Opening Doors for Children: Prevention of Childhood Statelessness - Good Practices in the OSCE Area

The aim of this guide is to encourage OSCE participating States to adopt good practices
to address and prevent childhood statelessness, ensure universal birth registration and
implement other positive measures to protect stateless children. The guide summarizes
the international legal framework relating to the prevention of childhood statelessness
and provides examples of good practices from selected OSCE participating States. The
examples illustrate particular aspects of good practices that may be replicated or adjusted
as necessary. They should be implemented together with other positive measures to
address statelessness and protect children’s rights. The examples were selected to show
a range of: geographies, reasons for statelessness, a variety of possible solutions, and
gender and ethnic considerations. This guide focuses exclusively on good practices, and
examples are in some cases historic rather than current. Some examples are snapshots
of particular good practices, while others include more detailed summaries of a country’s
broader approach to statelessness. None should be considered to indicate that any
specific State has an entirely effective approach to preventing childhood statelessness
or protecting stateless children.