ANDREJEVA v. LATVIA JUDGMENT – SEPARATE OPINION 51 element which, especially in the modern world of human rights, has become somewhat less important. Nevertheless, it still holds true that having a nationality makes a considerable difference compared to being stateless. In situations of disappearance of States, nationality acquires particular importance. This explains the numerous efforts by the Council of Europe and the United Nations to codify some international rules on nationality in situations of State succession. In these situations more than ever, nationality is a basis for a clear entitlement to a number of important rights, including, as in the case of Latvia, the attribution of pension advantages to its citizens in the absence of any other likely contender. 25. In sum, there was no obligation under international law to take any responsibility for the years of employment accrued under the Soviet Union unless and until this was agreed through inter-State negotiations. However, in the special context of illegal annexation (see point 26 below), citizens of the injured State had a strong expectation that they would not have to suffer any more than they already had and that this might as well translate into their right to pension advantages. In other words, there is nothing unreasonable in the fact that after long years spent under an unlawful totalitarian regime the independent legislature decided to reward the citizens. 26. The particular context of illegal annexation distinguishes this case even from other cases decided by the Court in which the State succession element was taken into account. For fifty years, Latvia was unlawfully subjugated by the Soviet Union (see Ždanoka, cited above). In terms of international law, with the restoration of the independence of Latvia in 1991, we are in the presence of a situation much closer to that known as decolonisation under United Nations law or sometimes referred to in the doctrine as a situation of disannexation, similar to what happened with Austria and Czechoslovakia in the context of the Second World War and following the Anschluss; the only difference is that unfortunately for the Baltic States, the restoration of their independence was only possible some four decades later (see, among many authorities, A. Zimmermann, “Continuity of States”, in the online Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law). It is to be recalled that in 1983 the European Parliament, noting that “the Soviet annexation ... has still not been formally recognised by most European States and the USA, the United Kingdom, Australia and the Vatican still adhere to the concept of Baltic States”, suggested that the issue of the Baltic States be submitted to the United Nations Sub-committee on Decolonization (1982-1983 EUR.PARL.DOC (no.7.908) 432-33 (9183)). 27. In practice this meant that when the applicant moved to the Latvian SSR in 1954, for her it was just another corner of the Soviet Union, as she confirmed in her observations. Her situation is typical of many who were encouraged to move into the Baltic republics as part of the policy of