register of undesirable persons. However, persons with an administrative expulsion order or a criminal sentence of expulsion are listed in this register. 3.3 Legislation concerning the reduction and prevention of statelessness in the Czech Republic The matter of acquiring nationality by stateless persons is regulated by Article 32 of the 1954 Convention, which provides that the Contracting States “shall as far as possible facilitate the assimilation and naturalisation of stateless persons. They shall in particular make every effort to expedite naturalisation proceedings and to reduce as far as possible the charges and costs of such proceedings.” With a view to preventing and reducing new cases of statelessness, the UN negotiated the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.67 The Czech Republic acceded to the 1961 Convention on 19 December 2001 with no reservations.68 At the national level, the matter of acquisition and loss of Czech nationality is governed by the Law on the Czech Citizenship (“Citizenship Act”).69 As a general rule, nationality is automatically acquired at birth if at least one parent has Czech nationality, no matter where the child is born. As to specific matters of stateless persons, while the Citizenship Act generally implements the obligations under the 1961 Convention, there are certain shortcomings. According to Section 5 of the Citizenship Act, a child born in the territory of the Czech Republic, who would otherwise be stateless, automatically acquires Czech nationality by birth provided that both parents are stateless and at least one of them has a permit to reside in the Czech Republic for a period longer than 90 days at the time of the child’s birth.70 Section 29 of the Citizenship Act regulates situations when a child born in the Czech territory, does not acquire nationality of the parents nor the Czech nationality under the provision of Section 5 described in the preceding paragraph. In such situation, the Czech nationality is granted to the child by the MoI only upon application, provided that at least one parent has a permit to reside in the Czech Republic for a period longer than 90 days at the time of the child’s birth. The Czech Republic therefore provides for the granting of nationality to otherwise stateless children either by the operation of law and upon application, depending on the circumstances of the parents. Pursuant to Section 5 of the Citizenship Act, the first option is limited to children whose parents are stateless and at least one of them has a lawful long-term residence on the territory on the day of the child’s birth. Children born to parents who cannot transmit their nationality for other reasons than both being stateless themselves, have to lodge an application pursuant to Section 29 of the Act. However, the citizenship will only be granted when at least one of the parents has a lawful long-term residence on the territory on the day of the child’s birth. Such a requirement does not fall within the exhaustive list of reasons for which a nationality application can be refused according to Article 1 (2) of the 1961 Convention. It is, therefore, not compliant with the 1961 Convention. Moreover, Section 29 (4) of the Citizenship Act provides for an additional condition according to which the MoI will not grant nationality to a child born in the Czech territory who has become stateless only as a consequence of the parent’s failure, without acceptable reasons, to take the necessary steps in relation to the authorities of 22 67 The Czech translation of the Convention uses the term “bezdomovectví” [homelessness] to describe the lack of citizenship of a nation state; “apatrismus” is another term used in the Czech environment. However, the Czech version of this study avoids the term “bezdomovectví” for its obviously misleading nature, since the primary meaning of the word in modern Czech describes homeless people living on the street; in English the word for “homelessness” is clearly different from “statelessness”. 68 Communication of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs No. 43/2002 Coll. of International Treaties, on the accession of the Czech Republic to the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. 69 Act No. 186/2013 Coll., on Czech citizenship and on amendments to certain acts, as amended. 70 According to the Explanatory Memorandum to the Citizenship Act, the requirement of a residence permit of at least one parent should prevent situations when a child would be born in the Czech territory but the parents would only travel through or reside in the territory irregularly. Faces of Statelessness in the Czech Republic