Oleksandra Zmiyenko
Saggi – DPCE online, 2020/4
ISSN: 2037-6677
related to administrative measures (identity papers) and social welfare. Italy and
Hungary, in turn, did not have any significant reservations to the main UN
instruments. However as to the regional instruments, the former has signed, but
not ratified the ECN, whereas the latter had major reservations concerning the
acquisition of Hungarian nationality. Germany, being a State Party to the ECN,
kept significant reservations allowing for de-nationalisation.
Further analysis should be done through the prism of the adherence or lack
of ratification of the relevant international and regional instruments, as the
selected countries perform differently depending on their international
commitments.
b. Prevention.
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In the chosen Member States, across the elements possible to compare as to
prevention of the new cases of statelessness to occur, the context of forced
migration implies the following categories out of the wider selection available in
the SI: stateless born on territory, foundlings, access to birth registration, late
birth registration and reduction of the risk of statelessness.
A comparison between those categories in these four counties may suggest
that the efforts to prevent statelessness and to reduce the risk of statelessness are
mixed. The least ambiguous cases relate to the foundlings – in all four domestic
legal systems foundlings acquire citizenship (with a minor reservation in Italy,
which does not create an obstacle in practice of the application of law). The
situation is different for stateless persons born on the territory of the respective
countries, as only Italian law contains a possibility for a child of stateless parents
or parents who cannot confer their nationality, to acquire citizenship at birth, and
even that provision is not implemented automatically. Thus, legislation of all the
four countries contains gaps that might allow for childhood statelessness.
The situation is even more aggravated concerning access to birth
registration and late birth registration, where only Poland does not have legal
obstacles or practical barriers in both cases. Access to sound birth registration
procedures are crucial in preventing and eradicating statelessness. For instance in
Germany, which is perceived as a destination country, in spite of procedural
possibilities to obtain late birth registration, there are practical obstacles to
accomplish it.
As regards to the reduction of the risk of statelessness, in all for countries
there is no evidence of any government campaigns to promote civil birth
registration.
The common feature between the selected countries is not only an absence
of exhaustive legal mechanisms that would allow for full prevention of the
statelessness cases and reduction of the risk of statelessness, but also in case of the
existence of such procedural safeguards, their application might encounter
obstacles.