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Update from June 2022:
The war in Ukraine is heavily impacting on the rights and protection of stateless people and those at risk of statelessness. Crossing internal checkpoints and fleeing the country is challenging for undocumented people, resulting in many being stuck in conflict-affected areas or internally displaced. Stateless people and people at risk of statelessness, who are undocumented or lack proof of citizenship, face obstacles to registering as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and receiving the protection guaranteed by the Law on Ensuring the Rights and Freedoms of IDPs in Ukraine. Some stateless people have managed to flee the country, but those who are undocumented face obstacles to returning to Ukraine. With the escalation of the war, the Ukrainian Government closed down access to the population registers, which halted the newly established Statelessness Determination Procedure (SDP), although access to the procedure was reopened in May in less affected regions. The situation of applicants to the SDP who fled Ukraine while their application was pending is unclear.
According to the State Migration Service (SMS), as of the end of 2020, 5,815 stateless people were residing in Ukraine with a residence permit, an increase of about 13% compared to mid-2020. The next census is planned for 2023. In 2020, UNHCR reported 35,875 stateless people in Ukraine under its mandate, and 69,400 children born in Non-Government-Controlled Areas (NGCA) and Crimea, who had not obtained a birth certificate and were therefore at risk of statelessness.
Bylaws required for the implementation of the SDP, which was introduced in June 2020, were adopted on 24 March 2021, and the SDP became available for applicants in late May 2021. As of July 2022, more than 1000 people have applied under the procedure and have been documented with a certificate of application confirming legal stay in Ukraine. By 31 December 2021, only 55 people had been granted a temporary residence permit through the procedure.
While it is welcome that the SDP is now operational, many obstacles related to access to the procedure have been reported. For example, although the burden of proof is shared and the SMS has a duty to collect information about the applicant, the SMS often requests that documents are submitted prior to the application and sometimes requests the applicant contact foreign consulates themselves. Instances of verbal rejections of applications where the applicant fails to provide specific documents have also been reported. In practice, interpretation and translation services are not provided for free. It is not possible to apply for the SDP from detention. The 2022 Index update will reflect these changes (available from January 2023).
With regard to detention, in the case of Shoygo v Ukraine of 30 September 2021, the European Court on Human Rights found that prolonged immigration detention of an undocumented person was not justified when the authorities failed to act diligently during deportation proceedings, and therefore that Ukraine had violated Article 5 ECHR.
In December 2021, the Ukrainian Parliament passed the law which reduces the residence period required for a stateless person to apply for naturalisation from five to three years after their initial recognition as stateless.
A draft law on Amendments to the Law of Ukraine "On Ukrainian Citizenship" on Specific Features of the Acquisition and Loss of Ukrainian Citizenship No. 7339 has been put forward, and it contains amendments on deprivation of nationality that may result in statelessness.
The new National Strategy in the Sphere of Human Rights and the related Action Plan for 2021-2023 provides that civil documents will be issued to the residents of NGCA. However, no progress to improve the rates of birth registration in the NGCA have been reported. The new Strategy for Facilitating the Realisation of the Rights and Opportunities of Persons Belonging to the Roma National Minority provides that members of the Roma national minority will be issued with personal documents.
New resources on Ukraine now available include:
- 2021 Statelessness Index Survey
- ENS Ukraine landing page, including advocacy briefings with information on who is stateless in Ukraine and recommendations to ensure that stateless people impacted by the war can access protection
- Interview with Oleksandr Snitko, Statelessness Project Manager at the Tenth of April (‘Desyate Kvitnya’) (30 June 2022)
- ENS blog, Assisting stateless people trapped in Ukraine: report from the ground (24 March 2022)
- ENS editorial, Amidst the unspeakable awfulness of the conflict in Ukraine we should not forget the particular protection needs of stateless people (11 March 2022)
- Right to Protection, Who are stateless persons who fled Ukraine after the Russian invasion on 24 of February, 2022 (26 April 2022) (includes examples of documentation available to stateless people fleeing Ukraine)
- Right to Protection, Socio-economic rights of a person recognised as stateless in Ukraine and a person who has applied to be recognised as stateless under the statelessness determination procedure (also available in Ukrainian) (September 2021)
- ENS news update, Assessing the first six months of Ukraine’s new statelessness determination procedure (12 October 2021)
- European Court of Human Rights, Shoygo v Ukraine, Application no. 29662/13, 30 September 2021
Ukraine is State Party to almost all relevant international and regional instruments, including three of the core statelessness conventions. However, there are some gaps in protection as well as efforts to prevent and reduce statelessness. Data on the stateless population is limited by discrepancies, overlapping categories, and the impact of the war and ongoing territorial disputes. Positively, a Statelessness Determination Procedure was introduced in Ukrainian law in 2020 and bylaws for its implementation were adopted in 2021, making the procedure available for stateless people since May 2021. The 2020 law also brought the definition of a stateless person in line with the 1954 Convention. Under the 2020 law, an applicant for statelessness status has temporary status during the procedure enabling access to some rights. Recognised stateless people are able to acquire a temporary residence permit, and then permanent residence after two years, with a route to naturalisation. While it is welcome that the SDP is now operational, many obstacles related to access to the procedure have been reported.
The legal framework on detention is weak with limited protection against arbitrary detention, although alternatives to detention and periodic reviews were introduced in 2016. People released from detention have some protection from re-detention as well as a route to legal residence. Legal safeguards are in place to prevent statelessness in the case of foundlings, adopted children, and those born to Ukrainian nationals abroad, but there is a legal residence requirement for children born stateless in the country to acquire nationality. This gap, along with barriers to birth registration, which was the subject of a second-cycle Universal Periodic Review recommendation, hinders efforts to reduce the large in-situ stateless population in Ukraine, disproportionately made up of ethnic minorities, including Roma. The escalation of the war since February 2022 has exacerbated barriers to accessing rights and protection for stateless people and people at risk of statelessness both in Ukraine and in neighbouring countries.
Information below by theme was last updated in March 2021.
Oleksandr Snitko, Desyate Kvitnya (Tenth of April)
Additional resources
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