19/03/2013 Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Strasbourg, 19.03.2013 - "Avoiding stateless in general, and granting access to nationality for long-term legal residents, is certainly a political issue as well as a legal one, but without political will, progress is impossible. Too many children are still born stateless and this is a blatant violation of the most basic of human rights," Boriss Cilevics (Latvia, SOC), rapporteur on 'Access to nationality and the effective implementation of the European Convention on Nationality' stressed today at an exchange of views with an expert on this issue at a meeting of the Legal Affairs Committee.
"The trend towards excluding long-term immigrants from access to the nationality of the country of residence hinders their full integration in this country. It prevents them from enjoying full political rights, as they depend traditionally on citizenship and it generates discrimination on different walks of life," the rapporteur stressed. His report, which will also deal with multiple nationalities, considered less problematic, is due to be presented to the Committee before the end of 2013.