Dutch citizenship that is in accordance with Article 7 CRC and Article 1 of the 1961 Convention and the guiding interpretation thereof by the UNHCR,48 thereby ensuring that all children can enjoy their right to a nationality. Recommendations 40. Drawing on the information provided in this submission, we urge Member States to make the following recommendations to the Netherlands: 47 I. Ensure that every child born in the Netherlands who would otherwise be stateless, has the right to acquire Dutch nationality in accordance with the international obligations of the Netherlands under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness and European Convention on Nationality. In particular, ensure that the principles of non-discrimination and the best interests of the child are adhered to at all times and that systems for the effective identification of children who would otherwise be stateless are implemented to allow for the application of the requisite safeguards in practice. II. Align proposed amendments to the Dutch Nationality Act with the international law obligations of the Netherlands and the most recent recommendations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child. In particular, ensure that no child is discriminated against or punished for the status, actions or inactions of their parents or guardians, and do away with unnecessary residency requirements which exclude some children who would otherwise be stateless from accessing Dutch nationality. III. Expedite efforts to introduce a statelessness determination procedure, which is accessible to all persons on the territory of the Netherlands, regardless of their legal status. The procedure should follow the procedural safeguards set out in UNHCR’s Handbook on Protection of Stateless Persons and should provide persons recognised as stateless with a legal status, protection and guaranteed access to basic human rights, in accordance with the international obligations of the Netherlands. Also ensure that identity documents are issued to all recognised stateless people – regardless of their residence status. IV. Do away with the legal residence requirement for parents to register children in the Basic Registration of Persons Database. This is the case under the Syrian nationality law and several of the other countries in the aforementioned list of principal countries of origin of asylum seekers in the Netherlands. There has moreover been some media reporting on this issue, including Thomson Reuters Foundation, European refugee crisis risks creating generation of stateless children, September 2015, available at: http://www.trust.org/item/20150920230231-jdujs. 48 UNHCR, Guidelines on Statelessness No. 4: Ensuring Every Child's Right to Acquire a Nationality through Articles 1-4 of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness (21 December 2012) HCR/GS/12/04. Available at http://www.unhcr.org/protection/statelessness/5465c9ff9/guidelines-statelessness-nr-4-ensuring-childs-rightacquire-nationality.html.