with the input of a range of different agencies and actors was vital to resolving the children’s statelessness. Two key systemic issues emerged from the research, which are further explored below: a) the lack of adequate or effective safeguards to prevent statelessness among children born on the territory, and b) the lack of adequate mechanisms to identify and determine statelessness. 5.1 Safeguards in nationality laws to prevent statelessness at birth All five of the research countries are party to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, which requires that children born on the territory who would otherwise be stateless are granted nationality either automatically or upon application in line with the standards set out in the Convention.20 All have at least partial safeguards in place to implement these obligations to stateless children born on the territory, but the research highlights gaps and flaws in these safeguards, both in law and in practice. In all countries, there were cases of parents facing barriers to their children acquiring nationality on grounds of statelessness due to their own residence or documentation status, or due to other flaws in procedures. This included authorities unlawfully requesting documents from parents that should not have been required in Ukraine; wrongly assuming children had acquired the nationality of a parent without verification in Bulgaria; and applying an unnecessary additional requirement that parents be formally recognised as stateless prior to confirming a child’s acquisition of nationality in Spain. In the Czech Republic, the safeguard is not in line with the 1961 Convention as it stipulates that parents must have legal residence in the country before the child can acquire Czech nationality. The negative impact of this legal gap on children and families in migration was clear from the research. The research also highlights the complex practical challenges faced by children, families, and their representatives in resolving a child’s nationality status where parents are refugees. Two of the cases in Spain illustrated how children born in exile, either in transit or whilst in the asylum process, can face lengthy delays and uncertainties in determining their nationality status due to the circumstances of their parents, including fear of persecution or inaction on the part of consular authorities. It is important to note that there were also examples of good practice highlighted through the research. In one case in Spain, the automatic safeguard in Spanish nationality law for a child born stateless in the country to acquire nationality was correctly applied and implemented by 20 1961 Convention