T HE M A I N CAU SE S O F C HI L D HOOD STAT EL E SSN E SS Discrimination 6 dren or husband […] If my children’s situation doesn’t change, they have no future,” says Amal, a Lebanese national and mother of nine-year-old Rama, who is stateless. In Italy, a personally prepared application or an individual’s declaration of willingness is required to acquire nationality through naturalization. Christina, born stateless in Italy but now entitled to Italian nationality because she has reached the age of 18, is physically and intellectually disabled. It is difficult for her to understand the concept of citizenship, let alone consent to acquiring Italian nationality or prepare a personal application. As a result, she has been denied the opportunity to submit an application for nationality, something that her stateless Roma father, Sandokan, finds impossible to accept: “For my daughter, the right to nationality is the only right she has.” S TAT E L E S S N E S S R E P O R T Annick, 13, Côte d’Ivoire. S TAT E L E S S N E S S R E P O R T 7 ©UNHCR / A. FROGER Discrimination – for example, on the basis of ethnicity, race, religion or gender – is the major cause of statelessness globally. The majority of the world’s known stateless populations belong to a minority group, and at least 20 countries maintain nationality laws which deny nationality or permit the withdrawal of nationality on the grounds of ethnicity, race or religion. In some countries, even where the law is discrimination-free, the practice can be very different. For example, in the Dominican Republic, despite a clear entitlement to nationality under the law, individuals of Haitian descent have frequently been denied Dominican nationality by the civil registry. Worldwide, 27 countries have nationality laws that do not allow women to pass their nationality to their children on the same basis as men. This can leave a child stateless in situations where the father is stateless, has died, has abandoned the family or is unwilling or unable to transmit his nationality. “My children don’t have nationality because their grandfather was stateless and their father is stateless too and I can’t do anything for my children. In the Lebanese system, the mother cannot transmit nationality to her chil-