the north are also excluded from certain rights in the south, such as the right to vote and the right to free healthcare (see below). Overview: the right to nationality and subsequent access to human rights in the Republic of Cyprus 21. According to domestic law, any child of at least one parent who has RoC nationality, should also get RoC nationality.31 Exceptions are made based on gender (if the child was born between 1960 and 1999 only the Cypriot father, and not the mother, can pass on nationality),32 and if any one of the parents entered and/or stays in Cyprus illegally. 22. In practice, a large group of children of Cypriot parents living in the north are denied their right to RoC nationality based on ethnicity. Only children who are of 100% Cypriot descent can acquire RoC nationality easily. Children of one Turkish parent and one “original Cypriot” parent33 are denied RoC nationality upon application. Grandchildren who have one Turkish grandparent and three Cypriot grandparents can also not acquire RoC nationality.34 23. Although it is difficult to estimate how many people are in this way denied their right to nationality, we estimate that this concerns between 15.000-25.000 people.35 Officially, these people who apply for RoC nationality are not “denied” by the ministry of interior; their applications are simply “pending”, some for 14 years.36 24. For some children in north Cyprus there is a risk of statelessness, if they are only able to obtain TRNC nationality. The international law definition of statelessness, found in Article 1 of the 1954 Statelessness Convention (and considered to be customary international law) is that any person “who is not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law” is stateless. Accordingly, the provision of nationality by the TRNC, which is not a recognised state, does not constitute a nationality under international law, leaving the children stateless. 25. As elaborated below, based on nationality, ethnicity and place of residence, the RoC grants different access to basic human rights based to different groups of people. Limitations are set among others on the right to healthcare, the right to political participation, the right to freedom of movement, the protection of, and reporting on, human rights. 31 1967 Republic of Cyprus Citizenship Law (updated in 2000), art. 3.-(1) and 2(a). 32 The law was changed in 2000 to harmonize national legislation in line with EU standards, as part of the process of Cyprus joining the EU (see https://www.un.org/press/en/2006/wom1563.doc.htm). 33 Referring to anyone who was an RoC national before 1974. 34 See Hopman et al. (forthcoming). 35 In a PRIO research report, it is estimated that of the “TRNC citizen population”, 12.000-15.000 are of mixed parentage (one Cypriot parent). See Hatay, M. (2017), p. 32. Taking into account that the issue not only concerns children of mixed parents (here based on birth place), but also the grandchildren of these couples, we estimate that the number of people not able to pass on their RoC nationality is in fact higher. Another factor is that elsewhere it is estimated that there are 17.000 mixed marriages in northern Cyprus. See for example http://www.tornosnews.gr/en/greek-news/politics/28519cyprus-denies-id-cards-for-children-of-mixed-marriages-with-turks.html. 36 See Hopman et al. (forthcoming).