not nationals of the Republic of Slovenia but have citizenship of another state which they cannot confer to the child, said child is not protected from statelessness by Slovenian law. 21. Every child has a right to a legal identity and nationality, which is entrenched under Article 7 of the CRC and other instruments. This is a core principle of international law, which if applied in a comprehensive and non-discriminatory manner, would result in the prevention and reduction of statelessness. In Slovenia, birth registration law and practice are generally positive and late birth registration is possible, though it is subject to a fine.44 In cases of withdrawal of nationality, the Citizenship Act requires that the individual has another citizenship so there is a safeguard against statelessness in all cases.45 Slovenia’s Erased People 22. Slovenia’s Erased People are the 25,671 individuals (1 per cent of the population of Slovenia) who were on 26 February 1992 removed or erased from Slovenia’s registry of permanent residents. This illegal measure was carried out due to the legal vacuum created by the legislation adopted after Slovenia declared independence from former SFRY in 1991. Citizens of the former Socialist Republic of Slovenia automatically became citizens of the new country, the Republic of Slovenia. According to the Citizenship of the Republic of Slovenia Act, all citizens of other republics of the former SFRY with permanent addresses in the Socialist Republic of Slovenia had the right to apply for Slovenian citizenship within six months of the date of independence. Those who failed to apply, whose application was refused, or where the procedure was terminated, lost their permanent residence status. This erasure of permanent residents did not have any basis in law. It was an arbitrary measure, carried out by local authorities in accordance with instructions from the Ministry of the Interior. With the loss of status, they also lost all economic and social rights tied to permanent resident status, and their right to remain in Slovenia.46 23. Despite receiving and accepting numerous recommendations to address this situation, Slovenia has not taken any measures to implement recommendations from the previous Cycles for facilitating access of the erased to citizenship. Since the erasure, only around 11,000 erased persons managed to regain their status in Slovenia, out of which around 7,000 gained Slovenian citizenship. 47 The situation of the rest of the erased persons remains unclear. While some still live in Slovenia without any status or rights, it is believed that the majority are now residing in other countries, as they were forced to leave the country after the erasure. In 2010, a special law was adopted to facilitate the erased who lived abroad to acquire permanent residence in Slovenia.48 Due to an unreasonably short deadline to apply (3 years since the law’s adoption) and discriminatory conditions, only around 240 permanent residence permits were issued and over 1300 applications were 44 Article 8, Civil Register Act; http://pisrs.si/Pis.web/pregledPredpisa?id=ZAKO3354. Articles 18, 22, 25, 26 of the Citizenship Act: http://pisrs.si/Pis.web/pregledPredpisa?id=ZAKO13. 46 For more information, see: http://www.mirovni-institut.si/izbrisani/en/ 47 Information published by the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Slovenia, January 2009. 48 Act Regulating the Legal Status of Citizens of Former Yugoslavia Living in the Republic of Slovenia (ZUSDDD-B), 2010. 45 7