THEMATIC BRIEFING | MAY 2020 Birth registration and the prevention of statelessness in Europe 13 In all other cases, the examination of whether the child would otherwise be stateless should be carried out separately by a competent authority with the necessary expertise, through an established procedure for determining the child’s nationality or whether they would otherwise be stateless.355 The child’s nationality or statelessness should be determined and resolved immediately after birth registration or as soon as possible.36 The nationality of the child should be considered ‘unknown’, ‘undetermined’ or ‘under investigation’ for as short a period as possible and never longer than five years. Children with undetermined nationality should enjoy their human rights on equal terms with children who are nationals,377 and if a State grants its nationality automatically at birth to children who would otherwise be stateless, then the child should be treated as a national of the State unless and until the possession of another nationality is proven.388 All actions involved in determining whether a child would otherwise be stateless must be undertaken with the best interest of the child as a primary consideration.399 The procedure should be free of charge and regulated by transparent guidance. The authority responsible for such a procedure should ensure that its decision-making staff are trained on nationality and statelessness law and have the legal and language knowledge necessary to conduct the assessment of foreign nationality laws. UNHCR has stressed that, in the determination of whether a child would otherwise be stateless, decision-makers must adopt an appropriate standard of proof (for example, “to a reasonable degree”) and all relevant evidence must be assessed, including statements from the parents or experts and any information on how national legislation is applied in practice.40 In this regard, cooperation between States is essential to avoid statelessness.41 The competent authority should be able to directly contact consular representatives of other States to confirm the foreign nationality of a child, if necessary, except in cases where security or refugee law-related considerations would prohibit such contact. In these cases, special rules should be adopted for determining the nationality of the child and, where the child would otherwise be stateless, they should acquire the nationality of the State in which they were born.422 Where determination of nationality requires an application procedure, information on how to apply must be provided to individuals whose children would otherwise be stateless or of undetermined nationality.433 Existing procedures for establishing whether a child would otherwise be stateless A handful of countries in the Statelessness Index have procedures or guidance on determining a child’s nationality in place, but very limited information is available about how they are implemented in practice and to which children they apply, so it is unclear whether they meet the standards outlined above. It is also unclear how well-known these procedures are among authorities, parents or guardians, what information is available about how to initiate them, and how well-used they are in practice. In Greece, Germany, Latvia, Norway and the Czech Republic, nationality determination procedures or guidance exist, but whether and when these apply to children who might otherwise be stateless is somewhat unclear. It is also often unclear what happens in the case of children born to refugees where the child should acquire a nationality from their parents through jus sanguinis, but the parents are unable to contact the authorities of their country of nationality because they are seeking or have been granted international protection. Some countries have provisions in place to ensure that children born to refugees can acquire a nationality. For example,