9. As mentioned in the introduction, after independence, Estonia’s new citizenship regime led to a situation of large-scale statelessness among Soviet-era settlers, mainly persons of Russian ethnicity. This issue has since been regularly raised by both domestic and international actors. In the 1990s, the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM), Max van der Stoel, provided a number of recommendations to Estonia on the issue and recommendations have also come from the Council of Europe, the UN human rights treaty bodies and the Universal Periodic Review process (as shown above). For instance, in 2014, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination expressed its concern over the situation of stateless persons in Estonia, recommending that the state “intensify efforts to reduce the number of persons with undetermined citizenship including by shortening the length of the procedure for the acquisition of citizenship” and “ease further the naturalization requirements for persons under 15 years of age”.2 The Committee also recommended that Estonia “raise awareness about statelessness among stakeholders and introduce mechanisms to help national and local institutions to effectively identify stateless persons” and “consider ratifying the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.”3 10. Despite such international pressure, Estonian policy on citizenship has remained conservative, without major domestic debates after the adoption of Citizenship Act of 1992. On 21 January 2015 the Riigikogu (Estonian parliament) adopted new amendments to the Citizenship Act directly related to the children’s right to a nationality. However, despite these positive developments certain flaws remain in Estonian legislation and practice. Resultantly, some children continue to remain at risk of becoming stateless. Since the year 2000, the number of naturalisations of stateless persons has been low, having fallen significantly since the 1990s. Moreover, there is currently no statelessness determination procedure, which hinders the state’s ability to ensure protection for stateless persons, especially in the migration context. Children’s right to nationality4 1. The current legal framework in Estonia and its implementation can result in childhood statelessness, despite Estonia’s obligations under Article’s 2, 3, 7 and 8 CRC. Article 2 prohibits discrimination on grounds including race, national, ethnic or social origin and Article 3.1 states that “in all actions concerning children… the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration.” Article 7 CRC obligates the state to register the child 2 Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Concluding observations on the combined tenth and eleventh periodic reports of Estonia, CERD/C/EST/CO/10-11, 22 September 2014, Para 11 (a) and (c). 3 4 Ibid., Para 11 (d) and (e). For a detailed analysis see the ENS/LICHR working paper, Ending Childhood Statelessness – A study on Estonia, June 2015, available at: http://www.statelessness.eu/sites/www.statelessness.eu/files/Estonia.pdf