2019 Statelessness & Citizenship Review 1(1) emanating from the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons. 44 However an ECHR-specific obligation to identify stateless persons can potentially have more far-reaching legal and political effects for stateless persons in Europe due to the advanced enforceability mechanisms of the ECHR which other international human rights treaties do not have. In addition to the potential impact of the judgment on national statelessness determination procedures and practices, Hoti makes an important statement regarding the relationship between stateless persons’ enjoyment of ECHR rights and their access to citizenship. The Court emphasises that the judgment is not about Mr Hoti’s access to Croatian citizenship, but instead about his access to any status which adequately guarantees enjoyment of his right to private and family life. The applicant’s earlier choice not to become a citizen of Croatia while it was still part of SFRY was not regarded by the Court as a legitimate barrier to his enjoyment of the right to private life. A stateless person may thus choose not to take up the citizenship of a host state, and nevertheless be entitled to the protection of their ECHR rights through access to an appropriate residence status. The Hoti judgment thus supports the argument that access to human rights cannot be made dependent on whether, when and how a stateless person may choose to invoke their right to a nationality. 45 44 45 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Handbook on the Protection of Stateless Persons (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 2014) 6, citing Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, opened for signature 28 September 1954, 360 UNTS 117 (entered into force 6 June 1960). See also Kate Bianchini, Protecting Stateless Persons: The Implementation of the Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons across EU States (Brill Nijhoff 2018) 108–11. See Katja Swider, ‘A Rights-Based Approach to Statelessness’ (DPhil Thesis, University of Amsterdam, 2018); Katja Swider ‘Why End Statelessness?’ in Tendayi Bloom, Katherine Tonkiss and Phillip Cole (eds), Understanding Statelessness (Routledge 2017) 191. 190