including a law on citizenship and new laws on civil registration, added an additional aspect of complexity to registration and issues of citizenship and documentation for many persons in Kosovo, and for those who originate from Kosovo, both within and outside of the Republic of Serbia.8 1.2 Citizenship in the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia The SFRY citizenship system consisted of two levels – the federal and republican level; one was a SFRY citizen and was also a citizen of one of the member-republics.9 This was affirmed in Article 249 of the 1974 SFRY Constitution.10 People were simultaneously citizens of both a republic and the SFRY.11 The important citizenship for purposes of State identity and for accessing state rights was the federal SFRY citizenship; republican citizenship was important for a few specific issues, including the right to vote. Due to the primacy of federal citizenship, relatively few people changed their republican citizenship when moving from one republic to another, despite the fact that it was a relatively easy administrative process. 1.3 The disintegration of the former SFRY: nationality, state succession and the risk of statelessness 1991-199512 While there was no succession treaty regulating issues of citizenship following the disintegration of the former SFRY, avoidance of statelessness was a key concern of the parties to the Peace Agreements (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia). The avoidance of statelessness was promoted in the “The Principles on Citizenship Legislation Concerning the Parties to the Peace Agreements in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” (The Principles) adopted by the expert meeting on citizenship legislation, 8 In Kosovo, UNSC Resolution 1244 remains in effect. This situation precludes Kosovo from becoming a UN member and a state party to UN treaties8. UNMIK was mandated by the UN Security Council to develop nationality legislation applicable to Kosovo (SCR 1244) and has done so. Following the inability of the EU-US-Russia Troika to reach a status agreement in December 2007, the Unilateral declaration of independence by the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government of Kosovo of 17 February 2008 and the adoption of the Kosovo Constitution on 9 April 2008, the UN Secretary-General acknowledged that “a new reality” had been created in Kosovo and argued before the Security Council for the reconfiguration of the international civil presence in the Territory. At ‘independence’, Kosovo accepted the Ahtisaari plan, which provided for internationally sponsored mechanisms, including an International Civilian Office and the EU Rule of Law Mission (EULEX). Population registries remain contentious issues. Zeri, KohaDitore, Lajm 28/03/11; KTV, TV21, RTK - 27/03/11 9 UNHCR, Regional Bureau for Europe (1997), ‘Citizenship and Prevention of Statelessness Linked to the Disintegration of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia’, European Series 3(1): June 1997. 10 SFRY Constitution, Official Gazette of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, No. 9/74. 11 Štiks, I. (2010), ‘A Laboratory of Citizenship: Shifting Conceptions of Citizenship in Yugoslavia and Its Successor States’, CITSEE working paper, February 2010. 12 The term ‘nationality’ is understood to have different meanings within the States of the former SFRY. The most common translation of ‘nationality’ into some of the languages in the region results in a term that is more equivalent to ‘ethnicity’ than it is to ‘citizenship.’ In this paper, wherever used, the term nationality should be understood as synonymous to citizenship. 7