Finland and paternity has been established. Thus, Section 26 ensures gender equality in convening nationality to a child of a Finnish parent. Section 27 concerns adopted children. While an adopted child who is under the age of 12 at the time of the adoption acquires Finnish nationality automatically from her or his Finnish parent, an adopted child who is above the age of 12 at the time of the adoption acquires Finnish nationality by declaration if at least one parent is a Finnish national and the adoption is valid in Finland. Section 28 contains specific provisions for young persons for acquisition of nationality by declaration. A person who has reached the age of 18 but not 23 years may acquire Finnish nationality by declaration if she or he is and has been permanently resident and domiciled in Finland for a minimum of 10 years in all, with a minimum of two years without interruption before making the declaration, and if she or he has not been sentenced to imprisonment. However, if the applicant was born in Finland, the required period of residence is six years only. If the applicant has been permanently resident and domiciled in the other Nordic countries before making the declaration, this residence is considered as equivalent to residence in Finland, but only for the five years before the declaration was made and only to the extent that the period of residence occurred before the age of 16 years. According to Section 29, a former Finnish national can acquire Finnish nationality by declaration. There are two exceptions to this; a former Finnish national who has lost her or his Finnish nationality because of the annulment of paternity from the man through whom the person had acquired her or his Finnish nationality (Section 32) cannot re-acquire Finnish nationality by declaration and neither can a person who has lost her or his Finnish nationality on the basis of having provided false information (Section 33). Finally, a national of another Nordic country who has turned 18 years and who has acquired her or his nationality through a procedure other than naturalization, may acquire Finnish nationality by declaration if he or she is and has been permanently resident and domiciled in Finland for the last five years, and if she or he has not been sentenced to imprisonment during this period. 4.4 Conclusions and recommendations The Finnish legislation on acquisition, loss, renunciation and deprivation of nationality is comprehensive and detailed. The various situations are to a very large extent governed by law. The provisions on acquisition of nationality are gender equal and non-discriminatory. Prevention and reduction of statelessness is recognized as one of the main principles of nationality legislation and several references are made to statelessness in the Nationality Act and its preparatory work. The decisions on acquisition, loss and deprivation of Finnish nationality are also subject to judicial review by the Administrative Courts and the Supreme Administrative Court, which provides strong additional safeguards against statelessness; Finland’s international obligations on prevention of statelessness and on the rights of the child have been repeatedly enshrined in case law. It can therefore be concluded that in terms of preventing statelessness, the Finnish nationality regime is efficient. The Finnish legislation provides for an automatic acquisition of Finnish nationality for children born in Finland who would otherwise remain stateless. Complicated situations however arise due to the provision for withholding this right from children who have a secondary right to another nationality and the distinction between voluntary and involuntary statelessness in the Nationality Act. Reluctance of parents to take actions for a child born in Finland to acquire a nationality that the child would have a right to, and the consequent denial of grant of Finnish nationality, leads to situations where the child remains stateless. While these situations are unfortunate, Finland does not have a responsibility under international law to grant Finnish nationality at birth to the child under these circumstances. However, as the child effectively remains stateless she or he should be regarded and registered in Finland as such, and not as having the parents’ nationality or 54 MAPPING STATELESSNESS IN FINL AND