17
Provisions for Reducing Statelessness
24.
Article 6 sets out the provisions proposed
during the debates on the Hong Kong Bill for avoiding
or reducing statelessness. The underlying principle
is that no-one who loses his BDTC status as a result
of the Order (hereafter 'former BDTC') or any child
born on or after 1 July 1997 to such a person, should
be stateless as a result of the Joint Declaration.
This principle was extended in the committee stage of
the Hong Kong Bill in the House of Lords to the
grandchildren of former BDTCs if they are born
stateless (Footnote 3: Official Report: Volume 461,
Number 60, Columns 237 and 238). The provisions in
respect of these grandchildren parallel those of
section 17 (2) and (3) of the British Nationality Act
1981. These provide that a child born stateless
outside the dependent territories is entitled to be
registered as a BDTC if an application is made within
12 months of the birth and if:
a)
his or her mother or father ('the
parent in question') was a BDTC by
descent at the time of the birth and