ECHR Blog

Surrogacy Arrangements: Can Article 8 of the ECHR Combat Child Statelessness?

On 31 August 2023, in the case of C. v. Italy, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) delivered a judgment concerning a four-year-old child born…
/ Giulia Bittoni, Lawyer Linguist, Court of Justice of the European Union
France Blog

French Administrative Supreme Court rejected a stateless status application from a Sahrawi applicant

France's highest administrative court has denied statelessness status to a Sahrawi-born individual residing in the country since 2013. The decision,…
/ Maëliss GUILLAUD, Esq. Immigration and Asylum Attorney, New York Bar and French (Lille) Bar
UK passport Blog

Shamima Begum: now stateless, but still deprived of her British citizenship

On 22 February 2023 the UK Special Immigration Appeals Commission upheld the UK Home Secretary’s decision to strip Shamima Begum of her citizenship.…
/ Alison Harvey, No5 Chambers and ENS Individual Member
Supreme Court of the Netherlands Blog

What a judge cannot see: statelessness determination in the Netherlands

After years of waiting, the Netherlands is close to introducing a judicial procedure to determine statelessness, but without effective access to a…
/ Katja Swider, Assistant Professor, Amsterdam Centre for Migration and Refugee Law, Free University of Amsterdam
Child and progress pride flag Blog

Celebrating progress in the protection of rainbow families, but more needs to be done

Since the day they were born, baby Sara and baby Sofia have been waiting to receive an identity document or a passport and are at risk of…
/ Arpi Avetisyan, ILGA Europe & Patrícia Cabral, ENS
Image by Markus Spiske via Unsplash Blog

Can international law offer protection to those at risk of climatic statelessness?

Scholarship on the impact of climate change on migration has tended to focus on refugee populations, but growing scholarship highlights the impending…
/ Jo Venkov, Lawyer and Writer on statelessness, identity, citizenship and belonging
Michael Parulava Blog

Stateless people gain access to documentation in Russia

In August 2021, amendments to the Law on the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens in the Russian Federation and other legislation regulating the legal…
/ Olga Abramenko, Expert, Anti-Discrimination Centre Memorial
 LGBTQ+ families, surrogacy and the legal identity of unsanctioned babies Blog

The Statelessness Case Law Database: LGBTQ+ families, surrogacy and the legal identity of unsanctioned babies

The new ENS Statelessness Case Law Database offers a lens through which we can observe how European laws deal with the reality of statelessness. In…
/ Katja Swider ENS Member, Assistant Professor of Migration Law at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Russian passport being cut with scissors Blog

Russia’s Constitutional Court delivers questionable ruling on nationality stripping

Last month, Russia’s Constitutional Court ruled that there is no lack of clarity in legal provisions that make it possible to strip a person of their…
/ Olga Abramenko, Expert at ADC Memorial
British passport cover Blog

Shamima Begum Supreme Court judgment: What are the implications for statelessness cases?

Last week, the UK Supreme Court ruled in the case of Begum v Secretary of State for the Home Department, in favour of the Secretary of State and…
/ Alison Harvey, No5 Chambers and ENS Individual Member
Children's toys Blog

A victory for human rights in Zhao v. the Netherlands (the ‘Denny case’): Nationality from birth, without exceptions

In its first-ever decision on the right to nationality, issued in late December, the UN Human Rights Committee calls on the Netherlands to enact a…
/ By Laura Bingham, Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) and Jelle Klaas, Public Interest Litigation Project of the International Commission of Jurists (NJCM)
Blog

Burden of proof in statelessness cases and the meaning of “by operation of its law”

The UK’s practice of depriving persons of their British citizenship when they are outside its territory belies its assurance, in the form of a duly…
/ Alison Harvey, Barrister at No5 Chambers