When Ulpan moved from Uzbekistan to Kazakhstan as a young woman, she lost essential identity documents and found difficulties proving her identity and nationality to access basic services for herself and her children. Through help from UNHCR’s partner Legal Center for Women’s Initiatives, Ulpan has eventually able to document her status as a stateless person, then eventually gain citizenship and rights for her family. © UNHCR/Frederic Noy ACTION 2: Ensure that no child is born stateless DESIRED OUTCOME • • • • No reported cases of childhood statelessness. All States have a provision in their nationality laws to grant nationality to stateless children born on their territory. All States have a provision in their nationality laws to grant nationality to children of unknown origin found on their territory (foundlings). All States have a safeguard in their nationality laws to grant nationality to children born to nationals abroad and who are unable to acquire another nationality. Context The majority of the world’s stateless persons have lacked nationality since they were born. There are two main reasons for this: (a) their parents were stateless and (b) they were born in a country with a nationality law that does not confer its nationality on children born on its territory even if this means that they are left stateless. In a number of other cases, children become stateless when they are born abroad and, consequently, their parents’ nationality cannot be conferred upon them under the law of their parents’ State of nationality. Children may also become stateless when they have been abandoned or separated from their family and their nationality cannot be ascertained. Some such children are refugees. What needs to be done? One of the most important safeguards to prevent statelessness is to ensure that nationality laws allow children born in the territory of a State to acquire the nationality of that State if they would otherwise be stateless. This safeguard is the cornerstone of efforts to prevent statelessness and is set out in the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. 16 The importance of this safeguard is reinforced by standards included in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, with respect to the right of every child to acquire nationality. States are only required to grant nationality to children born on their territories who cannot acquire any other nationality. GLOBAL ACTION PLAN TO END STATELESSNESS 2.0