problem cannot be solved on the basis of evidence stipulated under the Law on General Administrative Procedure, the problem will be solved in a court procedure (non-contentious procedure).“ If this way of birth notification and registration into birth registry books becomes a regular practice, it would undoubtedly be a major breakthrough, because registering the child immediately after birth would finally eradicate one of the most common causes of the risk of statelessness and avoid the need to conduct additional procedures (determining the personal name, subsequent birth registration or determining the date and place of birth). The aforementioned rules relating to the registration of mothers in birth registry books should also be commended. However, we should stress that this Instruction was not published in the Official Gazette and is not a legally binding act, but guidance for authorised persons in health care institutions and staff of administrative authorities. Some rules contained in this Instruction and related to the registration of mother’s data into birth registry books are contrary to the existing regulations: the Rulebook on the procedure for the issuance of birth notification and form of the issuance of birth notification in a health care institution (Rulebook) and the Instruction on administering registry books and forms of registry books. Moreover, at the beginning of this year the Rulebook was amended but it did not simplify the registration of children whose mothers do not possess documents. In fact, Article 5 earlier provided only that data on parents should be entered in birth notifications on the basis of ID cards and birth or marriage certificates, but the provision was added according to which the parents’ identity is established “on the basis or ID card or travel document”. The notification form also contains the sections where the number of mother’s ID card (or travel document) and data from the mother’s and father’s birth certificates should be entered. Indeed, the provision is added to Article 5 which allows the entry of data from “personal documents that are considered to be evidence of such data“, but regardless of uncertainties as to which these documents might be, it is clear that the mothers who are not registered in birth registry books cannot possess any documents. Therefore, it remains to be seen how these discrepancies between the Instruction and the applicable by-laws will be resolved and whether the Instruction will be applied in practice. CHILDREN WITHOUT RECOGNISED PATERNITY AND ACQUISITION OF CITIZENSHIP BY BIRTH: Although allowing the registration into birth registry books of children whose mother do not possess documents would be a big step forward, the personal status of the child would not be completely regulated in that way. In fact, the mothers who are not registered into birth registry books and do not have an ID cannot possess a citizenship certificate either, so that the child cannot acquire citizenship on the basis of mother’s citizenship. Even in cases where the father is Serbian citizen, the child cannot acquire citizenship because the mother without an ID card cannot give her consent on the recognition of paternity and consequently, the data on the child’s father will not be registered into birth registry books and the child will not be allowed to acquire citizenship on that basis. However, that problem could be solved by the consistent application of Article 13 of the Law on Citizenship of the Republic of Serbia.25 In fact, this Article regulates the acquisition of citizenship by birth in the territory of the Republic of Serbia and, among other things, prescribes that if the parents are unknown or the parents of unknown citizenship or stateless or if the child is stateless – the child shall acquire the citizenship of the Republic of Serbia based 25 Official Gazette of RS, nos. 135/2004 and 90/2007 18