in the area of nationality, must be undertaken with the best interests of the child as a primary consideration. The CRC also addresses statelessness through its provisions on non-discrimination (Article 2) and the right of every child to preserve his or her identity (Article 8). 16. A number of General Comments (GC) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (Committee) help to inform the meaning of the above CRC provisions when applying them to address statelessness. In addition, the Committee has consistently recommended in its Concluding Observations that States Parties review their legislation to ensure that nationality is granted to all children who are stateless or at risk of being stateless.16 17. It follows that a child must not be left stateless for an extended period of time: a child must acquire a nationality at birth or as soon as possible after birth. This should be ensured regardless of whether the child or his/her parents have lawful residence. In this respect, in its Statelessness Mapping in Lithuania 17, UNHCR recommended to grant all children born on the territory of Lithuania, who would otherwise be stateless, nationality automatically at birth. 18. Secondly, Article 15, in its current and revised versions, applies to children born to parents who either both are stateless (Article 15 (1)) or where one is stateless and the other is unknown (Article 15 (2)). While the Law Proposal eliminates the requirement of permanent residence with respect to the former group, it retains this requirement for children born to parents where one is stateless and the other is unknown. To ensure equal treatment of both groups of children covered by Article 15, we recommend aligning Article 15 (2) with the revised Article (15 (1) of the Law on Citizenship. 19. Furthermore, as outlined in the UNHCR Statelessness Guidelines No 4, children can also be stateless where one or both parents possess a nationality, but neither can confer it upon their children. Restricting the application of Article 1 of the 1961 Convention to children of stateless parents is, therefore, insufficient in light of the different ways in which a child may be rendered stateless.18 20. For this reason, it is of critical importance to ensure that the national legislative framework contains effective guarantees securing access to nationality for all children who would otherwise be stateless. A lack of such guarantees may lead to new cases of statelessness as a result of gender-biased nationality laws in third countries that may be applicable to some children born in the territory of Lithuania, as well as conflict of nationality laws preventing parents from passing on their foreign nationality to their children who would then become stateless. 21. In this respect, it is worth recalling that today twenty-five countries continue to deny or limit women’s right to pass their nationality to their own children on an equal basis with men, including Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait and Syria which all have gender-discriminatory nationality laws in place.19 Where citizenship is determined exclusively through the father, children can be left stateless where the father himself is stateless, unknown or not married to the mother at the time of birth, or has been unable or unwilling to fulfil the administrative steps to confer his nationality to his children. Women living apart or forcefully separated from their husbands face numerous barriers already in registering their children (especially those born out of wedlock). 16 UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and UNICEF, CRC Convention on the Rights of the Child: Quick Reference Guide - Statelessness and Human Rights Treaties, January 2017, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/58c25eb14.html. 17 UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Mapping Statelessness in Lithuania, May 2016, page 88, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/580f649c4.html. 18 See supra note 16, UNHCR Guidelines on Statelessness No. 4, para. 18. 19 See for more details, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Background Note on Gender Equality, Nationality Laws and Statelessness 2019, 8 March 2019, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5c8120847.html. 4