Most European countries do not directly discriminate in their nationality laws, but indirect discrimination - especially in terms of how the law is implemented in practice - means that Roma women face barriers to accessing birth registration for their children. In some countries, mothers who lack documentation themselves cannot register the births of their children immediately until their own civil status is resolved, which may require a lengthy administrative or court procedure. 16 Because Romani women are more likely to lack civil status than others, this can constitute indirect discrimination. 17 Women’s exclusion from reproductive healthcare due to statelessness 18, lack of documentation or health insurance, or discrimination, can lead to complex legal procedures to ensure their children acquire a legal identity and nationality. If children are born at home, registering the birth often requires a more complex and burdensome procedure. 19 Sometimes women borrow the health insurance card of a friend or relative to access a hospital to give birth, leading to the baby being registered under the name on the card, creating complex legal problems. Stateless or undocumented women living outside their home country cannot rely on their consulate or embassy to document or register births if they do not recognise them as nationals. “Full of dreams and hopes for the future” Anisa is eight years old. After giving birth to Anisa in a hospital in Greece, her mother fled. She had no way to pay for her maternity care nor the documentation needed to prove Anisa’s legal identity. Anisa’s mother returned to her village in Albania with her daughter. Due to her lack of financial means, she could not register her daughter. She is afraid that she could end up in jail because she did not pay the hospital fees in Greece. Like all girls her age, Anisa is full of dreams and hopes for the future, but her mother worries that her lack of civil status and proof of citizenship will limit her opportunities. The combination of risk of statelessness and systemic antigypsyism can also impact on Roma mothers’ parental rights, increasing the risk of losing custody of their children. We have observed cases of children being unlawfully separated from their mothers. The procedure to challenge the (unlawful) separation of children from their parents commonly takes months. Without access to remedies, representation or resources Roma women who are stateless or at risk of statelessness face serious hurdles to asserting their parental rights. Not only does prolonged separation cause harm to children and parents alike, in many States parents lose their custody rights altogether after a certain period. The fear of being separated from children can in itself be prohibitive to a mother seeking help to resolve her statelessness for fear that the authorities may separate her from her children. ENS, ISI, Praxis, ‘Statelessness and Refugees in Serbia. Country Briefing’ (2019) Stateless Journeys < StatelessJourneysSerbia-final-1.pdf (statelessness.eu). 17 ‘Roma Belong’ n7, 22. 18 UNHCR, ‘I am Here, I Belong. The Urgent Need to End Childhood Statelessness’ (2015) 2 <untitled (unhcr.org)>. 19 ‘Roma Belong’ n7. 16