7. Recommendations A report of this scope reveals myriad insights into actions that can be taken to address statelessness. The recommendations here seek to offer guidance on priorities to begin resolving statelessness in Côte d’Ivoire. 7.1. To the Ivorian government On a general level, taking into account Côte d’Ivoire’s obligations as a State party to the statelessness conventions:      Adopt, publish and implement a national action plan to resolve statelessness in Côte d’Ivoire. Conduct a complete review of Côte d’Ivoire’s Nationality Code and pursue the adoption of amendments to bring this law in line with Côte d’Ivoire’s obligations under the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. The highest priority should be legislative reform to provide for the conferral of Ivorian nationality to children of unknown parents and children born in Côte d’Ivoire who would otherwise be stateless. Convene a consultative process to explore and develop the best framework procedure for linking nationality confirmation – Ivorian or otherwise – with determining the statelessness status of individuals and groups in Côte d’Ivoire. Create a legal framework for the protection of stateless persons in its territory, including an official statelessness status for contemporary migrants who are stateless, with attendant rights, documentation, and a path to facilitated naturalization, pursuant to the 1954 Statelessness Convention. Conduct additional qualitative research on the profile of stateless persons and groups at risk of statelessness in Côte d’Ivoire, including through outreach to affected individuals and communities. Complement this with additional targeted quantitative surveys building on the most recent baseline data from the 2014 census and using proxy questions to better gauge the potential scale of the statelessness phenomenon in the country. Render public the results of all preliminary identification efforts to promote an objective and apolitical understanding of the phenomenon of statelessness in the country. With respect to the acquisition of nationality by declaration program:    Conduct an in-depth evaluation of the process and results of the special acquisition of nationality by declaration program. A particular focus should be on assessing how many stateless persons acquired Ivorian nationality through this program. Where individuals who came forward are determined not to qualify for Ivorian nationality by declaration, establish a procedure to assess whether they possess a foreign nationality or are stateless and when stateless, afford them a path to facilitated naturalization, pursuant to the 1954 Statelessness Convention. Revive and extend the acquisition of nationality by declaration program, but with important amendments. The relevant future laws should be revised to make absolutely clear that the scope of the beneficiaries of the program is to include the intended beneficiaries of the integrationist nationality policies in place under the 1961 Nationality Code until its amendment in 1972. Furthermore, any future procedure should clearly allow legal descendants of all categories of beneficiaries born in Côte d’Ivoire to acquire nationality through this program. Evidentiary rules should be relaxed to overcome challenges for those who do not have birth certificates or sufficient documentary proof of their habitual residence in Côte d’Ivoire at the time of independence. This could be done, for example, by devising a system for accepting testimonial and witness evidence. Finally, heightened 61