these rights in accordance with their national law and their obligations under the relevant international instruments in this field, in particular where the child would otherwise be stateless.”306 In addition to the 1961 Convention, the 1954 Convention includes provisions relating to the reduction of statelessness. Namely, Article 32 of the 1954 Convention provides, “The Contracting States shall as far as possible facilitate the assimilation and naturalization of stateless persons. They shall in particular make every effort to expedite naturalization proceedings and to reduce as far as possible the charges and costs of such proceedings.” Regional instruments, such as the 1997 European Convention on Nationality (ECN) and the 2006 Convention on the Avoidance of Statelessness in Relation to State Succession, are also relevant. 4.2 National legal framework On 9 May 2013, Lithuania acceded to the 1961 Convention. On the same day that it acceded to the Convention, Lithuania amended its Law on Citizenship,307 in an effort to ensure compliance with its new international obligations. Lithuania has yet to sign two other major treaties relevant to nationality and statelessness, namely, the 1997 European Convention on Nationality and the 2006 Council of Europe Convention on the Avoidance of Statelessness in Relation to State Succession. Importantly, although it has not acceded to the ECN, the principles of that Convention are applied in practice by Lithuania’s courts, as the case below illustrates. CASE LAW Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania A-662-413-11 (21 March 2011) The case concerns L.K. who lost Lithuanian citizenship on 23 November 2009 upon allegedly obtaining the citizenship of the Russian Federation. The claimant had lived in Vilnius since her birth and in 1991 chose to acquire the citizenship of Lithuania and received a passport in 1993. In 2001, she applied for citizenship of the Russian Federation and was informed she could acquire Russian nationality. That same year, she was informed by the Lithuanian authorities that she could not have dual citizenship and should thus choose one or the other. L.K. did not exercise her right to acquire the citizenship of the Russian Federation. In 2009, she was deprived of Lithuanian citizenship on the grounds of holding another country’s citizenship. The administrative court of the region of Vilnius (“the court”) revoked the decision to deprive L.K. of Lithuanian citizenship on 25 March 2010. The court quoted Articles 4(1), 7(1.b) and 7(3) of the European Convention on Nationality (ECN) as well as provisions of national law. The judgment stated that there was no definite proof that L.K. had acquired the citizenship of the Russian Federation, only that she met the conditions to apply for Russian nationality. The court had relied on the provisions of the ECN and on the fact that L.K. was rendered stateless to reinforce the point that the Migration Department’s decree depriving the claimant of Lithuanian citizenship was unlawful. The Migration Department appealed the court’s decision to the Supreme Administrative Court (“the Supreme Court”). 70 306 UNHCR, Guidelines on Statelessness No. 4: Ensuring Every Child’s Right to Acquire a Nationality through Articles 1-4 of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness (UNHCR Guidelines on Statelessness No. 4), 21 December 2012, HCR/GS/12/04, para 10, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/50d460c72.html. 307 See Law amending and supplementing articles 18 and 40 of the Law on Citizenship No. XII-269 of 9 May 2013. M A P P I N G S TAT E L E S S N E S S I N L I T H UA N I A