Legal briefing: Statelessness and the right to respect for private and family life October 2024 registration, and the importance of nationality, and proof thereof, for children to be able to have a family life and reside and travel with their parents. While States retain a certain sovereignty to define the exact contours of who is entitled to their nationality, they are increasingly restricted by such growing jurisprudence, which requires respect for private and family life, understood to its full extent and including important elements of personal identity such as nationality, when making decisions on nationality. ECtHR case law could further develop the notion of nationality as an element of personal identity and how nationality issues impact an individual’s private and family life. It could also expand its case law to additional aspects of such private and family life. These developments could also enrich the concepts discussed in the above sections, such as the need to have an effective route to regularisation of status and how personal identity is affected by the uncertainty of legal status.144 There is also potential for the CJEU to further develop its jurisprudence and expressly recognise that nationality forms part of an individual’s personal identity, to fully explore how nationality issues may be encompassed under the right to respect for private and family life under Article 7 CFR. Considering the importance of nationality as recognised by jurisprudence, the existing case law, and some positive developments in recent jurisprudence, there is scope for litigators to develop further arguments in favour of recognising the right to a nationality in regional instruments. 2.4. Acquisition, denial and deprivation of nationality There is no explicit right to a nationality in the ECHR.145 However, the ECtHR has confirmed on several occasions that interferences with a person’s access to a nationality may engage Article 8 ECHR, and the procedural safeguards inherent in that Article, because of the impact on the private life of the individual. 146 This applies to the acquisition of nationality, as well as situations whereby authorities deny a person access to nationality. The ECtHR has also found violations of Article 8 ECHR concerning the deprivation of nationality, which for the purposes of this briefing refers to any loss or withdrawal of nationality that was not voluntarily requested by the individual.147 144 For a comparative analysis with other regional courts, see e.g. Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR), Rights and Guarantees of Children in the Context of Migration and/or in Need of International Protection, Advisory Opinion OC21/14, 19August 2014, where the IACtHR stated that States must ensure immigration laws and practices do not lead to family separation, regardless of the legal status of those involved; and IACtHR, Vélez Loor v. Panama, 23 November 2010, where the IACtHR found that the detention and deportation of a migrant without considering his family ties violated his right to family life. 145 ECtHR, Petropavlovskis v. Latvia (application no. 44230/06), 13 January 2015, paragraph 73. 146 ECtHR, Ghoumid and others v. France (applications no. 52273/16, 52285/16, 52290/16, 52294/16 and 52302/16), 25 June 2020, paragraphs 43-44; ECtHR, Mennesson v. France (application no. 65192/11), 26 June 2014, paragraph 97. 147 UN Human Rights Council, Human rights and arbitrary deprivation of nationality: Report of the Secretary-General, 14 December 2009, UN Doc A/HRC/13/34, paragraph 23. See also ENS, Deprivation of nationality and the prevention of statelessness in Europe, July 2021. 25