Exercise 3 Case study on the identification of statelessness: Principles and practices Interactive classroom activity or take-home exercise Students should imagine a situation in a successor State to the former Soviet Union. There are many reports of persons who only hold their former Soviet passport and have difficulties establishing that they have in fact acquired the nationality of one of the successor States and are entitled therefore to nationality documentation which is essential to improve their situation. Others have no documentation at all. Some of the persons may actually not qualify for any nationality (or be unable to prove it). Some persons have written petitions to Parliament pointing out their difficulties in leading a normal life. The government has decided to take action. As information is only anecdotal, the Ministry of Interior decides to send four teams to the region where most of the persons are reported to live. They will each interview a sample of 1,000 persons to gather more information. Each team has a small budget of 12,000 Ducats (local currency) and has full discretion in how the budget is used. It is advisable to design a questionnaire to be able to statistically evaluate data. Including one question costs 1,000 Ducats. Students gather in four teams and have to draw up a plan to gather as much useful information as possible and then compare their strategies. Exercise 4: Legal analysis on safeguards for the prevention of statelessness Interactive classroom activity or take-home exercise State A is considering acceding to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. You have been engaged as a government consultant to take a closer look at State A’s current nationality law to determine whether any amendments will be needed to ensure that it conforms with the terms of the 1961 Convention. The Nationality Act in question is provided below. Read it through carefully and identify any provisions that may lead to statelessness as well as good practices that help to avoid statelessness. Discuss what amendments you would propose to bring the Nationality Act into line with the 1961 Convention. In addition, since the authorities of State A are particularly interested in avoiding statelessness among children, make suggestions as to how the Nationality Act could be further reformed to maximise the prevention of childhood statelessness. Nationality Act State A Section 1 (1) Citizens of State A by birth are those persons born in the territory of State A either to a male citizen of State A, or to a female citizen if the father of the child is deceased before birth, unknown, or stateless. • (2) Are also citizens by birth those persons born to a male citizen of State A outside the territory of State A, whose birth has been registered within one year after birth with the State A consulate responsible for the State where the person was born. • Section 2 Any person who is born outside of State A to a mother who is a national of State A shall have the right to become a national of State A upon reaching 18 years of age, if the following conditions are fulfilled: (i) He shall have made State A his permanent residence when he reaches 18 years of age; (ii) He is of good conduct and sound character and has not been convicted of a crime or with imprisonment for a period exceeding six months for an indecent act; 48 A Guide to Teaching on Statelessness