10 Refugee Law Initiative Working Paper 76 likely fall “outside a State’s protection system in the case of harmful practices such [as] child abduction or abuse.”64 Given “the devastating psychological toll of statelessness” on children is avoidable, it becomes necessary to ask why it continues.65 In the face of the prohibition derived from states’ legal obligations, childhood statelessness remains a problem. “There should be no stateless children in Europe.”66 When courts confront childhood statelessness, the resulting interpretation of legal instruments and state duties either strengthens or weakens the opportunity to prevent statelessness in the future. This research endeavors to examine existing jurisprudence to identify connections between particular elements of litigation and a court’s treatment of the child(ren) at issue, and to determine whether certain combinations of elements may lead to certain outcomes. hood (20 September 2006), para 25 <https://www.refworld.org/legal/general/crc/2006/en/40994> accessed 27 March 2025; Zhao v. Netherlands CCPR/C/130/D/2918/2016 (HRC, 19 Dec 2020). 64 Jill Stein, ‘The Prevention of Child Statelessness at Birth: The UNCRC Committee’s Role and Potential’ (2016) 24 International Journal of Children’s Rights 599, 619. 65 UNHCR (n 59) 1. 66 ENS (n 58) 3.