THE PROBLEM OF STATELESSNESS IN UKRAINE AND THE WAYS OF ADDRESSING IT
The Family Code of Ukraine. It is necessary to establish the stateless persons’
right to be adopters, guardians or tutors, foster parents, or caregiving parents by
means of making appropriate amendments to the Family Code of Ukraine, and to
eliminate the provisions according to which adopted children may only maintain
citizenship of Ukraine until attainment of majority.
The Criminal Code of Ukraine. It is reasonable to renew the provision of Article
10 concerning the prohibition on extradition of the stateless persons permanently
residing in Ukraine.
Amendments are recommended for the following subordinate regulatory legal
acts:
The Procedure for proceedings on applications and claims concerning
citizenship of Ukraine and for execution of decisions made. The current version
of the Procedure fails to regulate the access to the procedure of legalization
of Ukrainian citizenship for the children born in places of confinement. In this
view, it is necessary to make appropriate amendments aimed at promoting the
documentation as citizens by such children.
It is also reasonable to eliminate the provisions establishing the requirements on
a minimum amount of a legal livelihood as a condition for admitting to citizenship
of Ukraine. These provisions considerably complicate access of foreigners and
stateless persons to the procedure of admission to citizenship of Ukraine or
even make the access impossible. Besides, it is worth deleting the provisions
laying on foreigners and stateless persons the burden to prove the absence of
circumstances that make their admission to citizenship of Ukraine impossible.
The Rules of State Registration of Civil Status Acts in Ukraine. In pursuance of
the provisions to be amended in the Law of Ukraine on Registration of Civil Status
Acts, it will be necessary to regulate the procedure of birth registration of a child
whose mother is not married and has no passport, of a child whose parents have
no passport documents or legitimate grounds to stay in the territory of Ukraine,
of children who have attained 16 years of age and the procedure of establishing
the fact of a person’s birth.
The Procedure for execution, production and issuance of a permanent
residence permit and a temporary residence permit. The procedure should
incorporate provisions for issuance of residence permits to stateless individuals
who are not able to get documented by another country, including former USSR
citizens who lost their ex-USSR citizen passports. It should also provide for an
effective opportunity for issuance of residence permits to foreigners and stateless
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