ISI Database on Statelessness and
Human Rights

17. Noting that children in vulnerable situations are subjected to discrimination that persists throughout their life course and that perpetuates high rates of poverty, illiteracy, adolescent pregnancy and violence, the Committee, recalling target 10.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals, recommends that the State party take all measures, including policy, legislative and awareness-raising measures, necessary to prevent and combat discrimination against children from economically disadvantaged families, girls, children with disabilities, children from rural and remote areas and other children in vulnerable situations and ensure access for such children to birth registration and high quality health care, education and all basic social services, transport, clean water and sanitation, with particular attention given to Principe island.

23. The Committee, recalling target 16.9 of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Committee’s previous recommendations,8 urges the State party:

(a) To ensure and promote universal and free birth registration, with particular attention given to the poorest families, rural and remote areas and children born to unmarried parents and in unattended births;

(b) To ensure that birth registration, which can be done by either of the child’s parents, includes the parents’ full details and that the marital status of the parents is not an impediment to registration;

(c) To ensure that a birth certificate is provided free of charge for every registered birth and that children who do not hold a birth certificate can gain access to education and all other necessary social services;

(d) To abolish fees for late birth registration and review the legislation, including decree No. 31/GM-MJDH/2018 accordingly;

(e) To consider ratifying the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

24. The Committee is deeply concerned that children and their families can be deprived of their nationality without notice under the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, which also retroactively validated deprivation decisions already made but found unlawful by courts. The Committee urges the State party:

(a) To remove legal and administrative barriers and strengthen legal pathways for all children, including children without a regular residence status, children born in the overseas territories and children in care, to acquire residence status and nationality, including by simplifying procedures and waiving the high fees for all children in need;

(b) To amend the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 to ensure that the best interests of the child are the primary consideration in all proceedings relating to the deprivation of nationality, that the act is not applied to any children who would be put at risk of statelessness or would otherwise be stateless and that citizens are not deprived of their citizenship as a result of actions that they allegedly committed as children.

50. With reference to joint general comments No. 3 and No. 4 of the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families/No.22 and No. 23 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (2017) on the human rights of children in the context of international migration, the Committee urges the State party:

(a) To urgently amend the Illegal Migration Bill to repeal all draft provisions that would have the effect of violating children’s rights under the Convention and the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and bring the Bill in line with the State party’s obligations under international human rights law to ensure children’s rights to nationality, to seek asylum and to have their best interests taken as a primary consideration and to prevent their prolonged detention and removal;

51. The Committee recommends that the State party:

(c) Implement long-term solutions for the regularization of children without a regular residence status, including by ensuring that all such children in the overseas territories are issued identity documents, and strengthen measures to prevent the social exclusion of such children.

23. The Committee is concerned that refugees and undocumented migrants in the State party experience disproportionately lower birth registration rates and that children of parents facing terrorism-related charges whose nationality has been withdrawn may be at risk of statelessness. Taking note of target 16.9 of the Sustainable Development Goals, the Committee recommends that the State party:

(a) Ensure the issuance of birth certificates in addition to hospital reports for all children born on its territory, immediately after the birth, with special attention paid to refugee, asylum-seeking and undocumented migrant children, including through the use of mobile registration units, and no-cost birth registration;

(b) Repeal legislation and prohibit practices effectively depriving children of their Turkish citizenship if they or their parents are accused or convicted of terrorism related charges and provide remedies to the children affected.

10. The Committee is concerned about the lack of data disaggregated by disability, ethnic origin and socioeconomic and migration background, as this does not allow for sufficient analysis of the situation of children, and recommends that the State party:

(b) Strengthen the collection and analysis of data on discrimination against children, children with disabilities, statelessness and children with an “unknown nationality”, the socioeconomic situation of children, and violence against children, including abuse, neglect and sexual exploitation;

21. The Committee notes the amendment to the Citizenship Act (2001) made in 2021 that removes the requirement for certain stateless children to have a permanent residence permit in order to obtain Swedish nationality, but is concerned that the legislative framework remains restrictive, including for children with an irregular residence status, stateless children born abroad and children with an “unknown nationality”. The Committee recommends that the State party:

(a) Develop a procedure to determine the stateless status of children in order to properly identify and protect stateless children;

(b) Facilitate the acquisition at birth of nationality for children who would otherwise be stateless;

(c) Strengthen legal pathways for children with an irregular residence status, children born abroad and children with an “unknown nationality” to acquire a nationality.

19. Taking note of target 16.9 of the Sustainable Development Goals, the Committee strongly urges the State party to implement, as a matter of urgency, the relevant policies to ensure birth registration for all children in situations of migration, in street situations or born in rural areas.

