and adoption of the decision to grant Lithuanian citizenship, as well as meets the conditions established in points 3,4,5 and 7 of paragraph 1 of this article.327 As a result of the adoption of the aforementioned amendments, a person born stateless on the territory of Lithuania, if he or she does not acquire nationality automatically on the basis of Article 15(1) of the Law on Citizenship, may apply for Lithuanian citizenship but will be required to have lawful permanent residence in Lithuania at the time of application; to have passed examinations of knowledge of the Lithuanian language and the basics of the Constitution; to have lawful means of subsistence; and to not fall under any of the exclusion clauses outlined in the Law on Citizenship.328 UNHCR understand the provision in Article 18 to encompass children born to parents who cannot transmit their citizenship, either because they are citizens of a country whose nationality law is governed by the principle of jus soli, or because of conflict of nationality laws that do not allow neither of the parents to transmit citizenship to their children. This is important, as such children would not fall within the provision on automatic acquisition of citizenship, in Article 15 of the Law on Citizenship. Hence, Lithuanian law imposes numerous requirements on the applicant for nationality that are impermissible under Article 1 of the 1961 Convention. As mentioned above, Article 1(2) sets forth the four enumerated conditions a State Party may impose upon an applicant for nationality under Article 1(1)(b). The requirement of lawful permanent residence (as opposed to habitual residence) at the time of submission of the application is not in accordance with Article 1(2)(b) of the 1961 Convention, by which States may impose a habitual residence requirement on the child, but not a lawful residence requirement on the child. “Habitual residence” should be understood as stable, factual residence. In other words, the 1961 Convention does not permit Contracting States to make an application for the acquisition of nationality by individuals who would otherwise be stateless conditional upon lawful residence.329 Likewise, the required examinations of language skills, knowledge of the Constitution, and the requirement of lawful means of subsistence are not permitted under Article 1(2) of the 1961 Convention. In the context of the accession of Lithuania to the 1961 Convention, it is worth noting that the translation of the original text of the Convention into Lithuanian is problematic. Translation of the phrase “by operation of law” (įstatymu numatyta tvarka) of Article 1(a) of the 1961 Convention eviscerates its intended meaning. “By operation of law” is not intended to mean “in the manner prescribed by law” as is suggested by the Lithuanian version of the Convention. Rather, it simply means “without the person concerned taking any specific action himself”, “automatically”, or “ex lege”. Interpreting the phrase as “in the manner prescribed by law” distorts the real meaning of Article 1. Furthermore, the translation of Article 1(2) does not reflect the exhaustive nature of the listed conditions which Contracting States are allowed to base the granting of nationality on, to children born stateless in the territory. “Subject to one or more of the following conditions” should be translated into Lithuanian as “gali nustatyti vieną ar daugiau iš šių sąlygų”. As noted above, the use of the mandatory “shall” indicates that States are obligated to grant their nationality to persons falling within the terms of Article 1. Since the Lithuanian Law on Citizenship leaves room for 74 327 Ibid, Article 1. 328 Pursuant to Article 22 of the Law on Citizenship, citizenship of Lithuania may not be granted through naturalization to persons who (i) prepared, attempted to commit or committed international crimes such as aggression, genocide, crimes against humanity and war crime or criminal acts against the Republic of Lithuania; (ii) prior to coming to reside in Lithuania, were sentenced to imprisonment in another state for a premeditated crime which is a grave crime under laws of Lithuania, or were punished for a grave crime in Lithuania, (iii) in accordance with the procedure laid down by law, are not entitled to obtain a document attesting to the right of permanent residence in Lithuania. 329 UNHCR Guidelines on Statelessness No. 4, para. 41. 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