(3) How are the laws of relevant states implemented? Citizenship and statelessness determination requires a mixed assessment of fact and law; the attorney must assess the law as it stands on paper as well as how it is implemented in practice. Thus, after conducting an analysis of the laws of the countries to which the client has ties, you must conduct research into state practice and its implementation of the law. During the initial consultation, you will have asked (1) if the client has ever had any form of enabling documentation (birth certificate, ID or passport) and (2) if he has ever had trouble accessing one of these documents. The client's answers to these questions will be telling. Generally, stateless people only discover that they are not recognised as citizens when they try to access a state service that requires proof of identity or when they try to access civil registration, such as when registering a baby or a marriage. If a client has never had an enabling document he is already at risk of statelessness. If he or she tries to access an enabling document and is turned away, this risk increases. You will need to ask the client detailed questions in order to determine the reason he was turned away. There could be many reasons – xenophobia, discrimination due to ethnicity or tribe, inability to meet administrative requirements or corruption (client could not pay the bribe requested for rendering the service). As soon as the client is told by even a window-level official of a competent authority that he or she is not a citizen, the client is stateless under the Convention (unless he holds citizenship in another country). UNHCR stateless definition guidelines explain that this decision does not need to be appealed in order for the client to meet the Convention definition.81 Just because the decision could later be overridden by a more senior official or a court does not change the fact that at present, the client is not recognised. The current legal status of the client is the determinative factor, rather than whether or not the client could, 80 81 Assessing citizenship and identifying a stateless person in practice The 1949 South African Citizenship Act had categories for loss of citizenship which were later repealed and such persons can apply to resume their South African citizenship under current law.80 Section 13 of South African Citizenship. However, it is pertinent to consider the level of judicial independence in a country in preparation for advocating on your client's behalf in South Africa. There is discrimination towards certain groups when it comes to implementation of certain countries' citizenship laws. In some cases people have been successful in appealing to the courts to enforce their right to citizenship while in other countries, the judicial system also does not provide relief to their problem. In addition, even where courts are independent, one must also assess the extent to which judicial decisions are respected by government officials. Promoting citizenship and preventing statelessness in South Africa: A practitioner’s guide 47