7. The Committee notes the positive developments in the State party’s legislation, including Ministerial Decision No. 125/2019 issuing the executive regulation of the Law of the Child, and recommends that the State party:

(a) Further strengthen its legislation in order to ensure full compliance with the Convention in all areas, including on nationality and minimum age of criminal responsibility;

22. Taking note of target 16.9 of the Sustainable Development Goals, the Committee recalls its previous recommendation and urges the State party:

(a) To amend its laws to grant Omani women equal rights to those of Omani men with regard to the transmission of their nationality to their children and provide adequate safeguards to ensure the conferral of citizenship on children who would otherwise be stateless;

(b) To strengthen efforts to ensure that all births in the State party are registered, including those of children of migrant workers, in cooperation with the States concerned, and of children born to unmarried parents;

(c) To consider becoming party to the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

37. Recalling the joint general comments No. 3 and No. 4 (2017) of the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families and No. 22 and No. 23 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (2017), on the general principles regarding the human rights of children in the context of international migration and on State obligations regarding the human rights of children in the context of international migration in countries of origin, transit, destination and return, respectively, the Committee recommends that the State party:

(e) Strengthen coordination between the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and governmental institutions to ensure the provision of assistance and protection for refugee, asylum-seeking and stateless children in line with the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

19. Noting with deep concern the barriers faced by some groups of children in accessing birth registration and the restrictive legislative framework for obtaining Irish nationality, the Committee recommends that the State party:

(a) Ensure the right of all children, without exception, to be registered at birth, including by simplifying documentation requirements for children of minority groups, asylum-seeking and migrant children, and children without regular residence status;

(b) Adopt legislative amendments to the courts and civil law (miscellaneous provisions) bill to reduce residency requirements for acquiring nationality;

(c) Remove legal barriers and strengthen legal pathways for all children to acquire a nationality, such as by: (i) Excluding children from the application of the “good character” ground; (ii) Preventing the deprivation of nationality to children born through surrogacy arrangements; (iii) Allowing naturalization applications to be submitted by the Child and Family Agency (Tusla) on behalf of children in care and by children themselves;

(d) Ensure the timely submission by Tusla of applications for international protection or residence permission, as appropriate, on behalf of separated children in care, in order to prevent delays in acquiring nationality;

(e) Develop a procedure to determine the stateless status of children in order to properly identify and protect stateless children.

19. Taking note of Sustainable Development Goal target 16.9, the Committee strongly urges the State party to:

(a) Strengthen birth registration processes, including as a preventive measure against trafficking and sale of children, by, inter alia: (i) facilitating sharing of hospital records with the civil status offices; and (ii) adequately resourcing the Child Development Unit of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family Welfare in effectively implementing its mandate to facilitate issuance of birth certificates, also in cases of the tardy declaration of births;

(b) Ensure the issuance of birth certificates for all children born in its territory immediately after their birth, regardless of the immigration status of the children or their parents, including those who have expressed an intention to apply for asylum and those who are undocumented;

(c) Establish a national mechanism for the determination of statelessness, including legal safeguards to grant nationality at birth to children born in the country or adopted by women who would otherwise be stateless;

(d) Consider ratifying the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons of 1954 and the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness of 1961.

22. Welcoming the improvements in birth registration and the State party’s statement that birth registration is almost universal, the Committee, recalling target 16.9 of the Sustainable Development Goals, recommends that the State party:

(a) Further facilitate the birth registration process, including by ensuring the presence of a civil registry officer in health facilities, strengthening coordination between the Ministry of Health and the civil registry, operationalizing the electronic birth registration system and providing for the late registration of births free of charge, and eliminate any administrative or judicial sanctions against parents as a consequence of late registration;

(b) Consider ratifying the 1997 European Convention on Nationality and the 2009 Council of Europe Convention on the avoidance of statelessness in relation to State succession.

20. While welcoming the measures taken to facilitate the birth registration of children who are displaced or are in the territory controlled by armed forces of the Russian Federation or affiliated armed groups, and taking note of target 16.9 of the Sustainable Development Goals, the Committee recommends that the State party:

(a) Ensure that measures to facilitate birth registration are extended to all children born in its territory, including children of asylum-seekers;

(b) Amend its law on citizenship to facilitate the acquisition of nationality for children who would otherwise be stateless;

(c) Ensure the birth registration of Roma children born to parents without identity documents or without documents from the medical institution concerned confirming the birth, and abolish any fines for failure to register children on time.

36. The Committee is deeply concerned that the ongoing armed conflict has led to the internal displacement of around 7 million people, while another 7 million refugees, mainly women and children, have fled Ukraine and sought temporary protection elsewhere. The Committee notes the initiatives taken by the State party, such as the Diia system for obtaining internally displaced person status, but remains particularly concerned that:

(d) Access to humanitarian assistance for asylum-seekers, undocumented foreigners and stateless persons in the State party has been hindered, depriving their children of support to address basic and urgent necessities of life;

37. The Committee calls on the international community and donors to provide sustained and increased support for the response to internal displacement and the Ukraine Flash Appeal, and other critical efforts to protect the human rights of all civilians, including children, who remain in or have fled Ukraine, and recommends that the State party:

(d) Increase its cash assistance programme and work with international organizations providing multi-purpose cash assistance in eastern and central Ukraine where there are higher numbers of internally displaced children;