Access to Swiss Nationality for Stateless Persons 29. Article 32 of the 1954 Convention requires States to ‘facilitate the assimilation and naturalization of stateless persons’ and ‘in particular [to] make every effort to expedite naturalization proceedings and to reduce as far as possible the charges and costs of such proceedings’.77 While, as set out above, Article 30 of the Swiss Citizenship Act of 1952 provides for a ‘simplified’ naturalisation for stateless children under certain conditions there is no facilitated mode of naturalisation for stateless persons above the age of 18. 30. Adult stateless persons wishing to apply for naturalisation as Swiss citizens will have to fulfil the generally applicable conditions for acquiring citizenship. On federal level, these conditions are set out in Articles 14 and 15 of the Swiss Citizenship Act, and require that a person applying for citizenship: • is integrated into Swiss society; • is familiar with Swiss habits, customs and practices; • abides by Swiss law; • does not pose a risk to Swiss internal or external security; • and has resided in Switzerland for at least twelve years, including three of the last five years before lodging the application (under the new law the residence period will be reduced to ten years, including three during the last five years before application). 31. Because of the federal threefold structure of Swiss citizenship, applicants for naturalisation furthermore have to fulfil the requirements regarding integration and prior residence imposed by cantonal and municipal legislation. The requirements on cantonal and municipal level can even go beyond the requirements set on federal level. Depending on which canton a person resides in, naturalisation can be more difficult. In sum, the process of ordinary naturalisation in Switzerland is lengthy, complicated, burdensome, costly and based on difficult material conditions.78 The new Swiss Citizenship Act, which will enter into force on 1 January 2018, will be even more restrictive. Even though the residence requirement will be reduced to ten years, the material naturalisation criteria will be tightened and it will be required that applicants have a permanent residence permit before they can apply for naturalisation. The hurdles for stateless persons to acquire Swiss citizenship – even when they formally fulfil all the conditions set out above – are thus high and will remain so under the new law. This leaves stateless persons in Switzerland without effective access to a nationality within reasonable time. Risk of Arbitrary Detention 32. It is unclear how many stateless persons are detained in Switzerland during an asylum or statelessness determination procedure or pending removal. Detention of migrants is within the responsibility of the cantons which is why the Federal state does not make data on administrative detention of migrants – and especially on the nationality or origin of persons in administrative detention – publicly available.79 There is a risk that stateless persons in detention are not identified as stateless but instead are 77 See also PACE Resolution 1989 (2014) (note 51), para 5.2.2. 78 See also CtteeERD, Concluding Observations on the combined fourth to sixth periodic reports of Switzerland, 23 September 2008, CERD/C/CHE/CO/6, available at: http://www.refworld.org/pdfid/48eb24a02.pdf, para 18. 7979 See Swiss Center for Expertise in Human Rights, Mise en œuvre des droits humains en Suisse, Un état des lieux dans le domaine thématique Migration, 2013, available at https://register.weblaw.ch/bookinfo.php?method=download&book_id=316&download_id=122, para 206; Michael Flynn & Cecilia Cannon, Immigration Detention in Switzerland, A Global Detention Project Special Report, October 2011, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/545b356c4.html, p. 32; AIDA Asylum Information Database, Country Report: Switzerland, 2016 Update, available at: http://www.asylumineurope.org/sites/default/files/report-download/aida_ch_2016update.pdf, p. 77. 11