02/10/2013 Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The report by Boriss Cilevičs (Latvia, SOC) dealing with nationality-related issues, adopted today by the PACE Legal Affairs Committee, notes that the trend in several Council of Europe member states in recent years has been to make it more difficult to acquire nationality, although the right to a nationality is enshrined in several international legal instruments, including the European Convention on Nationality, which only 20 member states have ratified.
The committee reminded member states of their duty to combat statelessness, which is extremely widespread in Europe – 12 million people worldwide according to the United Nations and nearly 700 000 in Europe according to UNHCR, particularly in Estonia, the Russian Federation, Latvia and Ukraine. These people remain in a legal limbo, deprived of political rights and often with no access to health care and education, stresses the report.
The committee calls on national parliaments to adopt legislation which would allow acquisition of citizenship by stateless persons without undue obstacles and would prevent children from being stateless at birth. It also recommends granting citizenship to long-terms residents without requiring them to renounce a previous nationality, which can only encourage their integration with their country of residence.