grant citizenship to children born in Latvia who would otherwise be without a nationality”.55 29. Subsequent to this recommendation, a new law was adopted establishing that children born in Latvia after 1 January 2020 to ‘non-citizen’ parents automatically acquire Latvian nationality unless the child acquires, or the parents opt for the child to acquire, another nationality.56 There is also a provision in law to grant nationality to children born in Latvia to parents with stateless status if one parent who has permanent residence expresses the wish for the child to acquire Latvian nationality at birth registration (or if the mother does so where the father has no entry in the civil registry; or if one parent does so where the other parent is deceased). One parent may apply for a child to acquire Latvian nationality until the child is 15 if (i) the child has been 'stateless' or 'non-citizen' their whole life, (ii) the child is a permanent resident, (iii) both parents have 'stateless' or 'non-citizen' status, and (iv) the parent with whom the child has lived has five years' permanent residence in Latvia. A child born to parents with ‘stateless’ status may acquire nationality if a parent so chooses, or if they apply themselves between the ages of 15-18 (and can meet certain conditions). 30. The CERD Committee, has acknowledged these developments but also articulated its outstanding concerns as follows: “The Committee welcomes the adoption, in October 2019, of a law that enables children born in Latvia to two ‘non-citizen’ parents to automatically be entitled to Latvian citizenship by birth, which is deemed a positive step to prevent statelessness of such children and terminate the separate legal category of non-citizens in the State party. It also welcomes information on simplified acquisition of Latvian citizenship for older non-citizen children to encourage their citizenship registration. However, the Committee regrets that the State party has not taken any measures to extend automatic citizenship to all noncitizen children in Latvia who are currently under 15. The Committee considers that the response to this recommendation is partially satisfactory and requests that the State party provide, in its next periodic report, information on further measures taken to phase out the separate legal category of non-citizens, as well as on their impact”.57 31. As observed by the Committee, none of the legal options cover all children born stateless on the territory so these do not constitute a full safeguard to prevent children being born stateless in Latvia. The timeframe for a child to apply in their own right does not extend beyond the age of majority; and all legal options rely on the status (and in some cases also choices) of the parents, so the provisions are not fully consistent with the international standards in the 1961 Convention,58 nor with the spirit of CRC Article 7, when read together with Articles 2 (non-discrimination) and 3 (best interests of the child). 32. Birth registration is key to preventing statelessness and securing the child’s right to a 55 Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, ‘Concluding Observations on the Combined Sixth to Twelfth Periodic Reports of Latvia, CERC/C/LVA/CO/6-12, 25 September 2018, Para21 (f). 56 Law on Terminating the Granting of Non-Citizen Status to Children [Par nepilsoņa statusa piešķiršanas izbeigšanu bērniem], adopted on 17 October 2019, OP 2019/224.1: https://likumi.lv/ta/id/310468-par-nepilsona-statusa-pieskirsanas-izbeigsanu-berniem 57 Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, letter to the Permanent Representative of Latvia to the UN Office, 24 September 2020, CERD/101 st session/FU/MJA/ks. 58 ENS Statelessness Index: Latvia: https://index.statelessness.eu/country/latvia 8