CASE NOTE
SPANISH COURT RECOGNISES THE SPANISH
NATIONALITY OF A STATELESS ‘INVISIBLE CHILD’ IN
ORDER TO REMEDY A VIOLATION OF HER HUMAN
RIGHTS†
JOSÉ ALBERTO NAVARRO* AND CRISTINA MANZANEDO
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I
II
III
IV
V
Introduction........................................................................................................... 316
Facts ...................................................................................................................... 317
Issues and Holding ................................................................................................ 318
Reasoning.............................................................................................................. 319
A The Child is Stateless ............................................................................... 319
B Broad Interpretation of Spanish Law on the Recognition of Spanish
Nationality ................................................................................................ 320
Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 321
I
INTRODUCTION
The Audiencia Provincial de Guipúzcoa (Guipuzcoa Court of Appeal) (‘Court of
Appeal’) has issued an unprecedented judgment in which a stateless child has been
granted Spanish nationality in order to remedy a breach of her human rights.1 This
judgment upholds a previous ruling issued by the Juzgado de Primera Instancia
No 5 de Donostia San Sebastián (First Instance Court No 5 of San Sebastian)
(‘First Instance Court’).2
These rulings deal with the so-called ‘invisible children’, which refers to
children born on the move. These children are born during their mothers’
migratory journey — between the country of origin and the country of
destination/residence — and become stateless due to the particular circumstances
of their birth. These children do not have a birth certificate and/or their birth is not
registered. They then arrive irregularly in the countries of destination with their
mothers, where they establish their home. In that country, they face the
†
*
1
2
An earlier, shorter version of this case note was published on the European Network on
Statelessness blog: see José Alberto Navarro and Laura Lozano, ‘Landmark Judgment from
Spain: Court Grants Spanish Nationality to a Stateless Child Born En Route (A Case of
“Invisible Children”)’, European Network on Statelessness (Blog Post, 7 July 2022)
<https://www.statelessness.eu/updates/blog/landmark-judgment-spain-court-grants-spanishnationality-stateless-child-born-en-route>, archived at <https://perma.cc/J9D3-5S8C>.
José Alberto Navarro is a lawyer at Uría Menéndez, a trustee of the Fundación Profesor Uría
and an associate professor at the University of Barcelona Department of Administrative Law.
José may be contacted at josealberto.navarro@uria.com.
Cristina Manzanedo is a lawyer and the coordinator of the Ödos Program. Cristina may be
contacted at cristina.odos@fundacionarcoiris.org.
Audiencia Provincial de Guipúzcoa, Sentencia No 341/2022, 11 May 2022,
ECLI:ES:APSS:2022:203 (‘Audienca Provincial de Guipúzcoa Judgment’).
Juzgado de Primera Instancia No 5 de Donostia San Sebastián, Sentencia No 310/2021, 24
November 2021, ECLI:ES:JPI:2021:2608 (‘Juzgado de Primera Instancia Judgment’).