Good practices in access to universal birth registration for the prevention of childhood statelessness As a result of good practices in birth registration, the obligatory referral of children at risk of statelessness to the nationality determination procedure and legal safeguards to prevent statelessness, relatively few children born in Finland remain stateless for lengthy periods. Kazakhstan Population overview Statelessness in Kazakhstan is primarily linked to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and related factors. Many people throughout Central Asia, including in Kazakhstan, were left stateless in the 1990s, linked to being outside the country at a particular date and gaps or contradictions in nationality laws. Data for 2024 indicates there were 7,436 officially recognized stateless people and 583 people with undetermined nationality in Kazakhstan.150 Birth registration to help prevent statelessness Kazakhstan has nearly universal birth registration, and the law provides for some flexibility in birth registration procedures, which helps to prevent statelessness.151 Kazakhstan amended its Code on Marriage and Family in 2019 to help ensure birth registration and the issuance of birth certificates for all children born in the country, regardless of their parents’ immigration or documentation status.152 Usually, a medical birth certificate is needed to register a child’s birth. In the case of birth outside healthcare facilities, a mother can apply for a medical certificate of birth, which can be issued by the responsible medical worker of the appropriate obstetrics facility. In the absence of a medical certificate of birth, the State registration of a child’s birth is based on a copy of a court decision establishing the fact of birth. If the required identity documents are not available, information about the child’s parents can be completed based on a marriage certificate, a registered act on conclusion of marriage, or a mother’s statement (a note will be recorded that information about the mother is based on her statements). However, the law does not provide for registration of birth on the basis of the mother’s statement only. 150 Ending Statelessness in Central Asia, UNHCR, 2024, data to 30 October 2024. 151 See Completeness of birth registration (%) – Kazakhstan, World Bank Group, (no date). 152 Kazakhstan amends laws to ensure universal birth registration and prevent childhood statelessness, UNHCR, 26 December 2019. 58