THE PROBLEM OF STATELESSNESS IN UKRAINE AND THE WAYS OF ADDRESSING IT
to which everyone has the right to respect for his or her private and family life.
Case law of the European Court of Human Rights includes some cases where the
Court found a breach of Article 8 of the ECHR.
One example is the judgment in the case Liu v. Russia (No. 42086/05 of
06.12.2007)31. The applicants included Liu Jingcai, a Chinese national, his wife,
a national of the Russian Federation, and their two children born in the territory
of the Russian Federation. At the moment of marriage and birth of their first child,
Liu stayed in the Russian Federation pursuant to a work permit. He then applied
for a residence permit but was refused, which put Liu at threat of removal. While
the refusal decision was under a judicial appeal procedure, Liu was living in the
country without a proper permit, for which he had to pay administrative fines
many times. Later, a decision to deport Liu from Russia was made by judicial
means but was not implemented. The applicants complained about a breach of,
inter alia, Article 8 of the ECHR that consisted of destruction of family ties in case
of Liu’s deportation from the Russian Federation. The Court found that relations
between the applicants had constituted family life, and the refusal to issue Liu
Jingcai a residence permit as well as the deportation order against him had been
an interference with the applicants’ right to respect for their family life. Besides,
the Court awarded both applicants EUR 6,000 for non-pecuniary damage.
IV. The proposed ways of addressing the problem of
statelessness in Ukraine
Over the years of Ukraine’s independence, the problem of statelessness in
its territory has acquired a serious scale and therefore requires an integrated
approach to addressing it and coordinated actions from both governmental
bodies and non-governmental organizations, the latter in many instances being
the first institution that stateless persons apply to.
The first and necessary step of this integrated approach should consist of
amending the current laws and subordinate regulations32 related to the matters
of citizenship and statelessness. In addition, some regulatory acts in related
fields that regulate or must regulate certain rights of stateless persons on
an equal footing with Ukrainian citizens or with other foreigners, may require
amendments. Another obvious need is to bring the Law of Ukraine on the Legal
Status of Foreigners and Stateless Persons into conformity with the requirements
of the 1954 Statelessness Convention, as interpreted by UNHCR in its Handbook
on Protection of Stateless Persons. However, despite doubtless importance of
31 See the full text of the judgment at http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/sites/eng/pages/search.aspx?i=001-83824
32 To be described in detail further
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