including access to economic, social, civil, and political rights, the right to administrative assistance, and exemption from requirements which by their nature a stateless person is incapable of fulfilling. Given the barriers that stateless people face in accessing their human rights, it is important to determine statelessness to ensure that laws and policies do not directly or indirectly discriminate against stateless persons in the enjoyment of such rights. 23. Identifying statelessness is also essential to protecting everyone’s right to a nationality. While stateless migrants and refugees in Ireland may have had their right to a nationality denied or deprived by another country, Ireland is obligated under the 1954 Convention to facilitate the naturalisation of such persons. Although this obligation does not require Ireland to guarantee Irish nationality to all stateless persons (some may not fulfil naturalisation criteria for example), identifying stateless persons, determining their statelessness in a formal procedure, and thereby granting them access to facilitated naturalisation (among other rights) is often the only pathway to solve statelessness, and ensure that stateless migrants and refugees can enjoy their right to a nationality, as secured under international human rights law. 24. As will be addressed in the next section, Ireland is further obligated to ensure that no child is born stateless in the country. It is essential to have safeguards in place to determine the child’s nationality or whether a child would otherwise be stateless as soon as possible after birth. In this context, determining statelessness of adults also facilitates the identification of children born in the country who are at greatest risk of statelessness. 25. The determination of statelessness is best fulfilled through a dedicated statelessness determination procedure (SDP) with the necessary safeguards and procedural guarantees in line with UNHCR guidelines.25 The absence of a dedicated SDP in Ireland is one of the root causes of human rights violations against stateless people, the lack of adequate protection of stateless persons and, ultimately, facilitating the right to a nationality for all. Establishing a dedicated SDP also helps States understand the issue of statelessness at national level, through the collection of data and information on trends and developments, to which it can adequately respond and therefore meet its duty to protect the rights of stateless persons and reduce statelessness. 26. In the absence of a dedicated statelessness determination procedure, the authorities in Ireland may examine issues of statelessness, for example, in the context of immigration, international protection,26 or nationality related procedures. This is done on an ad hoc basis having regard to the specific case under consideration. Legal status and residence permits 27. The consequence of a person being determined to be stateless under a dedicated SDP must be to guarantee access to the rights stateless persons are due under international law. Importantly, statelessness determination should result in secure legal status through the granting of a residence permit, which is essential to provide adequate protection to stateless persons and prevent further human rights violations. It is through access to a residence permit that stateless people are able to access their rights in 25 UNHCR, Handbook on Protection of Stateless Persons, 2014: http://www.unhcr.org/uk/protection/statelessness/53b698ab9/handbook-protection-stateless-persons.html. 6