Addressing the risk of statelessness in Chile: From strategic litigation to #Chilereconoce1 Delfina Lawson & Macarena Rodriguez Statelessness Working Paper Series No. 2017/03 Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion June 2017 Author biography Delfina Lawson is an Argentine lawyer, at present, Head of UNHCR’s National Office in Chile. Previously she has directed the Legal Clinic on Migrants and Refugees of the Diego Portales University, and coordinated the #Chilereconoce project. Macarena Rodriguez is a Chilean lawyer, LL.M. in International Human Rights Law at University of Notre Dame, Law Clinic Director at Alberto Hurtado University and Assistant Dean of the Law School at Alberto Hurtado University. Author email lawson@unhcr.org mrodrigu@uahurtado.cl Key words Jus soli—children of transient foreigners—strategic litigation – law clinics – nationality claims Abstract Following a flawed interpretation of nationality requirements in the Constitution, between 1995 and 2014 the State of Chile denied nationality to at least 4,000 children born in the country, based solely on their parents’ irregular migratory status. As a result, at present many of these children remain at risk of statelessness. In 2015, the Immigration and Refugee Law Clinic of the Diego Portales University (UDP), the Immigration Law Clinic of the Alberto Hurtado University (UAH) School of Law, and the Jesuit Migrant Service (SJM) responded by forming a partnership designed to address their plight. After a successful litigation under the Supreme Court of Justice, in the year 2016, the National Institute on Human Rights, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Department of Migration and the Civil Registry joined the above-mentioned organisations to fully address the situation of these children. As a result of this process, 100 children were recognized as Chilean nationals, and administrative changes were brought about so as to ensure the right to a nationality of all people born in the country. This brief describes this process, and some of the challenges that still remain in Chile for the complete eradication of statelessness. 1 This brief is an adaptation of part of an article published in Diego Portales University Annual Public Law Yearbook (2016), “3.000 niños esperando su nacionalidad. La necesidad de contar con remedios colectivos para resolver vulneraciones individuales de derechos” by Delfina Lawson, Macarena Rodriguez, Victor Hugo Lagos and Claudio Fuentes.