pass their nationality to their children born out of wedlock.47 Discriminatory nationality laws can render children stateless when the law prevents children from acquiring the nationality of one parent, and children are unable to acquire the nationality of the other parent for a variety of reasons (e.g. because the parent is stateless, unknown or unwilling to cooperate). 33. The risk of children being born stateless due to gender discriminatory laws increases in a migratory context, when children are born outside of their parent’s country of origin or when the father has been separated from the family or is unknown, unless adequate safeguards are in place to prevent childhood statelessness. International norms for the prevention of statelessness establish that children who would otherwise be stateless shall acquire the nationality of the State where they were born. However, to establish if a child would ‘otherwise be stateless’ and meet their obligations under the CRC and the 1961 Convention, States must be able to determine whether the child has acquired the nationality of another State. When registering a child’s birth, authorities often presume that the child has the same nationality as their parents. However, some children may be unable to acquire their parents’ nationality and their statelessness is overlooked by civil registration and competent authorities for citizenship matters. 34. Between 1 January 2015 and 20 May 2020, 117 children were born in Denmark to mothers who are nationals of one of the 25 countries that do not allow women to pass on their nationality to their children on an equal basis with men (including Iraq,48 Iran,49 Somalia and Syria50), and whose fathers are unknown. Although nationality laws of these countries do not allow women to confer their nationality to their children, these children were registered as having the same nationality as their mothers by the Danish authorities.51 As these children are not entitled to their mothers’ nationality, the Danish authorities may have failed to conduct an adequate determination of the child’s nationality in each case and identify their statelessness. In this regard, it is noted that the Ministry of Immigration and Integration has asked the Immigration Service to follow up and secure the correct registration of these children’s nationality or statelessness.52 However, it is important that this is done in a timely and effective manner, and moreover that robust processes and safeguards are put in place to avoid incorrect attribution of nationality being imputed to stateless children in the future. 35. The examination of whether the child would otherwise be stateless should be carried out by a competent authority with the necessary expertise, through an established procedure for determining the child’s nationality or whether they would otherwise be 47 UNHCR, UNICEF & Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights (2019), Gender Discrimination and Childhood Statelessness, available at: https://www.unhcr.org/ibelong/wp-content/uploads/Gender-discrimination-childhood-statelessness-web.pdf; UNHCR (2020), Background Note on Gender Equality, Nationality Laws and Statelessness 2020, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5f0d7b934.html. Countries that discriminate against mothers in their ability to confer nationality on their children include The Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Brunei, Burundi, Eswatini, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kiribati, Kuwait, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Malaysia, Mauritania, Nepal, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Togo, United Arab Emirates. For further information see also the Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights: https://equalnationalityrights.org/the-issue/the-problem. 48 ENS & ISI (2019), Statelessness in Iraq Country Position Paper: https://statelessjourneys.org/wpcontent/uploads/StatelessJourneys-Iraq-final.pdf 49 ENS & ISI (2019), Statelessness in Iran Country Position Paper: https://statelessjourneys.org/resources/statelessness-in-iran/ 50 ENS & ISI (2019), Statelessness in Syria Country Position Paper: https://statelessjourneys.org/wpcontent/uploads/StatelessJourneys-Syria-August-2019.pdf 51 Minister of Immigration and Integration, responses to the written question asked by the Naturalisation Committee of the Danish Parliament no. 106, 8 June 2020, https://www.ft.dk/samling/20191/almdel/ifu/spm/106/svar/1668277/2205144.pdf. 52 Minister of Immigration and Integration, responses to the written question asked by the Naturalisation Committee of the Danish Parliament no. 106, 8 June 2020, https://www.ft.dk/samling/20191/almdel/ifu/spm/106/svar/1668277/2205144.pdf. 9