• • • RAE individuals at risk of statelessness have not registered citizenship mainly because they were born outside Serbia, but also due to having no birth registration documents (as cited by 37 percent). RAE individuals without a registered permanent residence mainly ascribe this fact to living in an (not legalised) buildings where permanent residence cannot be registered. The most common reasons why respondents were denied personal identity documents include being instructed to apply for personal identity cards in their place of birth (37 percent), not being granted registration of permanent residence (39 percent), ignorance of administrative procedures, and financial cost. Access to rights and discrimination: The survey reveals an increase in the proportion of RAE individuals facing adverse consequences due to the lack of a personal identity document: as many as 56 percent reported facing such consequences, as opposed to the 42 percent claiming not to have done so. • 59 percent of the residents of informal communities at risk of statelessness reported having been denied access to healthcare. Most RAE individuals at risk of statelessness (48 percent) reported non-governmental organisations provided them free legal aid when applying for personal identity documents. 2. DEFINING THE CONCEPTS OF ‘LEGALLY INVISIBLE PERSONS’ AND ‘PERSONS AT RISK OF STATELESSNESS’ Citizenship is the bond between an individual and their state recognized by the law. States are at liberty to regulate the type of bond required between an individual and state for that individual to be considered its citizen, and the distinction lies in the difference between understanding citizenship as a concept that applies to individuals, on the one hand, and to territories, on the other. It is based on this bond that an individual acquires citizenship, and, as such, access to all rights guaranteed by the legal system of the country of citizenship, together with all the corresponding obligations. Serbian citizenship and the options for acquiring it are governed by the Law on Citizenship of the Republic of Serbia. Serbian citizenship can be acquired in a variety of ways: 1) by descent; 2) by being born in the territorial jurisdiction of the Republic of Serbia; 3) by naturalisation; and 4) pursuant to an international treaty.1 Acquisition of Serbian citizenship by descent is wholly aligned with international standards. 1 8 Law on the Citizenship of the Republic of Serbia, Article 6. PERSONS AT RISK OF STATELESSNESS IN SERBIA OVERVIEW OF CURRENT SITUATION AND THE WAY FORWARD