Practical Measures to Meaningfully Implement Article 1(1) ACCESSING CITIZENSHIP IN AUSTRALIA: THE REALITY Citizenship to me means protection and certainty for my children. Without it, I fear they have no future.16 — Amir,* Australian-based stateless Palestinian father of four. As legal practitioners, my colleague Sarah Dale 17 and I have spent several years assisting stateless Australian-born refugee children navigate the application process for citizenship. We have identified three key issues preventing stateless Australian-born children from meaningfully accessing the protections afforded to them by international and domestic law.18 A Issue One: Lack of Awareness Our lawyer … first told us about applying for citizenship for our two youngest children — we didn’t know this was possible. Sometimes I wonder — if they hadn’t told me about this process, how would I know?19 — Amir,* Australian-based stateless Palestinian father of four. Our research flows from our observed experience that parents of stateless children are unlikely to know that their child has a potential claim to Australian citizenship.20 Stateless parents are usually informed of this entitlement when (or if) their lawyer proactively flags it with them, often inadvertently in the course of receiving advice about their refugee status. None of the families interviewed in our research had been notified of their child’s entitlement to apply for citizenship by the Australian Government. Poor awareness of the entitlement to apply for citizenship within the stateless community is complicated by a general lack of knowledge and expertise pertaining to statelessness in the Australian legal profession. 21 Furthermore, there is a lack of targeted legal outreach within stateless communities regarding this entitlement and, more fundamentally, a lack of legal services to assist stateless children with these claims.22 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 A Place to Call Home (n 1) 2. Sarah Dale is the Principal Solicitor and Centre Manager of the Refugee Advice & Casework Service and co-author of the report A Place to Call Home (n 1). She also leads the Centre’s Stateless Children Program which provides assistance to stateless Australian-born children in applying for citizenship. Our research focused on stateless, Australian-born children within Australia’s refugee and asylum seeker cohort. Specifically, those born to parents who arrived in Australia seeking asylum by boat after 19 July 2013 and for whom pathways to permanent protection are extremely limited. See A Place to Call Home (n 1) 3. ibid 5. ibid 14. ibid 15. ibid 15. 207