CCPR/C/130/D/2918/2016 Facts as submitted by the author 2.1 The author’s mother was born in China in 1989, but her birth was not registered in the civil records in that country. Such registration is performed, and civil status is established, through an individual’s inclusion in a household registry. Household registration (hukou) is a prerequisite for access to public services. 1 After her brother was born a few years later, her parents abandoned her. 2.2 As the author’s mother was not registered in the civil registry in China she was unable to obtain proof of Chinese citizenship. She holds no documentation proving her identity. In 2004, at the age of 15, she was trafficked to the Netherlands but was able to escape upon her arrival at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam. She applied for asylum on 8 August 2004 but her application was rejected on 25 August 2004. This decision was upheld on appeal. In 2006, she was forced into prostitution. She eventually managed to escape and on 20 March 2008 she reported to the Netherlands police that she was a victim of human trafficking. The investigation into her forced prostitution continued for over a year, but on 28 May 2009 the investigation was closed as the police could not identify or locate her traffickers. She had initially been granted a special temporary residence permit during the police investigation, but the permit was revoked when the investigation was terminated. All applications and appeals have been denied and she is currently classified as an “illegal alien”, as is the author. The author’s father is not in contact with him or with his mother and has not recognized paternity. 2.3 The author was born on 18 February 2010 in Utrecht and was registered in the Municipal Personal Records Database with the annotation “unknown nationality”, as his mother had provided no proof of his nationality. The author���s mother made several attempts to obtain or confirm Chinese nationality for her son, including requests to the Chinese authorities to confirm whether they considered the author a Chinese national, with the aim of satisfying the requirements in the legislation of the Netherlands that a person must provide conclusive proof of nationality, or of lack of nationality, in order to change his or her status of nationality from “unknown” in the civil registry. These efforts included various contacts with entities in China. In 2010, the author’s mother wrote letters to her old primary school, the Chinese Family Planning Commission and the General Office, however she received no response from these entities. With the assistance of the Dutch Council for Refugees she also tried to get documents from the Chinese authorities in the Netherlands. On 10 April 2009 and 11 January 2010, she visited the Embassy of China together with representatives of the Dutch Council for Refugees. Yet, no response to her requests for clarification of her status was provided. On 29 June 2010, 21 November 2011 and 18 October 2012, she visited the Embassy of China together with staff members of the Red Cross. During her last visit to the Embassy, on 18 October 2012, she also requested a statement about the author’s nationality. The Embassy of China informed her that it would only be possible to issue proof of Chinese nationality for the author if she herself was registered as a Chinese national, which she was not. On 19 January 2010 and 30 September 2010, the Dutch Council for Refugees sought assistance from the International Organization for Migration, however these efforts did not produce any material result. On 19 January 2012, the Red Cross also tried to obtain documents through its tracing service. However, as the author’s mother had no documentation of her own identity, the case did not meet the minimum criteria for tracing. 2.4 For this reason, and despite years of efforts, the author’s mother has been unable to change the author’s nationality entry in the civil registry to “stateless” so that he can enjoy the international protections afforded to stateless children, including the right to acquire the nationality of the State in which he was born – the Netherlands. It is impossible to correct the author’s registration, due to the strict proof required under domestic rules applicable to the registration process, and the lack of an appropriate statelessness status determination procedure. The author notes that this is a significant problem in the State party. A 2011 mapping study by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) found that there were 90,000 people described as having “unknown” nationality 1 2 The author refers to Shuzhuo Li, Yexia Zhang and Marcus W. Feldman, “Birth registration in China: practices, problems and policies”. GE.21-00755