Country Position Paper: Statelessness in Iran The total number of children born to an Iranian mother and foreign national father is not clear, but in 2012 the Guardian Council estimated the number to be around one million. 48 In one survey conducted by the Iranian Ministry of Welfare, women married to foreign men who have children born in Iran, were asked to text their national code to the Ministry in order to gather data on the registration status of their children. In response, 1,800 women texted into the Ministry revealing 3,000 children with no birth certificates.49 Although this census does not provide the full picture of rates of birth registration to children born of Iranian women and foreign men in Iran, as the participants were made up of only those women texting the Ministry and who hold birth certificates themselves, the survey does indicate that access to birth registration for children born to Iranian women and foreign fathers is problematic and can result in the risk of, or actual, statelessness. The hospital where a child is born is responsible for issuing a notification of birth to the Civil Birth Registration Organisation within 15 days of the birth so that registration can take place.50 However, INGOs working in Iran report that many hospitals do not issue the birth notification when one of the parents lacks documentation,51 which means that birth registration cannot take place, and the child may remain without proof of their birth in Iran. This in turn impacts on the determination of the child’s nationality status. Furthermore, there are various other hurdles that may prevent some parents from registering the births of their children. Due to financial barriers, many people residing in Iran without documentation give birth at home,52 especially in rural areas, which creates additional barriers to birth registration, as there is no notification of birth issued by a hospital. There are other barriers including time-consuming and over-complicated administrative hurdles, and the general lack of awareness surrounding the importance of birth registration (especially for girls, children with disabilities and children before school age) often results in children not being registered, 53 thus perpetuating the issue. If a person reaches the age of majority (18 years-old) and their birth in Iran has not been registered, there is a procedure for late birth registration through which the individual may file a request to the National Organisation of Civil Status (NOCS) to register their birth. However, the burden of proof is on the individual to substantiate their claim through witnesses and other means: in practice, the process is often time-consuming and complex, and many people face barriers to proving their birth in Iran.54 48 As reported in Semira N. Nikou, Iran: Discrimination Through Citizenship, Human Rights Brief, 2015, at page 4, available at: http://hrbrief.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Nikou-Iran-Final.pdf). 49 ISNA (2018) The winding road to “Granting Citizenship to Children with Iranian Mothers and Foreign Fathers”, available at: https://www.isna.ir/news/97081407048 50 National Organization for Civil Registration. Retrieved from https://www.sabteahval.ir/en 51 As reported by INGO staff in Iran in 2018. 52 Refugees Deeply (2017) Pregnant Afghans Grapple with Iran’s ‘Exemplary’ Refugee Healthcare, 27 July 2017, available at: https://www.newsdeeply.com/refugees/articles/2017/07/27/pregnant-afghans-grapple-with-irans-exemplary-refugee-healthcare: 53 Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion and the Global Campaign for Equal National Rights (March 2019) Joint Submission to the Human Rights Council, available at: https://files.institutesi.org/UPR34_Iran.pdf 54 As reported by expert on civil registration practices in Iran in May 2019 based on experience on-the-ground in 2018. 11