To establish the underlying problems and the appropriate remedies, it will almost always be necessary to find out which identity/civil documents are held by people of different backgrounds in the relevant jurisdiction(s), and the common or different characteristics among each category. These distinctions can be complex to unravel, and apparently similar problems may be based on different underlying factors: u focus box F below for typical profiles of groups at risk of statelessness. The aggregation of details from many different cases will help to establish the profiles of those excluded, the reasons why they are excluded, and—most importantly—the specific remedies required in terms of reform of substantive law or administrative procedures (u section 5.6: Remedies II: The detailed requests). Very often, procedural barriers to recognition or acquisition of nationality disguise discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion or similar characteristics. The reasons for administrative decisions are often not fully transparent to those affected. To demonstrate that the impact of a particular requirement is in practice discriminatory on grounds prohibited in national or international law, it may be necessary to build up evidence through multiple testimonies showing a consistent pattern in the way the law is administered. In jurisdictions that allow for an “access to information” request, it can be helpful to seek official data from government departments as a way of illustrating patterns and building evidence. F - Typical groups at risk of statelessness • children of parents who do not themselves have (currently valid/expired) identity documents indicating that they are citizens of the country of the child’s birth; • children of parents who do not have (currently valid/expired) identity documents indicating that they have nationality in any country; • children of parents who have (currently valid/expired) identity documents recognising nationality of another state, but do not have legal residence in the country of the child’s birth; • children of refugees or former refugees who have only a (currently valid/expired) refugee identity document indicating nationality of the country of origin; • children born to foreign fathers, where the law of the country of birth discriminates on the basis of sex in transmission of nationality to children by mothers, or onerous procedural requirements apply in relation to establishing the parental link for children born out of wedlock; • children whose parents hold the nationality of a country where transmission of nationality is restricted in relation to children born outside the territory; • children born from international surrogacy arrangements, where national laws conflict and do not provide a right to nationality for the child; • people born before or after a particular date when nationality rules changed; • the descendants of people who were resident in a territory before a transfer of sovereignty on succession of states—when a territory gains independence, or a state ceases to exist or is created by the merger of different territories, or territory is transferred between states—but whose nationality of the new state was never recognised; • border-dwelling, nomadic and indigenous people with (perceived) connections to two or more states, but unrecognised as nationals by any state; • refugees or asylum-seekers who are also stateless, but whose statelessness has never been considered or recorded in the refugee status determination procedure; • people caught up in immigration proceedings, where the state of residence wishes to deport the person as a failed asylum-seeker, an immigrant without a legal status, or on the basis of criminal convictions, and the state of alleged origin does not accept that the person is a national; • people for whom recognition of nationality depends on prior recognition by a formally appointed or informally recognised gatekeeper, such as a prominent community figure who can verify identity and origins, and this recognition is not forthcoming. 44 U N H C R | L I T I G AT I N G T H E R I G H T T O A N AT I O N A L I T Y: A G U I D E F O R P R AC T I T I O N E R S