II. General observations 5. UNHCR notes that the Law Proposal, as outlined in the Explanatory Note8, inter alia aims at “broadening the group of persons acquiring the citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania by birth providing that children born to legally residing stateless persons shall acquire the citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania hence ensuring that children have citizenship at birth”.9 The Explanatory Note goes on to underline that the relevant amendments are intended to implement the UNHCR recommendations on the reduction of statelessness. 10 UNHCR also observes that the Law Proposal encompasses several other provisions of relevance for stateless persons, notably those addressing the conditions for naturalization and other citizenship related procedures. 6. UNHCR encourages all States whose legislation does not contain full safeguards against statelessness at birth to ensure that any child born on their territory who would otherwise be stateless will acquire the nationality of the State of birth. In this respect, UNHCR takes note of the commentary contained in the Explanatory Note which maintains that the legislative initiative should “ensure the right to nationality.11 7. Nevertheless, in the below observations, UNHCR would like to raise several issues that would have to be addressed in order to align the Law proposal fully with the provisions of the 1954 and 1961 Conventions. Furthermore, taking this opportunity, UNHCR invites the Lithuanian authorities to consider other amendments to the legislative framework with a view to facilitating naturalization of stateless persons and refugees and as specified below further alignment of national legislation to the provisions of the international law. 8. In the present comments, the terms ‘nationality’ and ‘citizenship’ are used interchangeably. III. Specific observations Prevention of Statelessness at Birth (Articles 3 and 4 of the Law Proposal) 9. The Law proposal introduced a new text for Article 15 (1) of the Law on Citizenship as follows: “A child of stateless persons who are legally resident (lith. teisėtai gyvenančių) in the Republic of Lithuania shall be a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania, irrespective of whether he was born in or outside the territory of the Republic of Lithuania, provided he has not acquired citizenship of another state at birth.” If compared to the current version of the provision, the amendment eliminates the requirement of permanent legal residence, hence expanding the scope of the provision ratione personae. 10. UNHCR understands that the proposed amendment intends to implement a pledge made by Lithuania at the High-Level Segment on Statelessness (HLS) marking the mid-way point of UNHCR’s #IBelong Campaign to end statelessness within 10 years which reads as follows: 8 Aiškinamasis raštas dėl Lietuvos Respublikos pilietybės įstatymo Nr. XI-1196 2, 7, 15, 18, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29, 33, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 411, 42, 43 ir 45 straipsnių pakeitimo įstatymo projekto, available at https://e-seimas.lrs.lt/portal/legalAct/lt/TAK/ 1f2a2d70905111eaa51db668f0092944?positionInSearchResults=8&searchModelUUID=ba6c563f-a2ef-4535-8e0c-0770f4ae7320 9 Ibid., page 1 10 Ibid. page 1 and 4. 11 Ibid. page 4. 2