CASE NOTE
HOTI V CROATIA: EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN
RIGHTS LANDMARK DECISION ON STATELESSNESS
KATJA SWIDER *
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I
II
III
IV
Introduction........................................................................................................... 184
Facts of the Case ................................................................................................... 185
Analysis of the Judgment ...................................................................................... 186
A Main Arguments ....................................................................................... 186
B Determination of the Applicant’s Statelessness ....................................... 187
C Right to Citizenship and Right to Stability of Residence ......................... 188
D The Use of Terms ‘Nationality’ and ‘Citizenship’ in the Judgment......... 189
Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 189
I
INTRODUCTION
On 26 April 2018 the European Court of Human Rights (‘ECtHR’) issued a
landmark decision on statelessness in the case of Hoti v Croatia (‘Hoti’). 1 The
Court found that Croatia’s failure to ensure stability of residence for the stateless
Mr Bedri Hoti, the applicant, amounted to a violation of art 8 of the European
Convention on Human Rights (‘ECHR’) — his right to private and family life. 2
The applicant’s statelessness played a crucial role in the reasoning of the
judgment, making this case a clear jump in the evolution of the ECtHR case law
on statelessness. Even though stateless applicants have appeared before the Court
in the past, their statelessness was at best framed as an additional source of
vulnerability, but not as a central issue of their claims. 3 The Hoti judgment closely
*
1
2
3
Dr Katja Swider is a Research Associate at the University of East Anglia and a Visiting
Researcher at the University of Amsterdam. This case note is based on shorter blog posts by
the same author. See Katja Swider, ‘Hoti v Croatia — A Landmark Decision by the European
Court of Human Rights on Residence Rights of a Stateless Person’ (European Network on
Statelessness Blog, 3 May 2018) <https://www.statelessness.eu/blog/hoti-v-croatialandmark-decision-european-court-human-rights-residence-rights-stateless-person>; Katja
Swider, ‘Hoti v Croatia — Landmark ECHR Decision on Residence Rights of Stateless’
(GLOBALCIT, 10 May 2018) <http://globalcit.eu/hoti-v-croatia-landmark-echr-decision-onresidence-rights-of-stateless/>.
Hoti v Croatia (European Court of Human Rights, First Section, Application No 63311/14
26, 26 April 2018) (‘Hoti’).
Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, opened for
signature 4 November 1950, 213 UNTS 221 (entered into force 3 September 1953) art 8
(‘ECHR’).
See Caia Vlieks, ‘Geen (recht op) nationaliteit: De relevantie van artikel 8 EVRM bij de
beperking van staatloosheid in Europa’ (2018) 43 Nederlands Tijdschrift voor de
Mensenrechten 375. For examples of other cases, see also Kim v Russia (European Court of
Human Rights, First Section, Application No 44260/13, 17 July 2014); Kurić and Others v
Slovenia (European Court of Human Rights, Grand Chamber, Application No 26828/06, 26
June 2012) (‘Kurić’); Anastasov v Slovenia (European Court of Human Rights, Fourth
Section, Application No 65020/13, 18 October 2016) (‘Anastasov’).