European States’ Obligations to Repatriate the Children Detained in Camps in Northeast Syria children,”186 States have a special and positive obligation to introduce safeguards to prevent and reduce statelessness, in particular the statelessness of children.187 Statelessness occurs when an individual is “not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its laws.”188 The “laws,” in this regard, should be understood “broadly, to encompass not just legislation, but also ministerial decrees, regulations, orders, judicial case law (in countries with a tradition of precedent) and, where appropriate, customary practice.”189 It would follow that statelessness is a “mixed question of law and fact” and can occur in several ways:190 when a person cannot access (because of barriers in practice or in law) the nationality of any State, when nationality has not been formally recognized by a State, when they have been deprived of their only nationality, and when they are at risk of being rendered stateless by lacking the means to prove their nationality. 191 In the context of the protection to be granted to children, especially against childhood statelessness, special attention should be paid to the fact that every child’s right to acquire a nationality begins at birth. 192 States must establish their laws on nationality with a view to granting children better access to nationality and, in practical terms, take every appropriate measure, both internally and in cooperation with other States, 193 to ensure that every African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, “General Comment No. 2 on Article 6 of the ACRWC: The Right to a Name, Registration at Birth, and to Acquire a Nationality”, ACERWC/GC/02, 16 April 2014, para. 86. See also: OSJI/ISI, “Principles on Deprivation of Nationality as a Security Measure,” 2020, Principle 9.7.4: “It can never be in the best interest of a child to be made stateless or be deprived of nationality.” 187 1954 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons; 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness; 1973 Convention to Reduce the Number of Cases of Statelessness of the International Commission on Civil Status; 1990 ICRMW; 1997 ECN; 2006 CoE Convention on the Avoidance of Statelessness in Relation to State Succession; 2008 European Convention on the Adoption of Children (revised). See also: European Network on Statelessness, “Strategic Litigation: An Obligation for Statelessness Determination under the European Convention on Human Rights?,” Discussion Paper 09/14; UNHCR, “Handbook on Protection of Stateless Persons,” 30 June 2014, para. 7 and ff. 188 1954 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons; 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, Article 1(1). 189 UNHCR, “Handbook on Protection of Stateless Persons,” 30 June 2014, para. 22 citing on footnote 15 that “a similar approach is taken in Article 2(d) of the 1997 European Convention on Nationality”. 190 Ibid, paras. 22-24. 191 Note that “[b]eing undocumented is not the same as being stateless. However, lack of birth registration can put people at risk of statelessness as a birth certificate provides proof of where a person was born and parentage – key information needed to establish a nationality.” See: UN High Commissioner for Refugees (“UNHCR”), “What is Statelessness?”, #IBELONG The Campaign to End Statelessness by 2024, p. 1. 192 Article 6(3) of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, stating that “children should have a nationality beginning from birth.” 193 See: UNGA, “Resolution on the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees”, A/RES/61/137, 25 January 2007, para. 7; Human Rights Council, “Resolution on Human Rights and Arbitrary Deprivation of Nationality”, A/HRC/RES/26/14, 11 July 2014, paras. 8-10. HRComm, “General Comment No. 17: Article 24 (Rights of the Child)”, 7 April 1989, para. 8. This may require, for example, States to exchange information on the nationality of children in order to ensure that 186 36