Where persons have difficulties furnishing relevant proof to establish their nationality, they are at risk of not being considered nationals by a State. These persons and/or their descendants may therefore be at risk of statelessness. Necessary forms of proof may relate to the question of whether a person is a national (for instance a birth certificate, national identity document or passport), or to the legal requirements needed to be met in order to be considered a national. Such requirements generally refer to links a person has with the State. The most important proof thus relates to place of birth and to parentage. These facts are recorded through birth registration, underscoring the reason why universal birth registration is crucial in realizing the right to a nationality.7 The UN should therefore work with States to ensure that universal birth registration, civil registration and national identity systems are linked at the country level and strengthen national capacity for a life-cycle approach to identity management, effective public administration and accountability in this regard, thereby permitting individuals to prove their identity and links to one or more States. 4. Respect the human rights of stateless persons and provide for their specific protection needs Universal human rights standards apply irrespective of possession of a nationality, with only a very limited set of rights reserved for citizens.8 But stateless persons have protection needs distinct from those of other non-citizens. Stateless persons are uniquely vulnerable to prolonged detention and States should be sensitized to respect the rights of stateless persons to be free from arbitrary detention as a result of their stateless status. Stateless persons require support in areas where a State of nationality would generally take action, for instance in relation to the issuance of identity and travel documents. Stateless persons who do not enjoy the right to return to and reside in another State should be granted residency and concomitant civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights and have a realistic prospect of acquiring the State’s nationality in the future. A prerequisite for the protection of stateless persons is ensuring that the State can identify who is stateless and who is not. States are encouraged to establish formalized statelessness determination procedures with due process safeguards for individuals to claim protection as a result of their statelessness status. This is particularly relevant in the context of cross-border movements, where stateless individuals are outside of their country of habitual residence. Most stateless persons reside in the country of their birth or a successor State. But statelessness might result in forced displacement, in particular where it results from arbitrary deprivation of nationality, and many stateless persons do in fact cross an international border and become refugees.9 Forced displacement, in turn, may also result in statelessness. When stateless persons are simultaneously refugees, they must be treated as such and afforded the protection foreseen under international refugee law, specifically under the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol and the prohibition of non-refoulement in customary international law. 6 7 See CRC, Article 7. See OHCHR, The Rights of Non-citizens, 2006. 9 See, New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, A/RES/71/1 (19 Sept 2016), at para 72 (recognizing that “statelessness can be a root cause of forced displacement and that forced displacement, in turn, can lead to statelessness.” A/RES/71/1). -7-