13 In addition to implementation problems, there are legal gaps in safeguards to prevent childhood statelessness in some Beneficiaries in the region. A full safeguard is one that guarantees citizenship to any child born on the territory who would otherwise be stateless, regardless of the status of their parents, in line with the 1961 Convention. However, some Beneficiaries limit the safeguard so that it applies only to children born to stateless or unknown parents. This excludes children whose parents cannot confer citizenship, for example due to legal or practical barriers such as gender-discriminatory laws in the mother’s country of citizenship, or because they are refugees and cannot approach their embassy to complete a procedure to confirm their child’s citizenship. Even where full safeguards are established under law, automatic application may only apply to children born to stateless or unknown parents, while for children who are stateless for other reasons, the law provides for non-automatic application. Such legal distinctions risk creating additional barriers, particularly given that proving statelessness is inherently very difficult, and especially so for children. Another significant issue across the region is the age limit imposed on these legal safeguards. In several Beneficiaries, the legal provision applies only to children under the age of 18, despite the 1961 Convention requiring that such safeguards be available at least until the age of 21.17 This legal cut-off is especially problematic in contexts where children were excluded from birth registration or other civil documentation due to systemic barriers and are now legally adults, particularly those from Roma and other marginalised communities. As a result, individuals who were born on the territory and have no other citizenship are denied access to the safeguard and, in some cases, even where they were legally entitled to citizenship during childhood, are now left with only limited – if any – options for applying for citizenship. Naturalisation may be an option, but this is often costly, time-consuming, and discretionary, making it an inadequate substitute for the right to acquire citizenship by operation of law. In line with UNHCR guidance and good practice, such cases (likely limited in number) could be resolved through improved identification mechanisms and measures led by public 17 authorities to confirm or determine citizenship, with a facilitated process for those born on the territory.18 However, this is currently a gap across the region, which means that this group of individuals has no clear legal route to resolve their citizenship status and may pass this risk on to their children, perpetuating statelessness. Finally, a further issue hindering implementation of safeguards to prevent children being born stateless on the territory lies in the lack of effective mechanisms to determine a child’s citizenship at or shortly after birth. While many domestic laws require that citizenship is recorded at birth, this may not always happen in practice, especially where a child’s entitlement to a Beneficiary’s citizenship is unclear. Authorities may leave the citizenship field on birth certificates blank or assume the child acquires a parent’s citizenship without verifying whether this is legally or practically possible. This is particularly problematic for children of undocumented parents or those whose parents are unable to transmit their citizenship. Without standardised procedures and binding timeframes for determining a child’s citizenship, these children face prolonged legal uncertainty and risk exclusion from essential rights and services. To ensure legal safeguards to prevent statelessness are effectively implemented, improved mechanisms are needed to identify children who should benefit from these protections, such as clearer guidance and training for officials. Barriers to immediate birth registration Birth registration is an essential first step in securing a child’s legal identity and the gateway to a range of fundamental rights, including access to healthcare, education, social protection, as well as a key step in confirming or ensuring their access to citizenship.19 For Roma communities in the Western Balkans and minoritised communities everywhere, timely birth registration is a critical measure to help prevent intergenerational marginalisation and risk of statelessness. Nevertheless, despite domestic legal frameworks that require immediate and free-of-charge registration of all births, implementation gaps preventing universal, immediate birth registration persist across the Western Balkans. These 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, Article 2(a). 18 UNHCR, Handbook on Protection of Stateless Persons, 2014, paragraph 58, at: https://www.unhcr.org/ch/media/ch-unhcr-handbook-protection-stateless-persons-pdf; UNHCR, Action to Address Statelessness: A Strategy Note, March 2010, paragraph 50, http://www. unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4b9e0c3d2.html. 19 For more information, see European Network on Statelessness, Birth registration and the prevention of statelessness in Europe: identifying good practices and remaining barriers, November 2024, available at: https://www.statelessness.eu/updates/publications/birth-registration-and-prevention-statelessness-europe-identifying-good.