Nationality and Cases of Statelessness in the Middle East and North Africa MENA’s nationality laws. Furthermore, it is important to note that the letter of the law is only half the story. In order to ascertain whether a country is successfully pre-empting or addressing statelessness, it is also necessary to consider how the law is interpreted and applied in practice by the competent authorities of the state. While such practice is much harder to grasp and may in fact vary base by case, the analysis of this chapter closes with a section that comments on some of the most significant challenges that have been identified in terms of the implementation of the MENA region’s nationality laws. Finally, a conclusion summarises the main findings of the chapter and offers some recommendations with regard to how the nationality law regimes in the MENA could be strengthened in order to better respond to the challenge of statelessness. 3.1 Acquisition of nationality at birth In the MENA region, and worldwide, the vast majority of people acquire their nationality at birth. A new life brought into the world means a new person to be attributed to one state or another. This process tends to occur without the need for any intervention by the parents or the state. The new-born, by virtue of certain facts of birth, is granted nationality automatically because he or she meets the conditions laid down in 82