Briefing on the right to a nationality of children born to Palestinian parents in Belgium February 2024 In response to recent reports that the Belgian Immigration Office has incentivised municipalities to withdraw the Belgian nationality of children born to Palestinian parents in Belgium, this briefing sets out ENS’s concerns about this practice and Belgium’s relevant international legal obligations. The withdrawal of children’s nationality in these cases contravenes international human rights law and risks leaving children in limbo, exposed to the risk of growing up stateless. ENS urgently calls on the Belgian authorities to protect and uphold the right to a nationality of every child born on its territory. Belgium’s obligations under international law The right to a nationality is a right that is ‘essential for the protection of every child’.1 As a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Belgium must implement Article 7 to provide for the right of every child to be registered immediately after birth and to acquire a nationality, as well as Article 8 to respect the right of the child to preserve their identity, including nationality. As a State party to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, Belgium has further obligations to prevent and reduce statelessness on its territory. 2 Obligations deriving from the 1961 Convention require Belgium to grant nationality to children who would otherwise be stateless and must be interpreted in light of the CRC.3 This includes the underlying principles of non-discrimination (Article 2 of the CRC), and that all actions concerning children, including in the area of nationality, must be undertaken with the best interests of the child as a primary consideration (Article 3). Belgian nationality law According to Article 10 of the Belgian Nationality Code (BNC), a child born in Belgium is Belgian if they would otherwise possess no nationality at any moment before they reach the age of 18 or are emancipated.4 Since 31 December 2022, only the civil registrar of the child's place of birth is competent to rule on the application of Article 10, if necessary after obtaining the opinion of the public prosecutor. Article 10 also states that a child to whom Belgian nationality has been granted by virtue of this article retains that nationality as long as it has not been established, before they 1 UNHCR (2018) Ensuring the right of all children to acquire a nationality: Connecting the Dots between the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness: <https://www.refworld.org/docid/52206aa54.html> 2 1961 Convention; UNHCR, Guidelines on Statelessness No. 4: Ensuring Every Child's Right to Acquire a Nationality through Articles 1-4 of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, 21 December 2012, HCR/GS/12/04, available at: <https://www.refworld.org/docid/50d460c72.html>; and also European Network on Statelessness, No Child Should Be Stateless, 2015, available at <https://www.statelessness.eu/sites/www.statelessness.eu/files/ENS_NoChildStateless_final.pdf> 3 UNHCR Guidelines on Statelessness No. 4: Ensuring Every Child’s Right to Acquire a Nationality through Articles 1-4 of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness: <https://www.refworld.org/docid/50d460c72.html> 4 Belgian Nationality Code (adopted 28 June 1984, entered into force 22 July 1984) 1984-06-28/35, art 10 [hereinafter BNC] <http://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/eli/loi/1984/06/28/1984900065/justel>