4.4 Conclusions and recommendations The Act on Swedish Citizenship generally has strong protections against childhood statelessness, and against statelessness in the context of renunciation, loss or deprivation of nationality. Section 6 of the Act on Swedish Citizenship provides for the acquisition of Swedish citizenship by notification of a stateless child born in Sweden, provided the child has a permanent residence permit and is lawfully and habitually resident, and the notification is made before the child turns 18 years. This would thus apply to all children born stateless in Sweden to parents who are permanent residents and lawfully and habitually residing in Sweden. Section 8 provides that a stateless person between 18 and 21 years can acquire Swedish citizenship by notification if he or she has a permanent residence permit in Sweden and has been lawfully and habitually residing in the country since at least 15 years of age. This provision thus closes the gap between 18 and 21 years, as required by Article 1(2)(a) of the 1961 Convention. However, the requirement of permanent residence, as opposed to habitual residence set out in Article 1(2)(b) of the 1961 Convention is problematic, not least in view of the recent changes introduced regarding the duration of residence permits granted to beneficiaries of international protection.241 Based on a reading of Article 1(1) of the 1961 Convention in conjunction with Article 7 of the CRC on the right of every child to acquire a nationality, and Article 3 of the CRC on the principle of the best interests of the child, UNHCR considers that these provisions, together, create a presumption that States need to provide for the automatic acquisition of their nationality at birth by an otherwise stateless child born in their territory. UNHCR would therefore recommend Sweden to consider introducing a right for children born on the territory, who would otherwise be stateless, to acquire Swedish citizenship automatically at birth, by operation of law (ex lege). Closing the gap between the non-discretionary right in Article 1 (1) of the 1961 Convention and the requirement of permanent residence in Sections 6 and 8 of the Act on Swedish Citizenship is particularly important at this point in time, when the previous rule of granting beneficiaries of international protection permanent residence permits has been temporarily changed. The Act on Swedish Citizenship further provides, in Section 7, that children born stateless abroad, who have permanent residence and have been lawfully and habitually residing in Sweden for the last two years, can acquire citizenship by notification. This provision is commendable, as it is clearly aimed at preventing childhood statelessness, in line with the spirit of the 1961 Convention and the CRC. However, despite these quite strong protections in Swedish citizenship legislation, it is concerning that only a relatively small percentage of the stateless children in Sweden, both those born in the territory and those born abroad, seem to use the notification procedure. UNHCR therefore recommends further research into the reasons for this, to assess whether it is, for example, due to a general low awareness about the notification procedure, parent(s)’ reluctance to see their children acquire Swedish citizenship or as a result of challenges in establishing the statelessness of a child due to the lack of common procedural guidelines. The Swedish legislation is fully compliant with the 1961 Convention in regard to the prevention of statelessness in the case of birth outside the State’s territory and foundlings, while the situation of births on board a Swedish ship or aircraft has not been specifically regulated and would need to be further examined. The national legislation is also fully compliant with the 1961 Convention in regard to its protections against statelessness in the case of renunciation, loss or deprivation of Swedish citizenship. 241 72 Lag om tillfälliga begränsningar av möjligheten att få uppehållstillstånd i Sverige (2016: 752), which entered into force on 20 July 2016, available at: https://goo.gl/ch7q25. M A P P I N G S TAT E L E S S N E S S I N S W E D E N