Good practices in nationality laws for the prevention of childhood statelessness UNHCR data records 10,164 stateless people in Spain as of mid-2024. Of these, 10,098 were recognized through the Spanish statelessness determination procedure; 51 were stateless refugees and 15 were stateless asylum-seekers.106 Measures to reduce statelessness Spain’s nationality law has strong safeguards to prevent childhood statelessness. The law provides that children born on the territory who would otherwise be stateless automatically acquire Spanish nationality at birth: “if both parents lack a nationality or if the legislation of both of their countries of origin does not attribute a nationality to the child”.107 Lawful residence is not required. In addition, children born to Spanish nationals outside Spain automatically acquire Spanish nationality at birth, with no discriminatory conditions. There are also legal safeguards to prevent statelessness for foundlings, who can be granted Spanish nationality upon being identified (applicable automatically from the moment birth in Spain is determined, up to the age of 18 and with two years in adulthood to apply for Spanish nationality). There are also safeguards to prevent statelessness in adoption procedures. Spain’s nationality law also provides that children born in Spain (including to refugee parents) can naturalize after one year of legal residence in Spain.108 Spain also has good practices relating to birth registration: all births must be registered, and birth certificates must be issued for all children, regardless of the parents’ status. Same-sex parents can be listed on birth certificates, which, in turn provides proof of the child’s relationship to both parents. There are no fees or penalties for late birth registration. Nationality is recorded at birth if the child is Spanish, and there is a procedure to consider babies’ possible statelessness. If the authorities find that the baby would be stateless if not granted Spanish nationality, they record Spanish nationality as a rebuttable presumption.109 Children born in transit to Spain can have their birth registered in Spain if it is proven that their birth was not and cannot be registered now in the country of birth or in the country of origin of the child’s parents.110 The recognition of Spanish nationality in such cases is assessed on a case-by-case basis. See below a case study which led to this outcome. 106 Refugee Data Finder. Annex 1 - Populations protected and / or assisted by UNHCR by country/territory of asylum, UNHCR, data as of mid-2024. 107 Civil Code, Ministry of Justice, Government of Spain, Madrid Gazette, n. 206, 25/07/1889, adopted 24 July 1889, Art. 17.1(c), [in Spanish]. 108 Ibid., Art. 22. 109 Ibid., Art. 17.1; ENS Statelessness Index Survey 2022: Spain, ENS, PRS.6., pp. 30-32; and ENS, Birth registration and the prevention of statelessness in Europe, updated November 2024, p. 12. 110 This was decided in two separate legal proceedings interpreting Spanish Civil Code, Article 17c, which determines the Spanish nationality of stateless children born in Spain, and Article 17b, which determines the Spanish nationality of foundlings. See Civil Code, Arts. 17b and 17c. 44