Part II. European Law on Nationality and Statelessness
binding on Albania, are complied with. Special attention should be paid in this context to
the situation of Roma children and children born abroad lacking birth registration. Albania
should introduce a procedure in law to identify and protect stateless persons in line with the
1954 Convention and UNHCR’s Handbook on Protection of Stateless Persons. Albania is also
urged to accede to the 2006 Council of Europe Convention for the Avoidance of Statelessness
in relation to State Succession”.654
Furthermore, various human rights comments have been made by the Commissioner:
in 2010 on stateless Roma and documentation655; in 2011 on statelessness more
generally, promoting the ECN and ECSS for instance656; in 2013 on stateless children,
again calling states to accede to the ECN and ECSS (in addition to the 1954 and
1961 Conventions)657; and in 2015 on (the risk of) statelessness in relation to Syrian
refugees.658 Furthermore, in 2019 the Commissioner called on CoE member states
to accede to the relevant UN and CoE conventions on statelessness in the context of
the UNHCR #IBELONG campaign, also calling for further measures to be taken by
states, including enacting statelessness determination procedures, easing naturalization
procedures and ensuring birth registration.659
Even though not specifically focused on nationality or statelessness, it is also
relevant to take note of the work of the European Commission against Racism and
Intolerance (ECRI). This CoE human rights monitoring mechanism was set up in
1993 and got a firm legal basis in its own Statute in 2002.660 It does not oversee the
implementation of a specific treaty, but its focus is on issues relating to the fight against
racism, discrimination (on grounds of race, ethnic/national origin, color, citizenship,
654
655
656
657
658
659
660
124
CoE Commissioner for Human Rights, ‘Report by Dunja Mijatović, Commissioner for Human
Rights of the Council of Europe Following Her Visit to Albania from 21 to 25 May 2018’
(2018)
CommDH/GovRep(2018)10
<https://search.coe.int/commissioner/Pages/result_details.
aspx?ObjectId=09000016808d2e22> accessed 2 July 2021.
CoE Commissioner for Human Rights, ‘Human Rights Comment: Stateless Roma: No Documents
– No Rights’ (2010) <https://www.coe.int/en/web/commissioner/-/stateless-roma-no-documents-norigh-1> accessed 2 July 2021.
CoE Commissioner for Human Rights, ‘Human Rights Comment: Several Hundred Thousand
People in Europe are Stateless – They Need Extra Protection’ (2011) <https://www.coe.int/en/
web/commissioner/-/several-hundred-thousand-people-in-europe-are-stateless-they-need-extraprotecti-1> accessed 2 July 2021.
CoE Commissioner for Human Rights, ‘Human Rights Comment: Governments Should Act in the
Best Interest of Stateless Children’ (2013) <https://www.coe.int/en/web/commissioner/-/governmentsshould-act-in-the-best-interest-of-stateless-childr-1> accessed 2 July 2021.
CoE Commissioner for Human Rights, ‘Human Rights Comment: Syrian Refugees: ‘Reset’ Needed
in Europe’s Approach’ (2015) <https://www.coe.int/en/web/commissioner/-/syrian-refugees-resetneeded-in-europe-s-approach> accessed 2 July 2021.
CoE Commissioner for Human Rights, ‘Statement: Step Up Action Against Statelessness’ (2019)
<https://www.coe.int/en/web/commissioner/news-2019/-/asset_publisher/Arb4fRK3o8Cf/content/
step-up-action-against-statelessness> accessed 2 July 2021.
CM Resolution (2002) 8 on the on the statute of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance
(adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 13 June 2002 at the 799th meeting of the Ministers’
Deputies, amended by Resolutions CM/Res(2013)12 and CM/Res(2014)2 adopted, respectively, on
9 October 2013 and 19 February 2014 at their 1180th and 1192nd meetings).
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