European Nationality Convention adopted

Date: Sun, 08 Jun 97 16:16:17 -0500
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
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To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Subject: European Nationality Convention adopted

From:  MINELRES moderator       \ Internet:    ([email protected])

European Nationality Convention adopted

Council of Europe 
Press release 

Council of Europe adopts the first comprehensive nationality convention 

Strasbourg, 15.05.97 - The COUNCIL OF EUROPE Committee of Ministers has
adopted the European Convention on Nationality. The text will be opened for
signature by states on 7 November 1997 at the 10th Committee of Ministers'
session. 

The convention embodies principles and rules applying to all aspects of
nationality. It is designed to make acquisition of a new nationality and
recovery of a former one easier, to ensure that nationality is lost only for
good reason and cannot be arbitrarily withdrawn, to guarantee that the
procedures governing applications for nationality are just, fair and open to
appeal, and to regulate the situation of persons in danger of being left
stateless as a result of state succession. It also covers multiple
nationality, military obligations and co-operation between State parties. 

The Council's new text represents a synthesis of recent thinking on this
question in national and international law and is the first international
text to do so. It reflects the demographic and democratic changes (in
particular migration and and state succession which have occurred in central
and eastern Europe since 1989). Some states which have recently adopted new
laws on nationality have already based their laws on the text. 

Some of the essential principles behind the text are: 

- prevention of statelessness; 
- non-discrimination: in regulating questions of nationality, states must
avoid all discrimination on grounds of sex, religion, race, colour, national
or ethnic origin, etc. 
- respect for the rights of persons habitually resident on the territories
concerned. 

The convention will come in force when three member states have ratified it.


The full text and the explanatory report are available from the Council of
Europe's Press Service. 

                                                * * * 

Press contact: Christiane DENNEMEYER, Council of Europe Press Service
Tel +33/(0)3 88 41 25 63 - Fax  +33/(0)3 88 41 27 89/90
E-Mail: [email protected]

Ref. 296(97) 

------------------------
Note: The Convention is open to signature by Council of Europe member states
and to the nine other states which took part in its preparations (Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Georgia, the Holy See,
Kyrgyzstan and the USA). 

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