Factors Heightening the Risk of Statelessness 22. Non-automatic and discretionary naturalisation procedure: Children born in Colombia to parents who are unable to pass on their citizenship via jus sanguinis are permitted to naturalise as Colombian nationals. Although Law 962 of 2005 makes an exception to Colombia’s jus domicili provision if a child is born to noncitizens that are unable to transmit their own nationality, several problems arise in the implementation of this provision. First, the law requires that the Colombian-born child’s parents prove that they are unable to transmit their nationality to their child in order for the latter to begin the naturalisation process. This entails securing proof from their country of nationality’s diplomatic mission that they cannot pass on their citizenship via descent. Parents who cannot access their country’s diplomatic mission, or who face an uncooperative diplomatic mission, will not be able to provide said proof of non-transmission. It is possible that children born of noncitizens, such as those noted in the Cuban case earlier, could face obstacles in securing access to their parents’ nationality. Therefore the lack of an exception to this statelessness safeguard, in situations where the parent is unable to fulfil this condition, places the child at risk of statelessness, in violation of his or her right to acquire a nationality. 23. Second, the application to naturalise is an online procedure29 that requires applicants to provide information from a government issued identity document. Individuals who do not have readily available access to the internet, or who are undocumented, are thereby placed at a disadvantage in the naturalisation application procedure. 24. Third, the fee to process the application for naturalisation is high and cannot be waived. This fee, due at the time of application, may pose a substantial burden for low-income parents and consequently hinder their ability to file their child’s application for naturalisation. It is of note that although the Colombian legal framework does not permit naturalisation requirements to be waived for children born in Colombia who would otherwise be stateless, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has stated it could waive certain naturalisation requirements on a case-by-case basis.30 This process, however, is ad hoc in nature. 25. It is thus clear that Colombia’s safeguard against childhood statelessness is non-automatic and discretionary, posing protection problems. Consequently, the safeguard falls short of Colombia’s obligations under Articles 2 (non-discrimination), 3 (best interests of the child) and 7 (right to acquire a nationality) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Furthermore, it poses significant problems related to rights enjoyment into adulthood. Individuals who acquire Colombian citizenship via naturalisation, despite birth on Colombian soil, do not enjoy the same political rights as persons who acquire Colombian citizenship through jus soli. 26. Lack of institutional capacity: the Colombian State’s inability to comprehensively provide access to civil registry services, especially to those populations living in remote areas or who have fled their homes and had to internally relocate, continues to pose problems. Without access to identity documents, individuals are at risk of being unable to confirm their Colombian nationality. Similarly, the Colombian State, despite issuing directives to relax certain evidentiary requirements (such as those for returnees from Venezuela) has been unable to adequately disseminate these policies to all of its local registry offices. On a positive note, Colombia offers an appeals process for individuals denied identity documents. People denied documents may present an administrative appeal before the government authority that denied them their documents and then appeal to the administrative courts if the denial continues. 29 Colombian authorities do not prohibit the use of paper applications for citizenship, but they do not provide publically accessible information on how individuals can go about applying for Colombian citizenship in this way. Additionally, some discretion is introduced into the non online procedure as it requires the applicant to know whom to reach in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for assistance. 30 OSJI (2017), Born in the Americas, p.71. 6