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Home Office consultation Blog

UK Home Office should seek to remove barriers faced by stateless children born in the UK rather than making it more difficult for them to acquire British citizenship

Following an online consultation on its "New Plan for Immigration", the UK Government needs to ensure that any proposed amendment to the…
/ Cynthia Orchard, ENS Individual member and Nina Murray, Head of Policy & Research at the European Network on Statelessness
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)
Maltese flag overlooking Valetta Blog

Will Malta’s accession to the 1954 Convention help change a culture of ‘outright exclusion’ of stateless persons?

Malta finally acceded to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons on 11 December 2019 after numerous calls from civil society…
/ Jo Venkov - Lawyer and writer on statelessness, identity, citizenship and belonging
Dominican Constitutional Court in virtual hearing Blog

Seizing new opportunities to address statelessness in the Dominican Republic

Following a decade of restrictive measures on migration and nationality matters, in late 2013 the Constitutional Tribunal in Santo Domingo issued a…
/ Bridget Wooding - Director, Observatory Caribbean Migrants, Dominican Republic
Photo: Drawing of a child detained in Al-Roj camp in Syria. Blog

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity…really? Why France’s forsaken “children of ISIS”* may grow up to view the French Republic’s values differently.

There are currently an estimated 300 French children stranded in various displacement camps in Northeastern Syria. Deprivation of nationality of one…
/ Philomene Franssen, MA Candidate at the University Of London and Independent Consultant
Rachel work permit Blog

Citizenship and the fall of the British Empire: A system of exclusion

After 258 years under British and French colonial rule, Mauritius gained independence in 1968. The new Constitution of Mauritius created different…
/ Rachel Pougnet, Researcher in citizenship and national security
Liew Teh Blog

"Everything is stuck”: Left in limbo and stateless as a British Overseas Citizen

I arrived in the UK in 2001 at the age of twenty from Malaysia, with feelings of excitement as I embarked on an Engineering Degree at the University…
/ Liew Teh
Blog

Equating the rights of stateless persons with refugees in Spain

The new law should raise the standard of protection for those applying for stateless status and equate it to Spain’s law on asylum which offers a…
/ Nacho Hernández Moreno. Lawyer, International Affairs Department, Fundación Cepaim
Blog

Statelessness: A blind spot on Austria’s human rights record

Austria is often praised by its official representatives as a model country concerning human rights protection, with a positive record on…
/ Leonhard Call, independent human rights consultant
Photo: TeaMeister (flickr - Creative Commons) Blog

How far do citizenship laws in European Union Member States safeguard the children born there from statelessness?

Most European Union Member States participate in the international conventions concerning statelessness of 1954 and 1961, and have certain laws that…
/ Merve Erdilmen (Doctoral Student, Department of Political Science, McGill University) and Iseult Honohan (Associate Professor Emeritus, School of Politics and International Relations, University College Dublin)