PRACTICAL GUIDE ON NATIONALITY (or lack thereof)). It may also give rise to assessing whether the refusal to recognise them as one of their nationals could be considered as an act of persecution or serious harm (see Section 7.2 Absence of recognition of an ex lege nationality). It should be noted that according to international standards ( 67), states have the obligation to grant nationality to children born on their territory and who would otherwise be stateless. Depending on national legislation, this may also be the case for stateless children not born on national territory. Therefore, it should be verified if an applicant (or an applicant’s child) could indeed become a national of the host country based on this ground and would therefore not be in need of international protection. 4.2.2. Nationality not currently held Exceptionally, a nationality that is not currently held by the applicant may be considered when assessing if the applicant could find protection in another country. In such a case, that country of nationality could also be considered as a country of reference for the assessment of the need for international protection. See further on this in Section 6.3. Nationality not currently held. 4.3. Nationality obtained in error or bad faith Where nationality is not acquired automatically, it may happen that the competent national authority makes a mistake when conferring nationality to an individual, for example, because they incorrectly interpreted the applicable law. Mistakes can also be made by the person themself when applying for nationality, for instance, by unintentionally misrepresenting relevant material facts. Furthermore, both competent authorities and persons may deliberately defraud when conferring or applying for nationality. Even if a nationality was obtained in error or bad faith, this nationality should be considered as valid and the country of nationality as a country of reference when examining the person’s international protection needs, as that person is considered to be a national by the national authorities. However, be aware that ‘in some cases the State, on discovering the error or bad faith involved in the nationality procedure in question, will subsequently have taken action to deprive the individual of nationality’ ( 68). You will need to take this into account when determining whether the authorities still consider the applicant as one of their nationals and thus if the country can indeed be considered a country of reference. (67) UN General Assembly, Convention on the Rights of the Child, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1577, p. 3, 20 November 1989; Council of Europe, European Convention on Nationality, ETS 166, 6 November 1997. (68) UNHCR, Handbook on Protection of Stateless Persons, 2014, paragraphs 45-46. 37