Statelessness in Czechia | January 2024 19 How to apply the ‘reasonable likelihood’ standard of proof in statelessness determination? Kam was born at home, and her birth was not registered. She is part of an ethnic minority group which faces serious discrimination in her country of birth. She was not allowed to attend school or work. There was no way for Kam or anyone in her family to obtain identity documents as people of her ethnicity are not considered citizens. Numerous people, including police officers, are known to have committed abuses against people of Kam’s ethnicity, with impunity. As a young adult, Kam travels to Europe and applies for asylum. She has no documents to prove who she is, nor where she was born and grew up. She is generally consistent in her statements about her life, though she sometimes gets confused about dates and the order in which things happened. She doesn’t know some things she is asked about, like certain landmarks and the words to the national anthem of her home country. But her statements show knowledge of the community in which she grew up. Objective reports confirm serious discrimination and abuses of people of Kam’s ethnicity and that they are not considered citizens in her country of origin. It should be considered that it is reasonably likely that Kam is (1) stateless and (2) that she is at risk of persecution, and thus a refugee if the treatment she fears is considered to amount to persecution. Kam should not be required to enquire at the embassy of her country of birth for confirmation of whether she is considered a national because she is claiming asylum from that country. The applicable standard of proof for proving that a person has a particular nationality may be the higher civil standard (‘balance of probabilities’). Where the ‘balance of probabilities’ standard applies, this merely means that the individual needs to show that they probably have a particular nationality. In Czechia, applicants under the procedure for determining statelessness are required to provide evidence that no State recognises them as its citizen (Article 49a(2)(c), Immigration Act). Stateless persons must therefore prove that they are indeed stateless. The applicant does not need to submit all the documents listed in the law, but only those that, taken together, prove their statelessness. According to the law, such evidence can be: • a passport (even if it has expired); • birth or marriage certificates; • a document confirming that they are not citizens of the State where they were born or where they have been living, or the State that issued them the documents; and • documents confirming that they have tried to obtain the citizenship of the State where they were born or where they have been staying or the State that issued them the documents. The evidence that will be available and relevant for a person to demonstrate that they are ‘reasonably likely’ to be stateless varies considerably depending on the circumstances. In some cases, a person will have no evidence other than their testimony, and that should suffice in many cases. In other cases, a person may have many documents, some of which may help prove statelessness. It is important to assess the person’s individual circumstances as well as the laws, practice, and circumstances of the countries with which the person has a relevant link.