have been sentenced to imprisonment for a term of five years or more on a criminal charge. The Convention clause is, therefore, worded narrowly. 29. Furthermore, the condition that the person has been legally permanently resident (lith. teisėtai nuolat gyvena) and the condition of lawful residence at the time of submission of the application (lith. turi teisę gyventi prašymo pateikimo metu), as required by Article 18 (2) of the Law on Citizenship, are not in accordance with Article 1(2)(b) of the 1961 Convention, by which States may impose a habitual residence requirement on the child, but not a lawful residence requirement on the child. “Habitual residence” should be understood as stable and factual residence. In other words, the 1961 Convention does not permit Contracting States to make an application for the acquisition of nationality by individuals who would otherwise be stateless conditional upon lawful residence.21 30. For the sake of legal clarity, it would also be preferable to clearly indicate in Article 18 (2) that its application should be without prejudice to Article 18 (4) of the law on Citizenship. 31. In light of the above mentioned, considering that the risk of leaving certain children stateless remains, UNHCR would like to reiterate its recommendation to include in the Law on Citizenship safeguards preventing children from being born into statelessness. In this regard, inserting provisions that clearly provide for automatic grant of Lithuanian nationality at birth to persons born in the territory who would otherwise be stateless are necessary to ensure alignment with the provisions of the 1961 Convention. 32. Should Lithuania retain the combination of modes of acquisition, it is essential that the conditions stateless persons born on the territory are required to fulfill in the application procedure do not go beyond those permitted under Article 1(2) of the 1961 Convention. To that end, the Law Proposal should be adjusted bringing it fully in line with the Convention requirements, as outlined above. UNHCR recommendations: UNHCR recommends: • To include the necessary safeguards against statelessness at birth by providing for the automatic grant of Lithuanian nationality at birth to persons born in the territory who would otherwise be stateless, without requiring their parents to be stateless persons and regardless of whether they or their parents are legal residents. • If Lithuania opts to continue using a combination of modes of acquisition relying on Article 1 (1) (a) and (b) of the 1961 Convention, the proposed provisions should be adjusted to bring them in full compliance with international law. In particular, ✓ The procedure provided for by Article 18 (2) of the Law on Citizenship should be nondiscretionary leading to the mandatory grant of citizenship to persons who fulfill the eligibility conditions; 21 UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Mapping Statelessness in Lithuania, May 2016, page 74, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/580f649c4.html. 6