3.1.3. Two avenues for integrating “foreigners” and their descendants into the Ivorian citizenry The founding Ivorian legislators foresaw two special avenues for those deemed “foreigners,” i.e. those not born in Côte d’Ivoire who migrated to Côte d’Ivoire, and their descendants born in Côte d’Ivoire, to acquire Ivorian nationality. 3.1.3.1. Special naturalization procedure Article 105 of the 1961 Nationality Code created a special naturalization procedure for foreigners with habitual residence in Côte d’Ivoire prior to independence. This was available for one-year. Those naturalized through this procedure could be exempted from the temporary restrictions (incapacités) placed on naturalized persons. The ability to take advantage of the Article 105 special naturalization procedure automatically lapsed by December 1962. This facilitated naturalization procedure remained, however, a non-automatic and discretionary procedure that required individuals to apply to naturalize subject to conditions of naturalization pursuant to the law. Not one person acquired Ivorian nationality through this special naturalization procedure that was available for a one-year window. This article has never formally been abrogated and is still contained in the Nationality Code. 3.1.3.2. Nationality by declaration Articles 17-23 of Title III, Chapter I, Section 2, of the 1961 Nationality Code set forth a procedure for acquisition of nationality by declaration, which is a matter of right rather than one of the discretion of public authorities, such as naturalization. Article 17 defined the beneficiaries: A minor child born in Côte d’Ivoire to foreign parents, can claim Ivorian nationality by declaration according to the conditions fixed in Articles 7 and following, if at the time of his or her declaration, he or she demonstrates at least five consecutive years of habitual residence in Côte d’Ivoire and if proof of his or her birth is made to the exclusion of any other mode of proof. In practice, this article encompasses two categories of individuals. First, it includes anyone born in Côte d’Ivoire to foreign parents who had not yet attained majority at the time the Nationality Code entered into force on 20 December 1961. At the time, Article 2 of the 1961 Nationality Code set the age of majority at 21 years of age. In other words, anyone born in Côte d’Ivoire to foreign parents between 19 December 1940 and 19 December 1961 could have requested to acquire Ivorian nationality by declaration provided the five-years of habitual residency requirement was met and the application to acquire Ivorian nationality by declaration was submitted before reaching majority. Second, Article 17 also allowed that any child born in Côte d’Ivoire to foreign parents after the 1961 Nationality Code entered into force could submit a request to acquire Ivorian nationality by declaration provided the five-year residency requirement was met and an application for acquisition of nationality by declaration was submitted before reaching the age of majority. Côte d’Ivoire was the only country of former French West Africa that did not incorporate a provision for double jus soli, whereby a person born in the country of one parent also born there is automatically attributed nationality by origin. This was also in contrast to neighboring West African child born to stateless parents born in the country could acquire Ivorian nationality by origin. Decottignies and de Biéville, supra note 19, p. 177. That the Ivorian authorities have never implied a safeguard against statelessness through the granting of Ivorian nationality by origin to children of stateless parents born in Côte d’Ivoire in practice, lends support to the view expressed during the legislative deliberations, that stateless persons are to be considered as “foreigners” under Article 6. 17