tilburg law review 19 (2014) 203-211 brill.com/tilr Facilitated Naturalization of Stateless Persons Eva Mrekajová Intern at the Statelessness Unit, Department of International Protection, Pillar I-Policy and Law, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Geneva mrekajova1@gmail.com Abstract Naturalization of stateless persons falls under the broader problem of statelessness, which is recently drawing more and more attention. However, the issue of facilitated naturalization of stateless persons stays grossly overlooked. The present article tries to identify international and European standards and general recommendations related to facilitated access to citizenship for stateless persons. The article focuses in particular on assessment of material requirements (residence, language and other integration requirements, good character, economic resources requirements, loyalty to the State and security) and procedural aspects of naturalization (application, proceedings). Keywords reduction of statelessness – access to citizenship – facilitated naturalization – residence – language tests – integration – good character – economic resources requirements – loyalty – security – application for naturalization – naturalization proceedings 1 Introduction Some international instruments1 explicitly recommend that States facilitate the acquisition of their nationality for stateless persons and this has been 1 See e.g. Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons (adopted 28 September 1954, entered into force 6 June 1960) 360 UNTS 117 (1954 Convention), Art. 32 <http://www .refworld.org/docid/3ae6b3840.html> accessed 13 October 2013; European Convention on © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014 | doi 10.1163/22112596-01902020