18 Cross-border challenges in addressing statelessness in the Western Balkans While substantial progress can be achieved at the domestic level, efforts to fully address statelessness in the Western Balkans will also require a cross-border approach and strengthened regional cooperation. Statelessness in the region is caused by a complex legacy of displacement, conflict, migration, civil documentation challenges, and State succession. Important political commitments were made under the 2019 Poznan Declaration to strengthen cooperation to address the civil registration and inclusion of Roma communities,23 and these were reaffirmed at the 2023 Regional Conference organised by UNHCR and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in Skopje,24 but cross-border issues remain, which underscore the need for coordinated regional action. cross-border contexts, can mean that documentation requirements may differ or be difficult to fulfil. In some cases, families find themselves unable to establish a child’s legal identity or citizenship due to difficulties navigating procedures across jurisdictions. Authorities in neighbouring Beneficiaries may be reluctant to recognise children as stateless or address their legal identity and citizenship problems due to political sensitivities. This can delay the application of necessary safeguards under international law, leaving affected children without access to essential documentation or legal status. These difficulties are often exacerbated in cases where parents are in common-law unions or where marriages are not formally registered in either jurisdiction, resulting in further obstacles to birth registration and confirmation of parentage. There remain an important number of individuals who were displaced during the 1990s and have never acquired civil status or documents, often because their births were never registered. This issue is especially acute for people born in Kosovo residing elsewhere who face difficulties accessing regularisation or naturalisation procedures. Additionally, returnees often encounter obstacles when undocumented or without recognised civil status. The children of such individuals also frequently lack formal birth registration or are unable to provide valid foreign-issued documents typically required by authorities to confirm legal identity or citizenship. Often foreign birth certificates, sometimes with legalisation or apostille, are required as a prerequisite for registering children. For returnee families, who may have been forcibly returned or lacked access to birth registration in the child’s place of birth, such requirements can be impossible to meet for logistical, legal, or financial reasons. Consequently, they and their children can remain unregistered for years, with unclear residence status and limited access to fundamental rights and services. Another related challenge lies in the limited availability and coordination of consular support for individuals navigating civil registration and citizenship-related procedures across borders. In situations where documentation must be obtained from or verified by embassies or consulates, such as to confirm identity, parentage, or eligibility for citizenship, gaps in cooperation and the absence of clear and harmonised procedures can delay or impede the resolution of cases leaving people at risk of statelessness. These difficulties are particularly pronounced for individuals who lack identity documents or whose residence status is uncertain, and who may not be in a position to travel or meet other formal requirements. While there are examples of constructive engagement between consular authorities in specific cases, this support is often ad hoc and dependent on the persistence of individuals or civil society actors rather than being underpinned by formal mechanisms or protocols. Strengthening regional dialogue and coordination on consular practices presents an important opportunity to address these gaps. These challenges are further compounded in cases involving children with ties to Serbia and Kosovo. For such children administrative uncertainty, particularly in Examples of cross-border cooperation do exist among civil society and international organisations, who have built collaborative relationships to help resolve com- 23 Declaration of Western Balkans Partners on Roma Integration within the EU Enlargement Process (Poznan Declaration), 5 July 2019, at: https://www.rcc.int/docs/464/declaration-of-western-balkans-partners-on-roma-integration-within-the-eu-enlargement-process. 24 OSCE-UNHCR Regional Conference on Access to Civil Documentation and Prevention of Statelessness in South-Eastern Europe Skopje, North Macedonia, 17 October 2023, Final Outcome Document, available at: https://www.unhcr.org/europe/publications/osce-unhcr-regional-conference-statelessness-south-eastern-europe-final-outcome.