2020 Statelessness & Citizenship Review 2(2) statelessness and discrimination. The most important specific obligation placed on states for the reduction of statelessness is to grant nationality to a child born in the territory who is otherwise stateless; that is, who does not acquire a nationality from one of the parents — at least for those states that are parties to the American Convention on Human Rights, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, or the UN Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. 32 Discrimination based on gender in transmission of nationality to children and spouses is prohibited by the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. 33 Discrimination based on racial, ethnic or religious grounds is more difficult to prohibit, given the nature of nationality based on descent, although it is increasingly frowned upon. 34 It is here that many problems of statelessness originate. 35 Even for those states that have the minimum protections against statelessness, the challenge is to prove that a child is ‘otherwise stateless’: how do you prove a negative? What documents must the parents produce (or prove that they cannot obtain), for their child to acquire their nationality or the nationality of the state of birth? The devil in the detail of the procedures for registration of legal identity shows its horns. CIVIL REGISTRATION AND CONFLICTS OF LAW There is extensive international guidance on the implementation of birth registration, within a broader framework of civil registration. 36 Yet neither the SDG target on legal identity nor the UNHCR Global Action Plan to End 32 33 34 35 36 For a general outline of the international law obligations, see, eg, Serena Forlati, ‘Nationality as a Human Right’ in Alessandra Annoni and Serena Forlati (eds), The Changing Role of Nationality in International Law (Routledge 2013); Alice Edwards, ‘The Meaning of Nationality in International Law in an Era of Human Rights: Procedural and Substantive Aspects’ in Alice Edwards and Laura van Waas (eds), Nationality and Statelessness under International Law (Cambridge University Press 2014); Peter J Spiro, ‘Citizenship, Nationality, and Statelessness’ in Vincent Chetail and Céline Bauloz (eds), Research Handbook on International Law and Migration (Edward Elgar Publishing 2014). Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, opened for signature 18 December 1979, 1249 UNTS 13 (entered into force 3 September 1981) art 9 (‘CEDAW’). Peter J Spiro, ‘A New International Law of Citizenship’ (2011) 105(4) American Journal of International Law 694; Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, General Recommendation XXX on Discrimination against Non-Citizens, UN Doc A/59/18 (2–20 August 2004) 93 [469]. This Is Our Home: Stateless Minorities and Their Search for Citizenship (Report, UNHCR November 2017) <https://www.unhcr.org/ibelong/stateless-minorities/>; Fernand de Varennes, Report of the Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues: Statelessness: A Minority Issue, UN Doc A/73/205 (20 July 2018); E Tendayi Achiume, Report of the Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance: Racial Discrimination in the Context of Citizenship, Nationality and Immigration Status, UN Doc A/HRC/38/52 (25 April 2018). Most authoritatively, Principles and Recommendations for a Vital Statistics System (Statistical Papers Series M No 19/Rev.3, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Statistics Division 2014) (‘Principles and Recommendations for a Vital Statistics System’) <http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/standmeth/principles/M19Rev3en.pdf>. 254