On 8 February, the United Kingdom Supreme Court overruled historic gender discrimination in British citizenship law. British women were previously unable to pass British citizenship by double descent to children born between 1949 and 1983. The landmark ruling of “Advocate General for Scotland v. Romein” allows for application for registration as a British citizen from persons born abroad to a British mother during the abovementioned period. With regard to Action 5 (Prevent statelessness in cases of State succession) the European Court of Human Rights issued its decision in Mskhiladze v. Russia on 13 February. The case concerns the detention of a stateless person in a center for temporary confinement of foreign nationals for over one year pending removal proceedings. The removal was not possible due to the applicant’s statelessness. The Court found a violation of Articles 5(1) and 5(4) of the European Convention on Human Rights regarding the lawfulness of his detention and the lack of possibility to have the legality of his continued detention reviewed by a court. A woman at risk of statelessness holds her documents during a verification exercise for individuals with unclear legal status in Podgorica, Montenegro ©UNHCR/R. Srdanovic 4

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