•
Lack of access to services for populations residing in borders areas.
•
Unclear and inconsistent administrative procedures across governmental entities.
•
Fear of discrimination and persecution as an obstacle to registration.
•
Lack of appropriate information about citizenship rights and services and the
processes to access them.
•
Insufficient attention to preventing statelessness and providing identity documents
to at-risk populations.
•
Using increases or decreases in migration as a determining factor in expanding
and contracting legal frameworks and administrative policies concerning the right
to nationality.
•
Absence of consistent policies across national, provincial, and local levels of
government.
•
Insufficient collection and use of data.
•
Inappropriate understanding of the link between documentation of identity and
the right to nationality.
•
Limited presence of civil society organizations or legal assistance services in areas
where problematic practices most commonly occur.
•
High cost and procedural obstacles to seeking redress through judicial
mechanisms.
•
Courts’ failure to cement good practices or clarify legal norms in favor of securing
the right to nationality and best interests of the child.
In fairness, all three countries have demonstrated some concrete good practices in
documentation of identity, as well as a willingness to address underlying obstacles to full
realization of the right to nationality. But this report finds that many such efforts have
not been enshrined in legal frameworks and that a change in leadership could threaten
them. Furthermore, good practices and policies do not extend uniformly through the
entirety of any of the focal countries’ national territories. Good policies typically privilege populations in urban centers and disregard the needs of geographically isolated and
ethnically and culturally distinct populations. Investment in activities such as updating
and training public officers, adjusting administrative procedures to improve service,
and actively seeking and reaching populations of concern has been insufficient to fully
guarantee universal access to the right to nationality.
38
COUNTRY PROFILES
l
BRAZIL
l CHILE
l
COLOMBIA
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