to foreigners. The Interministerial Circular explicitly discusses statelessness avoidance in these scenarios: Verifying points (a) and (b) [requiring documentary proof of possession of another nationality upon submission of a declaration to either decline acquisition of Ivorian nationality or to renounce Ivorian nationality upon acquisition of a foreign nationality through marriage] will permit the Minister of Justice to refuse to register the declaration if it is established that the person concerned who is declining to acquire or renouncing Ivorian nationality, but who neither preserves nor acquires a foreign nationality, will become stateless.101 That the legislative history of the 1961 Nationality Code and its implementing regulations make two references to statelessness102 indicates that the Ivorian legislators and Ministry of Justice officials at the time were aware of the phenomenon of statelessness, or at least the predominant practice at that time of avoiding statelessness in the context of nationality changes incurred through marriage. It can therefore be inferred that the Ivorian legislators did not intend to adopt safeguards against statelessness in any other domain. Having acceded to both the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness in 2013, Côte d’Ivoire is obligated to review its national legislation and bring it in compliance with the international standards contained in these treaties.103 Although Article 3 of the Nationality Code establishes that provisions on nationality contained in international treaties to which Côte d’Ivoire is party can be directly applied, even if they contradict domestic legislation, this has proven impossible to implement in practice in the absence of formal amendments to the laws. With respect to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of statelessness, Côte d’Ivoire must amend the Nationality Code to incorporate a number of important principles from that treaty. For example, Article 1 of the 1961 Convention requires States to grant nationality to children born in their territory if they would otherwise be stateless. This grant of nationality can occur at birth by operation of law or upon application. The 1961 Statelessness Convention allows States to adopt some conditions in this regard. For example, States can require that stateless children born in their territory have had habitual residence to acquire nationality. Note, however, that the treaty allows the condition of habitual residence, but that it does not allow States to require legal residence.104 As such, when incorporating this principle into national law, Côte d’Ivoire will need to review Article 39 of the Nationality Code to either exempt stateless persons from this requirement, or revise the requirement for the benefit of others. Article 2 of the 1961 Convention requires: “A foundling found in the territory of a Contracting State shall, in the absence of proof to the contrary, be considered to have been born within that territory of parents possessing the nationality of that State.” The original language of Article 9(2) of Côte d’Ivoire’s 1961 Nationality Code read in conjunction with the Interministerial 101 Circulaire Interministérielle No. 31/MJ/CAB 3 du 25 avril 1962 (1), Section 2. The first reference to statelessness in the available legislative history was made during the deliberations of the Committee on General and Institutional Affairs where it was posited that Article 6 did not allow children of stateless parents born in Côte d’Ivoire to acquire Ivorian nationality by origin. See discussion in Section 3.1.2. 103 Côte d’Ivoire’s Nationality Code is already in compliance with the 1961 Statelessness Convention with respect to Article 4 and Article 7(3) of that treaty, in that its jus sanguinis regime grants Ivorian nationality to all children born abroad to at least one Ivorian parent, and does not foresee loss of nationality for residence abroad. 104 UNHCR, Guidelines on Statelessness No. 4: Ensuring Every Child's Right to Acquire a Nationality through Articles 1-4 of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, HCR/GS/12/04, 21 December 2012, para. 41. 102 31