09/04/2014 Session
Today PACE expressed its concern at the high number of stateless persons in a number of countries, in particular Estonia, Latvia, the Russian Federation and Ukraine, and asked member states to sign and apply the European Convention on Nationality and the UN conventions against statelessness.
The resolution adopted also recommends that access to nationality should be made easier for long-term residents, by asking for no more than five years’ residency. Nor should there be any discrimination on grounds of gender, race, religion, ethnic origin or language, said the parliamentarians.
Finally, in keeping with the conclusions of the rapporteur, Boriss Cilevičs (Latvia, SOC), the Assembly recommended automatic acquisition of nationality for children born in the territory who would otherwise be stateless, as well as in situations where a person’s loss of nationality would lead to his or her statelessness.