In September 2016, UNHCR, DEM, the Civil Registry, the National Human Rights Institute (INDH), the Clinica of Migrants and Refugees of the Diego Portales University, the Alberto Hurtado University and the Jesuit Sevice for Migrants launched a pilot project to identify people who were registered as offspring of in-transit aliens, with the aim of confirming their Chilean nationality. The project also sought to identify possible gaps and enhance the existing procedures for confirmation of nationality. By the end of November 2016, 80 children were in the process of confirming their nationality. Children born to nationals abroad Before the constitutional reforms adopted in 2005, statelessness was historically a greater risk for the children of Chilean nationals born abroad. Until 1980, such children only acquired Chilean nationality automatically if one parent was in the service of the Chilean state, or if the parents – or the child on attaining adulthood – established residence (avecindarse) in Chile.90 In 1980, the Constitution was amended to require all children born abroad to have a period of at least one year’s established residence in Chile.91 However, on the restoration of democracy in 1990, the children of those exiled from Chile during the military dictatorship protested at the injustice of this rule excluding them from Chilean nationality since it had been impossible for them to establish residence in Chile during that period. In 2005, amendments to the nationality provisions were included as part of a much broader set of reforms to strengthen Chile’s democracy, advocated for many years by the pro-democracy coalition, Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia (CPD).92 In relation to nationality, the CPD’s initial proposal was simply to allow for indefinite transmission of nationality to children born abroad. In its discussions, the constitutional committee of parliament considered international human rights law, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UN human rights conventions93 and Article 20 on the right to a nationality of the American Convention on Human Rights, as well as comparative law from other Latin American countries, France, Portugal, Italy and Spain. It also heard the expert opinion of legal scholars and representatives of the executive, and considered a submission from the Senate Committee on Human Rights, Nationality and Citizenship. The committee discussed various options. These included unlimited transmission of nationality to those born abroad, a requirement for a declaration before competent authorities and proof of nationality of the parent, limits on the number of generations through which nationality could be transmitted, and removal of the provision that a person naturalized elsewhere lost Chilean nationality (except where bilateral treaties provided otherwise).94 Eventually, it was decided that the unlimited extension of jus sanguinis nationality to those born abroad went further than necessary to redress the injustice to those born in exile. The final formulation created a twogeneration limit on automatic transmission of nationality to those living outside the country. The amended Constitution provided for automatic acquisition of nationality by a child born abroad provided that at least one parent or grandparent acquired nationality by birth in Chile or by naturalization; both the first and the second generation born abroad thus acquired nationality automatically, without any requirement to establish residence in Chile.95 There was no need for the parents of a child born abroad to prove that child was stateless: 90 1925 Constitution, Article 5(2). 91 1980 Constitution, Article 10(3), before 2005 amendment. 92 The 2005 reforms reduced military influence in politics and increased civilian control over the armed forces, reduced the presidential term from six to four years, eliminated appointed senatorial seats, and removed the rules on the electoral system from the constitution to enable easier reform. Claudio A. Fuentes, A Matter of the Few: Dynamics of Constitutional Change in Chile, 1990–2010, Texas Law Review, Vol. 89, 2011, page 17411775. 93 Chile is not, however, a party to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons nor the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. 94 Historia de la Ley Nº 20.050: Modifica la composición y atribuciones del Congreso Nacional, la aprobación de los tratados internacionales, la integración y funciones del Tribunal Constitucional y otras materias que indica, Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional, 26 August 2005; Historia de la Ley: Constitución Política de la República De Chile De 1980: Artículo 10 – Son chilenos, Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile. 95 1980 Constitution, Article 10, as amended by Law Nº 20.050, 26 August 2005. 21 CAMPAIGN TO END STATELESSNESS WITHIN 10 YE ARS