A key conclusion of this report is that states have no clear notion whether all persons born in their territory, with the attendant right to nationality, can actually prove their nationality in practice. All three countries studied have incomplete data and lack disaggregated information that would enable them to identify and address gaps in citizenship practices. All three states over-rely on birth registration statistics as the sole measure of progress in ensuring nationality rights. Overreliance on this one data point obscures the fact that many people in Brazil, Chile, and Colombia are unable to secure nationality. States maintain multiple databases that are neither compatible, nor centrally administered, making it nearly impossible to analyze data, and hampering development of targeted policies. To determine why children who are born in the territory are unregistered, or registered but unable to secure nationality, appropriate data collection is paramount. This report further concludes that access to civil registration and documentation of identity is the foundation for securing the right to nationality in practice. For example, having one’s birth officially registered is a universal right of all children, and a birth certificate is the central document to prove nationality and the foundational document for other national identity documents. But as this study finds, the actual practice of birth registration is uneven across the three countries, marked by gaps in services, discretion granted to low-level functionaries, and frequent failure to register births among indigenous groups, ethnic minorities, and residents of remote areas. The countries profiled here represent varied challenges in the implementation of jus soli provisions. They represent a range of jus soli practices, from unrestricted jus soli in Brazil, to jus soli subject to exceptions in Chile, to conditional jus soli in Colombia. All three countries are bound by the jus soli statelessness safeguards of the American Convention on Human Rights. Brazil, Chile, and Columbia share problems that undermine the right to nationality in practice. These problems are common to many countries in the Americas. First, discrimination and persecution often discourage people—especially members of indigenous and ethnic minority groups—from seeking birth registrations. Discretion in the interpretation of nationality laws coupled with limited oversight of the officials in charge of documentation of identity processes render these fears well founded. Short-term solutions cannot remedy this problem. Beyond discrimination, there are other problems that affect the right to nationality in Brazil, Chile, and Colombia. These include legal deficiencies, such as conflicts between domestic legal frameworks and international obligations; conflicts between nationality regulations and other fields of law, particularly civil registration; unrealistic standards for proof of birth; and the absence of retroactive measures to address gaps left by changes in administrative policies and nationality laws. 20 E X E C U T I V E S U M M A R Y A N D R E C O M M E N D AT I O N S