2.1 Causes of statelessness 18. It is possible to become stateless in a considerable variety of ways. Different causes can be grouped into four categories: a) technical and bureaucratic causes; b) causes linked to State succession and restoration; c) causes linked to discrimination that particularly affect women and children; and d) causes linked to arbitrary deprivation of nationality.20 19. Firstly, technical causes can differ widely, but they all have in common that statelessness is the (sometimes unintentional) consequence of legislation or administrative practices. An individual can, for example, become the victim of a conflict of laws, in which two States each claim that the other is responsible for the bestowal of a nationality. This is especially likely to happen when a person’s State of birth grants nationality by descent (jus sanguinis), while this person’s parents were born in a State that attributes nationality by birth on its territory (jus soli).21 In addition, some States employ a mechanism whereby automatic loss of nationality occurs, for instance after a prolonged absence from the country (although in some States as few as three or five years is already considered a “prolonged absence”).22 20. Someone may also remain stateless, even though the person in question would in theory be eligible for citizenship, because of bureaucratic and other barriers. Nepal provides a case in point. In 2007 it amended its nationality laws to extend citizenship to anyone born in the country before April 1990, including various – previously stateless – minorities. While the authorities undertook a massive citizenship campaign in which they distributed almost 2.6 million certificates in the first four months of 2007, the poorest stateless people were nevertheless unable to acquire citizenship due to prohibitive fees and/or long distances that needed to be travelled to lodge an application. UNHCR monitoring missions also found that in some communities it was believed that some women and girls did not need certificates as their interests were represented by their husbands or fathers and because men did not want to share rights to property. In addition, contrary to the law, some authorities required the cooperation of the husband or father when processing applications submitted by married women, women and girls.23 21. Secondly, in Europe, causes linked to State disintegration have been especially prominent in recent times. The dissolution of both the USSR and the former Yugoslavia each caused tremendous problems for people for whom it was unclear to which of the many newly formed States they belonged. Similar problems resulted from Czechoslovakia’s split and, before that, from the break-up of the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires.24 22. A third cause can be found in discriminatory laws that particularly affect women and children. In Kuwait, for instance, nationality can by law only be passed on through the 10 20  NHCR, “Nationality and Statelessness: A Handbook for Parliamentarians”, 27-39. A longer version U of this report, which is to be published by the consultants separately, illustrates these categories in more detail through individual case studies. 21  qual Rights Trust, “Unravelling Anomaly: Detention, Discrimination and the Protection Needs of E Stateless Persons”, 57. 22 UNHCR, “Nationality and Statelessness: A Handbook for Parliamentarians”, 33. 23 See, UNHCR, UNHCR Handbook for the Protection of Women and Girls, (January 2008), p 190. It should be noted in addition that draft constitutional provisions on citizenship and fundamental rights issued in November 2009 further restrict access to citizenship, raising the prospect of a significant increase in the size of the stateless population in Nepal. 24 B.K. Blitz and M.L. Lynch, “Statelessness and the Benefits of Citizenship: A comparative study”, 10. Mapping statelessness