Statelessness in Czechia | January 2024 28 Additionally, at least one of the parents must have legal (temporary or longer-term) residence on the territory for more than 90 days at the time of the child's birth. This requirement applies regardless of whether both parents are stateless or not.60 Children’s right to a nationality: jurisprudence In 2021, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child issued a decision in A.M. (on behalf of M.K.A.H.) v. Switzerland (no 95/2019), concerning a stateless child threatened with removal from Switzerland to Bulgaria. The Committee found (among other findings) that Switzerland had not considered the best interests of the child nor taken necessary measures to verify whether the child would be able to acquire a nationality in Bulgaria. The Human Rights Committee also found a violation of the child’s right to a nationality in Zhao v. the Netherlands (2020). The authorities had registered a child born in the Netherlands as having 'unknown' nationality and refused to change it to 'stateless' on the ground that the child had not proved that he had no nationality. Without being recognised as stateless, the child could not acquire Dutch nationality in line with existing safeguards to prevent statelessness of children born on the territory. Also in 2021, a Spanish court recognised as a Spanish national a child who would otherwise have been stateless. The child was born in Morocco while her mother was travelling from Cameroon to Spain, outside a health facility, and her birth could not be registered in Morocco. The mother tried to register the child as a national of Cameroon, but this was not possible. The Court held that the safeguard established in Spanish law to prevent statelessness of children born in Spain should be applied broadly, in compliance with international treaties and with the principle of the best interests of the child. Therefore, it found that there was a violation of the child's fundamental rights and declared that the child held Spanish nationality and ordered the registration of the child’s birth. More information is available here. More information is available on the Stateless Journeys website and in the Statelessness Case Law Database. Additional country information is available in the Statelessness Index Country Profile. Naturalisation is a crucial step for many stateless people to finally obtain a nationality. Article 32 of the 1954 Convention establishes that: 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.61 Where stateless people are eligible for facilitated naturalisation or integration assistance, it is important that their statelessness has been recorded in official documents or systems in other procedures, such as asylum or immigration applications and decisions, so that 60 61 Sections 5, 29, and 41 of the Citizenship Act There is a parallel provision for refugees in the 1951 Refugee Convention (Article 34).