Legal briefing: Statelessness and the right to respect for private and family life October 2024 possibility of accessing measures or mechanisms to regularise their status;30 fulfilling everyone’s right to birth registration and identity documents;31 and ensuring that any denial or deprivation of nationality is justified under the ECHR and would not be arbitrary by conducting a careful and thorough assessment.32 The ECtHR has ruled on Article 8 and statelessness in a number of contexts, including regularisation, denial of nationality, deprivation of nationality, and detention, as outlined in the section below. Stateless persons are particularly vulnerable due to the severe impact of statelessness on the enjoyment of fundamental rights.33 They are also disproportionately impacted in their ability to enjoy private and family life due to the obstacles that statelessness imposes in their lives,34 and are often denied rights such as access to employment, education, healthcare, and other civil and political rights. An interference with Article 8 must strike a fair balance between an individual’s right to protection under the ECHR and the interests of the Contracting State,35 and the margin of appreciation afforded to States “will vary in the light of the nature of the issues and the seriousness of the interests at stake”.36 States’ margin of appreciation in cases concerning vulnerable persons, such as stateless persons, is therefore narrower.37 The ECtHR has previously recognised that statelessness is an “important element” of a case and noted the adverse consequences of statelessness.38 In Kurić and others v. Slovenia, it emphasised that the “erasure” from the Slovenian registration system left the stateless applicants in a state of legal limbo, and therefore in a situation of vulnerability and insecurity.39 This was also the case in Hoti v. Croatia, where the ECtHR noted the adverse consequences of statelessness,40 particularly as it affects the prospects of securing employment, access to healthcare, and pension rights. EU Charter of Fundamental Rights: Article 7 The right to respect for private and family life is also enshrined in EU law. Article 7 CFR provides that “everyone has the right to respect for his or her private and family life, home and communications”. The CJEU has clarified that the rights guaranteed in Article 7 CFR have the same meaning and the same scope as those guaranteed in Article 8 ECHR.41 30 ECtHR, Sudita Keita v. Hungary, (application no. 42321/15),12 May 2020. See section 2.1. of this briefing. ECtHR, G.T.B. v. Spain (application no. 3041/19), 16 November 2023. See section 2.3. of this briefing. 32 ECtHR, K2 v. the United Kingdom (application no. 42387/13), 7 February 2017. See section 2.4 of this briefing. 33 A detailed report of the impact of deprivation of nationality on the enjoyment of human rights is contained in UN Human Rights Council, Human rights and arbitrary deprivation of nationality: report of the Secretary-General A/HRC/19/43 (19 December 2011) available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/4f181ef92.html. 34 ECtHR, Hoti v. Croatia (application no. 63311/14), 26 July 2018, paragraph 122. 35 ECtHR, Vavřička and Others v. the Czech Republic [GC] (application no. 47621/13), 8 April 2021, paragraphs 273-275. 36 ECtHR, Strand Lobben and Others v. Norway [GC] (application no. 37283/13), 10 September 2019, paragraph 211. 37 ECtHR, Hoti v. Croatia (application no. 63311/14), 26 July 2018, paragraph 122. See also, ECtHR, Konstatinov v. The Netherlands (application no.16351/03), 26 April 2017. 38 ECtHR, Sudita Keita v. Hungary (application no. 42321/15), 12 May 2020, paragraph 35; ECtHR, Kurić and Others v. Slovenia [GC] (application no. 26828/06), 26 June 2012, paragraph 356. 39 ECtHR, Kurić and Others v. Slovenia [GC] (application no. 26828/06), 26 June 2012, paragraph 302. 40 ECtHR, Hoti v. Croatia (application no. 63311/14), 26 July 2018, paragraphs 117, 126. 41 See e.g. CJEU, Case C-490/20, V.M.A. v. Stolichna obshtina, rayon ‘Pancharevo’, 14 December 2021, paragraph 60: “as is apparent from the Explanations relating to the Charter of Fundamental Rights […], in accordance with Article 52(3) 31 8