Kristy A. Belton established. However, The Bahamas and Barbados, while providing that all children are equal in their respective Status of Children Acts, appear to stipulate that citizenship acquisition is automatic only when the father marries the mother. In all other cases where paternity is established after the birth of the child, it is unclear whether citizenship is acquired via registration or automatically. With the exception of Belize, Anglophone Caribbean countries have clear provisions for the acquisition of citizenship for children adopted by their citizens. In Grenada, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, and Trinidad and Tobago, citizenship is automatically conferred as long as at least one parent is a citizen and the child is a minor. While citizenship acquisition is also automatic for children adopted in Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas and Barbados (provided they are minors), it is tempered by a gender discriminatory provision. That is, in cases of joint adoption, the citizen parent must be a male. In Guyana, adopted children may acquire Guyanese citizenship via registration, but it is a discretionary process. In post-Independence Dominica, it is also a discretionary registration process, and conditional on three years residency and the possession of the status of a minor. In St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, registration for citizenship is considered an entitlement and they are the only two countries with citizenship provisions for adopted children where the age of registration goes up to 21. In all other countries, the child who acquires citizenship via adoption can be no older than 18. It should be noted that two thirds of the countries also provide for citizenship acquisition for minors in “special circumstances”40 via a discretionary registration procedure. These countries include The Bahamas, Barbados, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago. Special achievements In no country of the Anglophone Caribbean are individuals’ citizenship rights restricted such that legal provisions of citizenship acquisition do not apply to them. 41 Furthermore, no country has special constitutional or nationality law provisions wherein individuals are able to acquire citizenship outside of the normal naturalisation processes because they have “a cultural affinity to a country”;42 or because they “acted as a citizen of a country in good faith and/or was presumed to be a citizen for some time”;43 or because they “resided in a country for a very long time.”44 40 These countries’ laws are not explicit that these “special circumstances” refer to a minor’s citizenship acquisition for “a certain period of residence or schooling as a minor in a country” (mode A07 in the GLOBALCIT database on modes of acquisition of citizenship). They thus have been identified under mode A27 in the database, “Person who acquires citizenship for other reasons.” 41 See mode A17 in the GLOBALCIT database on modes of citizenship acquisition. 42 This refers to mode A19 in the GLOBALCIT database on modes of acquisition of citizenship. Please note that Commonwealth citizenship is treated below under mode A18, which addresses people with citizenship from a specific country. 43 See mode A20 in the GLOBALCIT database on modes of citizenship acquisition. 44 See mode A21 in the GLOBALCIT database on modes of citizenship acquisition. RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-Comp. 2020/3 - © 2020 Authors 13