2. The Sustainable Development Goals and solutions to statelessness
had their birth registered.51 Individuals can be at risk of statelessness
if they have difficulties proving that they have links to a State and a
lack of birth registration can create such a risk. This is particularly the
case for certain populations, including persons living in border areas
where lack of birth registration may lead to doubts about whether
they are nationals of one State or another; minorities and persons who
have perceived or actual ties with foreign States; nomadic or seminomadic populations whose territories cross international borders;
and migrant populations, where difficulties proving nationality of the
country of origin may occur when one or more generations of children
are born abroad (a risk that increases with each successive generation).
Nationality is acquired either on the basis of descent, whereby children
acquire the nationality of their parents (jus sanguinis), or through a
child’s birth on a country’s territory (jus soli) or a combination of these
approaches as set out in law. The registration of a child’s birth is the
first step in establishing his or her legal identity and usually includes
key information, such as the identity of the child’s parents and the
date and place of birth, that will be needed to establish the child’s
nationality under the law of the State where he or she is born or under
the law of the States of which the parents are nationals. Consequently,
birth registration can help in realising the child’s right to a nationality
and preventing statelessness.52
Individuals may also be left statelessness if they cannot acquire documents
which prove their nationality. In some countries possession of a national
identity card is, in practice, regarded as synonymous with an entitlement
to nationality. This means that those who may have an entitlement to
nationality under the nationality law, but who are unable to obtain a
national identity card to prove that entitlement (often due to discrimination
or a lack of birth registration) are treated as non-nationals and excluded
from the benefits that flow from nationality, such as education, health
51
52
person (and a suspect) and are not contingent upon any formal registration
(or documentation). Furthermore, people also have multiple legal identities.
Depending on the factual circumstances, an individual person can have the
identity of “citizen”; “resident”; “spouse”; “voter”; “driver”; “eligible claimant
for services/benefits”, amongst many others.
For further discussion, see Brewer et al, supra n49.
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Birth Registration, 13 January 2014,
http://www.unicef.org/protection/57929_58010.html.
See, Govil, supra n35.
58