CMW/C/GC/4-CRC/C/GC/23 late registration. Children who have not been registered should be ensured equal access to health care, protection, education and other social services. 22. Should a child’s identity documents have been procured irregularly on his or her behalf and the child requests the restoration of his or her identity documents, States parties are encouraged to adopt flexible measures in the best interests of the child, specifically by issuing corrected documents and avoiding prosecution where falsification has been committed. 2. Right to a nationality and safeguards against statelessness 23. Article 7 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child places emphasis on the prevention of statelessness by specifying that States parties shall ensure the implementation of the rights of a child to be registered, to a name, to acquire a nationality and to know and be cared for by his or her parents. The same right is enshrined for all children of migrant workers in article 29 of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. 24. While States are not obliged to grant their nationality to every child born in their territory, they are required to adopt every appropriate measure, both internally and in cooperation with other States, to ensure that every child has a nationality when he or she is born. A key measure is the conferral of nationality to a child born on the territory of the State, at birth or as early as possible after birth, if the child would otherwise be stateless. 25. Nationality laws that discriminate with regard to the transmission or acquisition of nationality on the basis of prohibited grounds, including in relation to the child and/or his or her parents’ race, ethnicity, religion, gender, disability and migration status, should be repealed. Furthermore, all nationality laws should be implemented in a non-discriminatory manner, including with regard to residence status in relation to the length of residency requirements, to ensure that every child’s right to a nationality is respected, protected and fulfilled. 26. States should strengthen measures to grant nationality to children born in their territory in situations where they would otherwise be stateless. When the law of a mother’s country of nationality does not recognize a woman’s right to confer nationality on her children and/or spouse, children may face the risk of statelessness. Likewise, where nationality laws do not guarantee women’s autonomous right to acquire, change or retain their nationality in marriage, girls in the situation of international migration who married under the age of 18 years may face the risk of being stateless, or be confined in abusive marriages out of fear of being stateless. States should take immediate steps to reform nationality laws that discriminate against women by granting equal rights to men and women to confer nationality on their children and spouses and regarding the acquisition, change or retention of their nationality. E. Family life (articles 14, 17 and 44 of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families; articles 9, 10, 11, 16, 18, 19, 20 and 27 (4) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child) 27. The right to protection of family life is recognized in international and regional human rights instruments, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. Therefore, this right should be fully respected, protected and fulfilled in relation to every child without any kind of discrimination, regardless of their residency or nationality status. States should comply with their international legal obligations in terms of maintaining family unity, including siblings, and preventing separation, which should be a primary focus, in accordance with the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children. Protection of the right to a family environment frequently requires that States not only refrain from actions which could result in family separation or other arbitrary interference in the right to family life, but also take positive measures to maintain the family unit, including the reunion of separated family members. The 7