immediately after birth and bestows on the child the right, from birth, to a name and nationality. States are obligated to implement these rights, “in particular where the child would otherwise be stateless.” Article 8 CRC obligates states to respect the child’s right to an identity “including nationality, name and family relations”. 2. A 1998 amendment to the 1992 Citizenship Act proclaimed that children, born in Estonia after 26 February 1992, whose parents are of “undetermined citizenship” and who have lived in Estonia for at least five years, are eligible, at their parents' request, to gain Estonian citizenship through naturalisation without the precondition of passing citizenship examinations. Yet, not all parents have chosen (or reached joint consent) to do so, or knew about the procedure. As a result, children are still being born into statelessness. According to government data, on 18 August 2014, there were 936 stateless children who had been born in the country.5 3. On 21 January 2015, the Riigikogu adopted new amendments to the Citizenship Act, two of which directly relate to the children’s right to a nationality. This is very welcome news as according to the Estonian Ministry of the Interior, approximately 300 children were being born stateless in Estonia every year.6 The law will come into force in January 2016 and will introduce the following key changes: a) A stateless child born in Estonia to stateless parents (or as the government classifies them – parents with “undetermined citizenship”) who have lived in Estonia for at least 5 years before the child’s birth will automatically acquire citizenship – with the possibility that the parents may ‘opt out’ on behalf of their child within one year from birth. It is also significant to note that this rule can also be applied retroactively to qualifying children who are under the age of 15. Before the amendment, citizenship could be acquired only upon application and it was necessary to have the consent of both parents, which presented a barrier to the acquisition of nationality for some children in practice. b) Persons aged under 18, who have another citizenship in addition to the Estonian one, cannot be deprived of Estonian citizenship until the age of majority. Thus, the law allows minors to possess, in addition to the Estonian citizenship, the citizenship of another country and to choose which to maintain upon reaching adulthood. 4. 5 However despite these positive developments certain flaws remain in the Estonian legislation and practice that allow children to remain at risk of becoming stateless. The most significant of these are the following: Explanation note to the amendment to the Citizenship Act (nr737), available at: http://www.riigikogu.ee/download/ab5f780c-3b11-4bb3-8f5b-d819ec8deaa4/ab5f780c-3b11-4bb3-8f5bd819ec8deaa4 6 Ibid.