8. that the person’s admission to citizenship of the Republic of Slovenia poses no threat to public order, the security or defence of the State; 9. the person must discharge his/her tax obligations; 10. the person has given an oath to respect free democratic constitutional order, as set in the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia. Slovene law provides for preferential treatment for stateless applicants for citizenship in two respects: (1) They are exempted from the obligation to prove that they are released from previous citizenship or that they will be released after acquisition of the Slovene citizenship.14 (2) The mandatory period of continuous residence in the country is reduced to five years in their case.15 Claims for Slovene citizenship are decided upon by the Ministry of the Interior. The application has to be filed to the territorial administrative unit where the person permanently or temporarily resides.16 The territorial unit’s decisions are reviewed by a central authority of the Ministry of the Interior. Should the Ministry decide negatively, a judicial review is possible by filing a lawsuit to the Administrative Court of Slovenia (Upravno Sodišče). The latter’s decision will be further subject to review by the Supreme Court (Vrhovno Sodišče).17 Exercise 8 Reducing statelessness: Partners, strategies and activities Interactive classroom activity a) Partners Divide the students into groups of 4 (or more) and divide these generic roles among each group - i.e. each group will have at least one student in each of these roles: 1. The State; 2. The stateless population; 3. The international community; 4. Civil society. Start the exercise by asking the students to reflect on the role that they have been given (or work as a group taking each role in turn) and devise a list of the different actors that are to be found within their overall role. For instance, the “role” of the State actually describes a range of actors such as the central government, local authorities and courts. Once the students have identified as many different actors as they can think of, the groups can compare answers so that a more complete list can be generated. Then inform the students that, as part of their “role”, they are assigned responsibility for representing those actors in the discussion on reduction strategies. b) Strategies and activities From within their “role”, using the lists of actors prepared in part a) of this exercise, the students will now discuss strategies for the reduction of statelessness on the basis of the following case: Bringing gender equality to nationality law in North Africa. The last few years have seen some important changes in the nationality policy of a number of countries in Northern Africa, including Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia. Prior to the legal reform, these countries only allowed 14. Ibid., Section 10 (2). 15. Ibid., Section 12 (8). 16. Ibid., Section 27 (1)-(2). 17. See Administrative Dispute Act, Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 105/06. 54 A Guide to Teaching on Statelessness