child to acquire nationality. As indicated in the state party’s report, failure to make the procedure fully known to the public and parents deciding to not apply on behalf of their child, were identified as reasons for this procedure to be less than optimally effective. This has resulted in the situation faced in Estonia today, where almost a thousand children who were born in the country remain stateless. 7. Estonia is a party to most of the core international human rights treaties, including the ICCPR and the optional protocols, the ICESCR, ICERD, CEDAW, CRPD, CAT and of course the CRC. Estonia, however, is not a party to important international and regional conventions dealing with statelessness: it has not acceded to the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons, the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness or the European Convention on Nationality. Positive developments under the 2015 amendment to the Citizenship Act 8. Estonian commitment to solving statelessness led to an amendment to the Citizenship Act being passed on 21 January 2015, which will enter into force on 1 January 2016. This amendment directly relates to children’s right to a nationality and is therefore to be welcomed. 9. The most important change that has been brought about through this amendment to the Citizenship Act relates to article 13(4), which now provides as follows: A child under 15 years of age, who was born in Estonia, will acquire Estonian citizenship by naturalization starting from the time of his or her birth, if his or her parents or a single parent have been legally residing in Estonia for at least five years by the time of birth of the child and they are not considered as citizens by any other State on the basis of any legal act in force. 10. Whereas the previous law required parents to “opt-in” before children could acquire Estonian nationality (through a procedure that parents did not always initiate), the new law provides for automatic acquisition of nationality by children who would otherwise be stateless if the conditions are met. The new law will, however, retain the possibility for parents to “opt-out”: they can renounce this citizenship on behalf of their child during the first year after birth.14 11. It is further encouraging that, when it enters into force on 1 January 2016, the new law will retroactively apply to children under the age of 15. It is unclear, however, whether retroactive application will continue to depend on parental notification. Enduring problems and suggested questions for the state party’s review 12. Despite the 2015 amendment, certain children remain at risk of becoming stateless due to gaps that persist in the Estonian legislation and the possibility of problems arising in the implementation of the new law. 13. The new law does not address the situation of all stateless children born in Estonia because it is limited to those whose: “… parents or a single parent have been legally residing in Estonia for at least five years by the time of birth of the child and they are not considered as citizens by any other State on the basis of any legal act in force.” This provision does not provide for access to citizenship for a child whose parent(s) have citizenship of another country, but who is stateless because the parent(s) are unable to transmit this citizenship to the child. Stateless children born in Estonia whose parents do not meet the requirement of at least 5 years lawful residence prior to the birth of the child are similarly left without means to acquire nationality. 14 Explanatory Note to the amendment. 3