Benchmarking the protection against statelessness in Europe : comparative findings

Abstract

This contribution presents the comparative findings of the ‘Protection against Statelessness Database’, developed by the European Union Democracy Observatory on Citizenship in collaboration with UNHCR. Using the most important international standards as a benchmark, the database provides a normative assessment of the extent to which citizenship laws in 36 European states provide sufficient protection against statelessness. While Section 2 explains the methodology developed by the Observatory in collaboration with UNHCR, and in particular the 17 ‘modes of protection against statelessness’ that have been devised, Section 3 draws some comparative conclusions. This is based on a fourfold distinction – that is, whether the countries provide more protection than required by the standards; act in line with the standards; provide a limited safeguard against statelessness; or provide no safeguard at all. Concluding that a serious attempt is generally made to avoid cases of statelessness from arising, the contribution also feels there is room for improvement.