question the nationality of the parents as well.145 Other problems relating to birth registration may also occur. For example, data entered in birth registries may be vague or incomplete, such as an entry stating that the nationality of the parents is undetermined. Alternatively, a person may be born in a border area, for example to nomads or to parents who belong to an indigenous people whose ancestral lands straddle the border, and it may not be clear exactly in which country that person was born. Either one or both of the countries may grant nationality jure soli, but unless the person can prove in which country he or she was born it may become impossible for him or her to establish his or her nationality.146 A similar type of problem may occur in the context of State succession, in a situation where, for example, a Federal Republic dissolves into two States, and a person is unable to produce evidence showing which successor State nationality he or she should be deemed to possess.147 b) Civil registries may have been destroyed or have gone missing. For example, a birth registry may have been damaged or have been completely destroyed during a civil war. Persons whose births were recorded in the registry may then experience the same difficulties proving their nationality as the persons at (a) above, unless they are able to re-register using as evidence of their birth personal documents that they had been previously issued, or unless rules of evidence are relaxed, e.g. by allowing testimony of witnesses.148 c) Some people may have difficulties proving their identity.149 For example, it may be clear from a country’s citizenship records that Ms. X is a national of that country. However, Ms. X may have difficulties proving that she really is Ms. X, e.g. she may have been smuggled or trafficked to another country and then abandoned without any personal documents. If she is subsequently unable to prove her identity, she will also 145 Where nationality is transmitted jure sanguinis, lack of birth registration not only creates problems for persons born inside the country of their nationality, but may also create additional problems for persons born outside the country of their nationality, particularly if their parents are irregular migrants and as a result they themselves become irregular migrants. See Laura van Waas, “The Children of Irregular Migrants: A Stateless Generation?”, Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, Vol. 25/3, 2007, pp. 437 458. In some countries in Latin America this type of problem has been solved by ensuring that indigenous peoples acquire the nationality of both countries. See, for example, Article 7 of the 2008 Constitution of Ecuador: “Son ecuatorianas y ecuatorianos por nacimiento: 1. Las personas nacidas en el Ecuador. 2. Las personas nacidas en el extranjero de madre o padre nacidos en el Ecuador; y sus descendientes hasta el tercer grado de consanguinidad. 3. Las personas pertenecientes a comunidades, pueblos o nacionalidades reconocidos por el Ecuador con presencia en las zonas de frontera” [emphasis added]. See, for example, UNHCR, “Citizenship in the Context of the Dissolution of Czechoslovakia”, European Series, Vol. 2, No. 4, September 1996, p. 17, footnote 44: “… Some NGOs and IGOs have expressed concern regarding persons having difficulty in determining their former internal nationality and, consequently, their previous citizenship. These persons cannot establish their present citizenship and are another category of de facto stateless persons which are of concern.” See, for example, UNHCR and Praxis, “Analysis of the Situation of Internally Displaced Persons from Kosovo in Serbia: Law and Practice”, op. cit., pp. 22 - 26. Problems of proving one’s identity can in principle arise both inside and outside one’s country of nationality. For a fuller discussion about persons who are outside the country of their nationality and unable to prove their identity, see: Ryszard Piotrowicz, “Victims of Trafficking and De Facto Statelessness”, Refugee Survey Quarterly, Vol. 21, Special Issue, 2002, pp. 50 - 59; Stefanie Grant, “The Legal Protection of Stranded Migrants” in R. Cholewinski, R. Perruchoud and E. MacDonald, eds., “International Migration Law”, T.M.C. Asser Press, 2007, pp. 29 – 47; Rebecca Dowd, “Trapped in Transit: The Plight and Human Rights of Stranded Migrants”, Research Paper No. 156, New Issues in Refugee Research, UNHCR, June 2008. 146 147 148 149 42