Too old to be a ‘foundling’? – International standards and comparative analysis – H. Conclusions of Section IV: Age Limit - Below the Age of Majority This section examined the maximum age of children that should be covered by the term ‘foundling’. Article 2 of the 1961 Convention does not specify an age, and the travaux préparatoires are largely silent but consistently use the neutral term ‘child’, leaving some room for minors to be included in the foundling concept. It was acknowledged that definitions of a ‘foundling’ in non-legal dictionaries carry connotations of a newborn or young child. However, the ‘ordinary meaning’ of a term under Article 31 (1) of the VCLT is not to be restricted to its dictionary definition149 nor determined in the abstract, but must be interpreted in light of the context, object and purpose of the treaty.150 Indeed, there were a couple of nationality laws valid at the time of drafting the 1961 Convention whose foundling provisions were applicable to minors of unknown parents.151 As per the CRC Committee’s guidance, the rights enshrined in Article 7(1) of the CRC are rights of all children who have not attained the age of majority, and it is never in the best interests of the child to be rendered stateless. As detailed in Table 4, the comparative analysis revealed that the foundling provisions of 10 states (7% of 142 states) explicitly cover all minors, and that the provisions of at least 16 states (11%) encompass all minors according to their available legal interpretation, making a total of 26 states (more than 18%). The actual legal precedents in which children of unknown parents who were found only when around ages 11 and 12, respectively, in Spain and in Italy (likely to have been born abroad) were confirmed nationals under their respective foundling provisions are exemplary. This is because children who do not know their parents in the first place (e.g. because they were informally adopted or trafficked) will not ‘recall’ who their parents are, no matter how old they become - whether 10, 15, or even 70 years old. Restricting foundlings’ age to ‘newborns’ or ‘infants’ by heavily relying on the non-law dictionary foundling definition, or to certain younger children ‘who cannot explain the identity of parents/birthplace’ lacks firm justifications and may be considered arbitrary in light of the objective of the 1961 Convention and the evolutive nature of international human rights law. It is therefore recommended that all persons of unknown parents under the age of majority be covered by the term ‘foundling’. IV. CONCLUSIONS This article, having asserted that the grant of nationality to foundlings is a customary international law norm, examined the definition of the term ‘foundling’ in Article 2 of the 1961 Convention, with the aim of making a recommendation on the maximum age of the child when found in a territory to qualify as a foundling. It adopted an evolutionary and teleological approach to treaty interpretation in light of the object and purpose of the 1961 Convention, taking into consideration the best state practice and developments in (regional) human rights law, including those related to the CRC. This article first clarified that the term ‘foundling’ in fact means ‘a child of unknown parents’. This was drawn from the analysis of the evolution from Article 14 of the 1930 Convention to Article 2 of the 1961 Convention, the comparative analysis of the texts of 142 nationality laws that contain foundling provisions (among 193 UN member States) and their actual applications in some states. It also clarified that ‘unknown parentage’ essentially means being of ‘legally unknown parents,’ i.e. either there exists no legally recognised parent for the person concerned, or a legal parent(s) is supposed to exist, but such existence cannot be proven. 149 Gardiner, Treaty Interpretation (n 15) 181. 150 ILC, Draft Articles on the Law of Treaties (n 111). 151 See section IV.A. European University Institute 42