Legal briefing: Statelessness and the prohibition on discrimination against Romani communities April 2023 citizenship and naturalization does not discriminate against members of Roma Communities”. 30 To combat discrimination based on ethnic origin, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance recommends that “legislation concerning citizenship is not discriminatory towards Roma”.31 Furthermore, since differentiation between groups in materially different positions is deemed legitimate, States can adopt positive discrimination measures to help vulnerable groups of stateless individuals. 32 In this line, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance recommends that States register all Roma children at birth, that all Roma are issued identity documents, and facilitate access to citizenship for Roma to obviate all cases of statelessness.33 2. INTERNATIONAL AND REGIONAL CASELAW Discrimination is defined by the European Court of Human Rights as “treating differently, without an objective and reasonable justification, persons in relevantly similar situations”.34 As a general principle, for a violation to be found under Article 14 in conjunction with another provision of the ECHR, there must be a disproportionate interference which is prejudicial to a particular group, regardless of whether the impact is aimed at that group. 35 For example, the Court has found that circumstances in which an individual was excluded from accessing a public service solely on the basis of their nationality, while satisfying all other substantive requirements, amounted to discrimination. 36 It is also noted that there is no explicit right to a nationality under the ECHR.37 However, the ECtHR has confirmed on several occasions that interferences with a person’s right to a nationality may engage Article 14 together with Article 8 ECHR because of the impact on the private life of the individual. 38 In Genovese v. Malta, the Maltese authorities denied Maltese nationality to a child on the basis that they were born out of wedlock to a Maltese father and a British mother. Domestic legislation only conferred nationality to children born out of wedlock if the mother was Maltese. The ECtHR found that the distinguishing factor in this case was that the applicant was born to parents out of wedlock and that no reasonable grounds were adduced to justify such a Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, ‘General recommendation XXVII on discrimination against Roma’, 16 August 2000, §4. 31 European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance, ‘General Policy Recommendation on combatting antigypsyism and discrimination against Roma’, CRI(2011)37rev, December 2020, §17. 32 UNHCR, Handbook on Protection of Stateless Persons (2014), §140. 33 European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance, ‘General Policy Recommendation on combatting antigypsyism and discrimination against Roma’, CRI(2011)37rev, December 2020, §17. 34 ECtHR, Kurić and Others v. Slovenia [GC] (n 25), §386; Andrejeva v. Latvia (n 23), §81. 35 ECtHR, Kurić and Others v. Slovenia [GC] (n 25), §388. 36 ECtHR, Andrejeva v. Latvia (n 23), §88; Gaygusuz v. Austria (n 23), §47. 37 ECtHR, Petropavlovskis v. Latvia, application no. 44230/06, judgment of 13 January 2015, §73. 38 ECtHR, Ghoumid and others v. France, applications no. 52273/16, 52285/16, 52290/16, 52294/16 and 52302/16, judgment of 25 June 2020, §43-44; Mennesson v. France, application no. 65192/11, judgment of 26 June 2014, §97. 30 7