Finnish nationality is also acquired at birth if the child is born in Finland and if the child does not acquire any other nationality at birth and she or he does not have, what is referred to in the Section 9 of the Nationality Act as “a secondary right”, to acquire the nationality of any other country. The secondary right to acquire a nationality has been explained further in the Government Bill of the Nationality Act.166 Certain actions by the parents, such as registering the child with the authorities of the country of one of the parents’ nationality may be required for acquiring the nationality, but there should be no discretion allowed on behalf of the authorities of that country. If discretion is allowed, e.g. if the nationality needs to be applied for, the child is not considered to have a right to the parents’ nationality and therefore acquires Finnish nationality as she or he would otherwise be stateless. Moreover, a child who is born in Finland acquires Finnish nationality through the place of birth if her or his parents have refugee status in Finland or if they have otherwise been provided protection vis-à-vis the authorities of their country of nationality. An additional requirement is that the child does not acquire either parent’s citizenship except through registration of the child’s birth with the authority of the parent’s country of nationality, or through another procedure requiring the assistance of the authorities of this country. If the protection referred to was given to only one of the parents, it is also required that the child does not acquire the other parent’s nationality by birth nor has a secondary right through birth to acquire it. However, because of the reference to a secondary right to acquire another nationality in the Nationality Act it is possible that a child born in Finland who would have a right to the nationality of her or his parent(s) does not acquire the nationality due to the lack of required action by the parents and does not acquire Finnish nationality either. A judgement by the Supreme Administrative Court of Finland from September 2011167 dealt with the question of secondary right to nationality and the extent of a parent’s responsibility for a child born in Finland to acquire the nationality of the parent(s). The child was born in Finland out of wedlock to a Somali mother (registered in PIS). The local register office of Helsinki which had registered the child, had requested Migri, in accordance with Section 36 of the Nationality Act and Section 2 the Nationality Decree168 to determine the citizenship status of the child of which the result was “stateless”. Migri however held that the mother had not fulfilled her obligation under Section 39 of the Nationality Act to provide all information in her possession related to the acquisition of citizenship, and contributed to producing the necessary information and documents to the extent such contribution could reasonably be demanded from her, as she had resisted the paternity to the child to be clarified. Migri decided that because a child born out of wedlock could not acquire the nationality of Somalia through the mother and because she did not want to contribute to identifying the child’s father, the child was stateless for the reasons depending on its mother. The mother appealed the decision of Migri to Helsinki Administrative Court. During the appeal, the mother stated that the child’s father was a national of Somalia who did not reside in Finland and did not want a relationship with the child. The Administrative Court held, in accordance with national law, that the child had acquired Finnish nationality at birth. The Administrative Court also referred to the best interest of the child and to Finland’s international obligations under CRC169 as a further basis for the decision. Migri appealed the decision to the Supreme Administrative Court, holding that a child could only acquire Finnish nationality through place of birth if it did not have even a secondary right to another nationality, and that the principle of jus soli is only secondary in the Finnish law. According to Migri, establishing the paternity of the child should be considered a minimum requirement by the parents for a child to acquire the father’s nationality. Migri further held that the efforts to establish paternity of children born to foreign mothers in 166 Hallituksen esitys 235/2002. 167 KHO:2011:78, 16.9.2011/2618, available at http://www.finlex.fi 168 Kansalaisuusasetus 799/2004. This decree has been since then repealed by a new Nationality Decree 293/2013 in which the Local Register Offices’ obligation to request for determination of citizenship status has been stated in Section 1. 169 At the time of the decision of Migri, Finland was not yet party to the 1954 Convention and the European Convention on Nationality. UNHCR STOCKHOLM, NOVEMBER 2014 47