Latvian citizenship on grounds that he had not demonstrated allegiance to the Republic of Latvia did not violate the Convention. The Court deferred to the domestic law of the state in relation to the acquisition of citizenship, and held that “the requirement of loyalty to the State and its Constitution cannot be regarded as a punitive measure capable of interfering with freedom of expression and of assembly.”337 Studies on acquisition of nationality based on long-residence among member states of the European Union, have reported that Belgium and Germany provide for naturalisation as a right, if the conditions established by law are met, and that in a majority of the states naturalisation follows a rights-based approach even if there is residual discretion.338 Even in countries where naturalisation remains discretionary in law and a refusal is without a right of appeal, it may nonetheless be possible to argue under national law that basic due process requirements apply, so that naturalisation decisions should be heard within a reasonable time, be reasoned, and not consider irrelevant factors. These elements have been upheld in South Africa and Kenya among African states, for example.339 Depending on the jurisdiction it may also be possible to bring an application to force the relevant department to make a decision (a mandamus order), if it has been pending for an unreasonable amount of time. u section 7.4 Discrimination based on race, religion, or ethnicity 7.7. State succession KEY MESSAGES • Succession of states is a key danger-point for the creation of stateless populations. • Extensive guidance on the rules that should be applied is provided by the Draft Articles adopted by the International Law Commission. • The European Convention on Statelessness in the Context of State Succession, and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights relating to the Right to a nationality and the Eradication of Statelessness in Africa also provide comprehensive guidance. State succession, when sovereignty over a territory is transferred from one state to another, creates well-recognised challenges in relation to determination of the legal membership of the successor states. Whether in the context of decolonisation in Africa, the breakup of federal territories, or the secession of a part of a state to form its own new country, the transfer of legal authority creates multiple risks for people caught between different rules to find themselves stateless.340 Article 10 of the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, 1961, states that treaties providing for the transfer of territory should “include provisions designed to secure that no person shall become stateless as a result of the transfer”, and that in the absence of a treaty the state to which territory is transferred should confer its nationality on persons who would otherwise be stateless. The most authoritative detailed elaboration of principles on nationality in the context of state succession are the Draft Articles on nationality of Natural Persons in Relation to the Succession of States adopted in 1999 by the International Law Commission (ILC). Article 1 states that: Petropavlovskis v. Latvia, Application no. 44230/06, European Court of Human Rights, judgment of 13 January 2015, https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng?i=001-150232. 337 Rainer Bauböck and Sara Wallace Goodman, ”Naturalisation“, EUDO Citizenship Policy Brief No. 2, European University Institute, 2011, https://cadmus. eui.eu/handle/1814/51625; European Migration Network, ”Study on Pathways to Citizenship in the EU“, June 2020, section 4.4, https://migrant-integration. ec.europa.eu/library-document/emn-study-pathways-citizenship-eu_en. 338 This was the finding of the Public Protector in South Africa in Report No. 32 of 2017/18 on an investigation into allegations of undue delay to finalise the improper adjudication of applications for naturalisation as a South African citizen by the Department of Home Affairs, Public Protector of South Africa, 26 February 2018, http://www.pprotect.org/?q=content/report-no-32-201718-investigation-allegations-undue-delay-finalise-improper-adjudication. The Kenyan courts have ordered the Ministry of the Interior to consider applications for registration as a citizen within a reasonable time, in line with a constitutional requirement for fair administrative action: Samira Tariq Qureshi v. Cabinet Secretary for Ministry of Interior and Co-ordination of National Government and 2 others, High Court of Kenya (Nairobi) Miscellaneous Civil Application 406 of 2018, Judgment of 7 November 2019, eKLR, http://kenyalaw.org/caselaw/cases/view/188025. 339 340 Paul Weis, Nationality and Statelessness in International Law, 2nd ed. (Leiden: Brill, 1979), chap. 11; Ruth Donner, The Regulation of Nationality in International Law (Irvington-on-Hudson, N.Y: Transnational Publishers Inc., 1994), chap. V; Jeffrey L. Blackman, “State Successions and Statelessness: The Emerging Right to an Effective Nationality under International Law”, Michigan Journal of International Law Vol. 19 (1997-98), pp.1141–94; Laura van Waas, Nationality Matters: Statelessness under International Law (Antwerp ; Portland: Intersentia, 2008), chap. VI; Francesco Costamagna, “Statelessness in the Context of State Succession: An Appraisal under International Law”, in The Changing Role of Nationality in International Law, ed. Alessandra Annoni and Serena Forlati (Basingstoke: Routledge, 2013); Ineta Ziemele, “State Succession and Issues of Nationality and Statelessness”, in Nationality and Statelessness under International Law, ed. Alice Edwards and Laura van Waas (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014). 78 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