Statelessness Working Paper Series No. 2017/08 3. Creating a regional legal instrument for harmonised European statelessness determination procedures 3.1. Reasons for the regional harmonisation of standards on statelessness determination In contemporary Europe, statelessness should be a particular concern. Harmonised statelessness determination procedures could provide an emergency response to the protection needs of stateless persons in Europe. Today, over 80% of the continent’s stateless population lives in only four countries: Latvia, the Russian Federation, Estonia, and Ukraine, where in situ statelessness is prevalent. Consensually, academia and UNHCR suggest that the best solution for in situ statelessness is the recognition of nationality. Undoubtedly, naturalisation is the most feasible solution for in situ stateless populations. Yet, some states (e.g. Estonia) are reluctant to naturalise certain groups of stateless persons. Therefore, for the time being, the author argues that statelessness-specific (international) protection mechanisms should be accessible to in situ stateless persons as well, as the protection status may serve as an interim measure and tackle protection gaps. Where in situ statelessness is not a major issue, the phenomenon of statelessness mainly manifests itself in a migratory context. It shows that the risk of statelessness represents yet another by-product of the ongoing conflicts that cause forced migration, and a further consequence facing the millions of displaced persons, many of whom are undocumented, having no proof of their citizenship.44 Moreover, children born in uncertain legal situations of irregular migration are at even larger risk of not being able to acquire any nationality, as the most frequent countries of origin have discriminatory nationality laws, and most of the European countries’ rules on passing on nationality are governed by ius sanguinis regimes.45 This problem should be tackled by allowing children who would otherwise be stateless to acquire the nationality of the state of birth. However, if states do not make efforts to address such legal gaps, a statelessness determination procedure and a stateless protection status could help children access vital services such as healthcare and education. In the case of children, it is of urgent importance that a rapid solution is found that serves the child’s best interests. Focusing efforts on the protection of stateless persons could benefit the human rights progress of both the European Union and the Council of Europe. Most importantly, it is urgent for states to address the indefinite and arbitrary detention of stateless persons.46 Also, illegal (and exploitative) labour and human trafficking are real risks for the stateless. Granting them status as stateless persons should reduce their exposure to human trafficking and their exploitation by the shadow economy. As the CoE Commissioner for Human Rights recently highlighted, “the price to pay for the perpetuation of statelessness is high not only for the persons affected, but also for the countries in which stateless persons live”.47 He warned CoE members that allowing groups to be prevented from participation in socioeconomic and public affairs may result in the alienation of entire groups from society.48 44 UNHCR, ‘Born in exile, Syrian children face threat of statelessness’ (2014), available at: http://www.unhcr.org/news/latest/2014/11/54589fb16/born-exile-syrian-children-face-threatstatelessness.html [accessed 12 November 2016] 45 Caia Vlieks and Katja Swider, ‘The jus sanguinis bias of Europe and what it means for childhood statelessness’ (15 June 2017), available at: http://www.statelessness.eu/blog/jus-sanguinis-bias-europe-and-what-it-meanschildhood-statelessness [accessed 27 March 2017] 46 European Network on Statelessness, ‘Protecting Stateless Persons from Arbitrary Detention: an agenda for change’ (2017), available at: http://www.statelessness.eu/sites/www.statelessness.eu/files/attachments/resources/ENS_LockeInLimbo_Dete ntion_Agenda_online.pdf [accessed 6 September 2017] 47 Nils Muižnieks, ‘Stateless but not rightless: Improving the protection of stateless persons in Europe’, keynote speech by the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights at the conference organised by UNHCR and the European Network on Statelessness in Strasbourg, 8 April 2014. 48 Ibid. 10