By the UN Special Rapporteur on racism in relation to a nationality deprivation case in the Netherlands.137  By the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism in a joint intervention with the British organisation Liberty in the Shamima Begum nationality deprivation case before the British courts.138 H - Case example: Bringing international and comparative legal analysis to Colombia’s Constitutional Court Unlike most countries in continental Americas, Colombia restricts the attribution of nationality to those born in the territory to children of parents who are Colombian nationals or are “domiciled” in Colombia (a status that included a number of different types of visa). This provision was applied to deny Colombian nationality to children born in Colombia to Venezuelan parents with the Special Permit for Permanence “PEP” a humanitarian measure that allows migrants to reside in Colombia and access basic rights such as education, health and work, but was not considered valid evidence of “domicile” in Colombia. With the support of the Open Society Justice Initiative, De Justícia, a national NGO with experience in strategic litigation, worked with Corporación Opción Legal and the Universidad de Antioquia, clinics providing support on individual cases, to identify plaintiffs and coordinate a submission to the Constitutional Court to challenge this practice. Ultimately, 12 organisations jointly submitted an intervention to the Constitutional Court.139 The Open Society Justice Initiative submitted its own amicus brief in the case, focusing on the international legal framework and obligations of states with respect to children’s right to nationality,140 and facilitated the submission of an amicus brief from the University Alberto Hurtado of Chile. UNHCR also intervened in the case.141 The litigation was combined with other advocacy from civil society, including submissions to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.142 Arguments presented included the child’s fundamental right to a nationality, and the regional and international standards that protect the right to nationality of children born in the territory, including the safeguard against statelessness. The briefs highlighted deficiencies in the interpretation of the domestic legal framework, through a series of administrative acts which establish a complex system with little certainty, creating arbitrary distinctions among children with parents with different forms of regular migratory status. In 2018, the Constitutional Court selected the case for review, joining the case with another addressing similar facts. Only a minority of cases submitted are selected in this way, and the joint submission by many Colombian actors, supported by international interventions, no doubt made an important contribution to this decision. In January 2020 the court ruled in favour of the applicants. Several of the arguments presented in the amicus briefs were reflected in the decision, with references to jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court and in Chile; a summary of the Justice Initiative’s amicus brief formed an annex to the final ruling.143 The Court addressed the interpretation of “domicile” in the discussion of the issues, but (disappointingly) did not make any order on the point in its judgment. Even before the judgment was issued, two different measures addressed the status of Venezuelan children born in Colombia. In August 2019, an administrative resolution provided for the civil registry to recognise the Colombian nationality of the children of Venezuelans born in Colombia144; later that year, in a parallel process supported by the ombuds office (Defensoría del Pueblo), the legislature adopted a new law that provided the same protection (though with differences in detail).145 These measures applied only to the children of Venezuelan parents, and were time limited, applying to those born in Colombia from 2015, initially up to 2021, extended to 2025.146 It was estimated that more than 24,000 children immediately benefited from the grant of Colombian nationality.147 Almost 105,000 children had benefited from this grant as of February 2024. In 2021, a new migration policy was adopted that also provided for the recognition of stateless person status. Amicus Brief Presented by the UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, before the Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service, 23 October 2018, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Racism/SR/Amicus/DutchImmigration_Amicus.pdf. 137 138 Skeleton Argument of the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while combatting terrorism, R (Shamima Begum) v. Special Immigration Appeals Commission and Secretary of State for the Home Department, Administrative Court Co/798/2020, https://www. ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Issues/Terrorism/SR/2020_05_29_FINAL_Begum_Intervention.pdf. Gobierno colombiano estaría poniendo en riesgo de apatridia a bebés de padres venezolanos que nacen en Colombia, De Justicia, 25 June 2019, https:// www.dejusticia.org/dejusticia-interviene-ante-la-corte-constitucional-en-casos-de-hijos-de-venezolanos-en-riesgo-de-apatridia/. 139 140 Case summary by OSJI: https://www.justiceinitiative.org/litigation/right-to-nationality-of-children-born-in-colombia. 141 Supra n 130. “Necesidades de protección de las personas venezolanas forzadas a migrar, refugiadas y en riesgo de apatridia en Colombia”, Informe país como aporte a la Audiencia Temática 168 período de sesiones de la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (CIDH) en República Dominicana, 11 May 2018, https:// www.refworld.org.es/docid/5b50d8494.html. 142 143 Sentencia T-006/20, supra n 29, pp.22-23, 50, 58. 144 Registrador Nacional del Estado Civil, Resolución 8470 de 5 de agosto de 2019. Lei 1997 de 16 de setembro de 2019. See discussion in Miguel Ángel Rodríguez Vázquez, Flor María Ávila Hernández & Isidro de los Santos, ‘Reflexiones sobre nacionalidad, apatridia y derechos de los niños: Análisis comparado entre Colombia y República Dominicana’, Novum Jus, 14, no.2 (2020), 197–231, https://doi.org/10.14718/NovumJus.2020.14.2.9 145 Abraham Puche, ‘¿Cómo los hijos de migrantes venezolanos nacidos en Colombia pueden adquirir la nacionalidad?’ Conectando Caminos por los Derechos & ColombiaCheck, 18 May 2022, https://colombiacheck.com/investigaciones/como-los-hijos-de-migrantes-venezolanos-nacidos-en-colombia-pueden-adquirir-la. 146 ‘Colombia otorga nacionalidad a 24.000 niños y niñas nacidos de padres y madres venezolanos’, CEJIL, 5 August 2019, https://cejil.org/comunicado-de-prensa/colombia-otorga-nacionalidad-a-24-000-ninos-y-ninas-nacidos-de-padres-y-madres-venezolanos/. 147 U N H C R | L I T I G AT I N G T H E R I G H T T O A N AT I O N A L I T Y: A G U I D E F O R P R AC T I T I O N E R S 47