Next, it is argued that – contrary to what has sometimes been asserted – UNHCR itself can make determinations of nationality status, and therefore that the aforementioned discussion concerning the determination of nationality status by States applies equally to the determination of nationality status by UNHCR. Finally, the issue of de facto statelessness is itself discussed. 7.1 Persons who may have difficulties proving their nationality The vast majority of persons who have a nationality go through life without ever having their nationality questioned. However, some people who have a nationality may face difficulties proving it when required, be they inside or outside the State whose nationality is at issue. For example: a) Some people may never have been registered in the civil registration system of the country of their nationality.143 For example, a person may have been born in a country which grants nationality jure soli and therefore have acquired that country’s nationality at birth. However, if the birth of the person was never registered, the person may subsequently have difficulties proving he or she was born in the country and that he or she is its national.144 Similarly, a person may be born to parents who are nationals of a country which grants nationality jure sanguinis. If the birth of the person is not registered, the person may again have difficulties proving that he or she is a national. Even DNA-testing may not be conclusive (supposing that such testing is even affordable and accessible in the country concerned) since the parents may no longer be alive – or the births of the parents may never have been registered, thus bringing into 143 The United Nations defines civil registration as follows: “Civil registration is defined as the continuous, permanent, compulsory and universal recording of the occurrence and characteristics of vital events pertaining to the population as provided through decree or regulation in accordance with the legal requirements of a country. Civil registration is carried out primarily for the purpose of establishing the legal documents provided by the law. These records are also the best source of vital statistics. [The occurrences considered as vital events are live birth, death, foetal death, marriage, divorce, annulment of marriage, judicial separation of marriage, adoption, legitimization and recognition ...]” (United Nations Statistics Division, ST/ESA/STAT/SER.F/84, “Handbook on Training in Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems”, 2002, p. 5, para. 22). There are many different reasons why births may not be registered. For example, procedures may be complex, costly and/or inaccessible, or parents may not even be aware that they should register their children. Late birth registration (i.e. registering a birth outside of the ordinary time limits) may sometimes pose virtually insurmountable obstacles, e.g. requiring the parents to produce a whole series of different documents that they may not necessarily possess or which are themselves difficult to acquire (see, for example, UNHCR and Praxis, “Analysis of the Situation of Internally Displaced Persons from Kosovo in Serbia: Law and Practice”, March 2007, p. 24; Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Case of the Yean and Bosico Children v. The Dominican Republic, footnote 107 above, para.’s 109(18) to 109(28)). Sometimes the law itself may completely block registration, e.g. registration may require legal residence, or that the child be born in wedlock. Some parents may be unwilling or even afraid to register their children: for example, in some societies a common view is that girls will not go to school and women will not work beyond the confines of the family and it is therefore not worth using time and money to register a girl’s birth or obtain an identity document for an adult woman; in other cases, the birth of a boy may not be registered, or registered only several years after birth, in order to avoid or delay future conscription for military service; in yet other cases, the parents may be irregular migrants who are afraid to approach the authorities. The authorities themselves may sometimes lack the capacity to register, e.g. during an international or internal armed conflict or during a process of state dissolution. The authorities may also suffer from a lack of resources or be corrupt. They may also sometimes be unwilling to register, e.g. so as to prevent the children of refugees, asylum-seekers and migrant workers being able to exercise an automatic right to citizenship jure soli. For some concrete examples, see further UNHCR, “State of the World’s Refugees: A Humanitarian Agenda”, op. cit., footnote 112 above, chapter 6, box 6.4. 144 41