cally, the law does not provide any means to waive the requirements of naturalization for children born in Colombia who would otherwise be stateless. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs claims it is willing to identify cases of statelessness that fall within the normative safeguard (enumerated in Article 20 of the American Convention) and to facilitate naturalization. For example, the ministry has said it will waive some of the requirements set by the naturalization law (such as knowledge of Spanish, history, geography and the Constitution of Colombia), and allow applications to be filed by the parents on behalf of children, rather than requiring the stateless child to reach an age in which he or she is able to sit for and successfully pass these examinations. However, the ministry only grants such waivers in an ad hoc manner and there are no clear exceptions in the law or within administrative orders, leaving potentially stateless children at the mercy of individual ministry officials. The bureaucratic, financial, and practical obstacles petitioners face demonstrate that administrative procedures to access nationality have not been adjusted and harmonized in order to ensure access to Colombian nationality for otherwise stateless children. In this regard, Colombia is failing to meet its obligations under Article 20 of the American Convention on Human Rights. The fact that the ministry has not mobilized significant resources to address the implementation of this safeguard against statelessness evidences clear gaps between the law and its operation in practice. To fully meet its obligations, Colombia should make the naturalization process for otherwise stateless children automatic instead of discretionary. Colombia should also undertake special outreach efforts, including clarifying available information about the process and conducting trainings for public officials. Finally, the ministry should collect data on its own work: currently it has no data on the number of children who have been naturalized as Colombians under the statelessness safeguard provided by Article 5(3) of Law 43 of 1993.306 Right to Identity and the Process to Secure Identity Documents While lacking an identity document does not equate to statelessness, it can make it difficult to prove nationality or to exercise it. In Colombia, documents of identity play a fundamental role in accessing rights and services. Thus the process to secure documents is intertwined with the problem of statelessness; this section will examine state practices and gaps that may contribute to statelessness. Ordinarily, Colombia grants at least three identity documents over the course of a lifetime: a birth certificate, a national identity card covering ages 7 to 17, and a citizen- BORN IN THE AMERICAS 71