Estonia nn Following Estonia’s resumption of independence after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, 32 per cent of the country’s population had not had its citizenship determined and was thus rendered stateless (“persons with undetermined citizenship”). nn The 1995 Citizenship Act, as originally adopted, contained no safeguards against statelessness for children born in Estonia. In 1998, amendments to the law gave children born in Estonia after 26 February 1992 to parents who were “persons with undetermined citizenship” the right to acquire Estonian citizenship through a simplified naturalization procedure, as long as certain conditions were met. nn In January 2015, further amendments to the Citizenship Act granted nationality by naturalization at birth to children born in Estonia whose parents had been legally residing in Estonia for at least five years prior to the child’s birth, and were not considered citizens by any other State. This rule applied retroactively to qualifying children under the age of 15. nn The 2015 amendments also allowed for the attribution of nationality by naturalization at birth to children born in Estonia to parents of “undetermined nationality.” This was done with the explicit aim of preventing future generations from being born stateless. In 1991, Estonia re-established its independence and, invoking the concept of “restored sovereignty” and the principle of legal continuity, adopted a somewhat modified version of the Citizenship Law that had been in force prior to 1940. Under this law, which ultimately entered into force in February 1992, Estonian citizenship was granted automatically only to citizens of the first Estonian Republic of 1918-1940 and their descendants. All other Estonian residents were encouraged to obtain Estonian citizenship through a naturalization process, to register themselves as citizens of the Russian Federation (the USSR’s successor state), or to choose any other citizenship. By 1992, almost a third (32 per cent) of the Estonian population (mostly ethnic Russians and other Russianspeaking minorities) had not acquired Estonian citizenship,49 and the majority were rendered stateless. According to Estonia, these people were deemed to be “persons with undetermined citizenship” (määratlemata kodakondsusega isikud).50 In 1993, the Parliament of Estonia adopted the Aliens Act, which guaranteed the right of residency to those who had been registered as residents of the country before 1 July 1990. They were required to obtain temporary residence permits within two years if they wanted to remain in Estonia. Within the same period they also had to decide if they wished to become Estonian citizens, acquire citizenship of another State,51 or become “persons with undetermined citizenship.”52 The Aliens Act further stipulated that those who had been registered as residents of the country before 1 July 1990 could apply for a permanent residence permit53 after five years of residence in Estonia on the basis of a temporary residence permit. The year 1995 saw the enactment of a new citizenship law, the 1995 Citizenship 49 UNHCR, Mapping Statelessness in Estonia, December 2016, page 15. 50 Priit Järve and Vadim Poleshchuk, Country Report: Estonia, EUDO Citizenship Observatory Report (2013), page 1. 51 Those wishing to acquire Russian citizenship had to do so before February 1995. 52 Human Rights Watch, Integrating Estonia’s non-citizen minority, Vol. 5, Issue 20, October 1993. 53 After transposition of the EU Council Directive 2003/109/EC of 25 November 2003 concerning the status of third-country nationals who are long-term residents, all Estonian permanent residence permits were replaced by long-term residence permits. 13 CAMPAIGN TO END STATELESSNESS WITHIN 10 YE ARS