What is the link between registering birth and acquiring a nationality? Nationality is acquired through the operation of a State’s nationality law, automatically at birth or upon an application being lodged with the appropriate authority. Acquisition of nationality and birth registration are separate processes and generally regulated under separate laws and policies. Where national law allows nationality to be acquired on grounds of descent (jus sanguinis), birth certificates provide evidence of who the child’s parent or parents are (except where the parents are unknown). Where nationality is acquired on grounds of birth in the territory (jus soli), birth certificates can prove the birthplace. Individuals can be at risk of statelessness if they have difficulties proving that they have relevant links to a State, and lack of birth registration can create such a risk. This is because, as noted above, birth registration includes a legal record of where a person was born and who their parents are – key pieces of information needed to establish which country’s nationality a child can acquire. The extent to which lack of birth registration contributes to risk of statelessness varies depending on the context and the circumstances of the individual or the population group in question. On its own, lack of birth registration does 19 12 not usually mean that a person is stateless, or even at risk of statelessness. However, birth registration helps establish entitlement to a nationality and is often a prerequisite for obtaining other documents proving nationality. In some countries, a birth certificate alone may be regarded as proof of nationality, particularly where nationality is acquired automatically based on birth in the territory (jus soli). Birth certificates for children may also serve, in certain cases, as temporary proof of identity for the child to take final exams, graduate or access health care. This is the case in many countries that only issue national ID cards at the age of majority.19 Some population groups are at particular risk of statelessness because their situation makes it difficult for them to register births or obtain related documents and other factors. They include refugees, asylum-seekers, IDPs, migrants, nomadic and border populations, and minorities. Abandoned, orphaned, unaccompanied or separated children are especially vulnerable, and are more likely to lack any legal identity documents. UNHCR, “Ensuring birth registration for the prevention of statelessness”, Good Practices Paper – Action 7 (Geneva, UNHCR, 2017). https://www.refworld.org/reference/themreport/unhcr/2017/en/122586. Birth registration of forcibly displaced and stateless persons