Ukraine

English

Українська

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.

Last updated:

Mar 2021

Next scheduled update:

Jan 2023

Country expert(s):

Oleksandr Snitko, Desyate Kvitnya (Tenth of April)

Additional resources

Country survey data (2021)

ASSESSMENT KEY

++POSITIVE

+ SOMEWHAT POSITIVE

+-POSITIVE and NEGATIVE

- SOMEWHAT NEGATIVE

--NEGATIVE

ADDITIONAL INFO

NORMS & GOOD PRACTICE

International and Regional Instruments

Assesses whether countries are State party to the relevant international and regional instruments, including whether reservations have an impact on statelessness, and whether instruments are incorporated into domestic law. The four core statelessness treaties (1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons; 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness; European Convention on Nationality; Council of Europe Convention on the Avoidance of Statelessness in Relation to State Succession) carry more weight than other relevant human rights instruments in the assessment.

Ukraine has a good record on accession to relevant international and regional treaties. It is state party to the 1954 and 1961 Conventions, as well as the European Convention on Nationality; but, it is not party to the European Convention on the Avoidance of Statelessness in Relation to State Succession. Ukraine is party to all other relevant human rights instruments - except for the Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers - with no reservations.

The 1954 Convention

Ukraine is state party to the 1954 Convention with no reservations and the Convention has direct effect.

The 1961 Convention

Ukraine is state party to the 1961 Convention with no reservations and the Convention has direct effect.

Other Conventions

Ukraine is state party to the European Convention on Nationality with reservations (no significant impact on statelessness) and has signed but not acceded to the Convention on the Avoidance of Statelessness in Relation to State Succession.
Ukraine is state party to all other relevant international and regional treaties, except for the Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers, with no reservations.

Statelessness Population Data

Examines the availability and sources of disaggregated population data on statelessness. Provides recent figures and assesses reliability of measures countries have in place to count stateless persons, including in the census, population registries, and migration databases. Notes whether statelessness has been mapped in the country and whether there are sufficient measures in place to count stateless persons in detention.

Data on the stateless population in Ukraine is limited and contested. There is a ‘stateless’ category in the census, but there are also other potentially overlapping categories and the data is now outdated as the last census was carried out in 2001. UNHCR, NGOs and the Ukrainian Ombudsperson report different figures and no data is available for non-government-controlled areas (NGCA). Detention data is also limited, although the authorities do collect some information on the nationalities of detainees, including stateless detainees. A study on statelessness in Ukraine was published in 2014 by UNHCR and a national NGO.

Availability and sources

Ukraine has a 'stateless' category in its census and the data is disaggregated, but there are also potentially overlapping categories such as ‘persons who did not identify their nationality'. The census was last carried out in 2001, so the data is now outdated. 82,550 people identified themselves as ‘stateless’ and 40,364 ‘did not identify their nationality’ in the 2001 census. In 2019, a ‘stateless’ category was included in the pilot census; however, the full-scale census did not take place in 2020 as planned. Other sources of data or information about statelessness include UNHCR, NGOs and the Ombudsperson of Ukraine on Human Rights, but NGOs have raised concerns about the lack of reliable data on statelessness in Ukraine.
According to the State Migration Service of Ukraine, as of mid-2020, 5,135 stateless persons were residing in Ukraine with a residence permit.
In 2020, UNHCR reported 40,000 persons under its statelessness mandate in Ukraine. UNHCR also estimates that approximately 60,000 children born in the non-government-controlled areas (NGCA) have not yet obtained a Ukrainian birth certificate and therefore are at risk of statelessness. UNHCR estimates are based on three main sources: governmental agencies, UNHCR field offices, and NGOs.
Other government statistics are not disaggregated and do not distinguish stateless people from other non-nationals.
A study of statelessness in Ukraine was published by UNHCR and national NGO, HIAS, in 2014.
There is no available data on stateless refugees and asylum seekers in Ukraine. The availability of data is limited by the political situation, with no data available for the territory not currently controlled by the Ukrainian Government.

Stateless in detention data

Ukraine does not publish data on stateless people in detention though it does collect some information about detainees and their nationalities, which includes some individuals recorded as ‘stateless’ and nationalities where there may be populations at risk of statelessness.
Some data was provided to NGOs following a request made to the State Migration Service of Ukraine.
In 2017, 842 ‘foreigners and stateless persons’ were held in immigration detention in Ukraine; in 2020 (January-June) 521 foreigners and stateless persons were held in immigration detention. The Southern Department of the State Border Guard Service reported that 30 stateless persons were not permitted to enter the territory of Ukraine and detained at the Temporary Holding Facility over 9 months in 2020. Between 2018-2020, at least three stateless persons were detained in Chernihiv in Volyn Immigration Detention Centres.
The Ukrainian Government does not report the reasons for a person’s release from detention, but the State Migration Service states that 213 people were released from detention in the first half of 2020 (41% of detainees).

Statelessness Determination and Status

Identifies whether countries have a definition of a stateless person in national law that aligns with the 1954 Convention, and whether they have a dedicated statelessness determination procedure (SDP) leading to a dedicated stateless status. If an SDP is not place, it assesses whether there are other procedures in which statelessness can be identified or other routes through which stateless people could regularise their stay or access their rights. Countries are subdivided in three groups to enable comparison between those with an SDP leading to protection, those with other procedures, and those with a stateless status but no clear mechanism to access protection. The existing procedures and rights granted to stateless persons are examined and assessed against international norms and good practice.

A statelessness determination procedure was introduced in Ukrainian law in June 2020. As of February 2021, the bylaws required to implement the procedure have not yet been adopted, so the SDP is not yet operational. However, the new law amended the definition of a stateless person in Ukraine to bring it in line with the 1954 Convention, and the SDP as set out in law is in line with good practice standards in many respects. There is no legal stay requirement to access the procedure and measures are in place to facilitate the application process. The burden of proof is shared, and clear instructions are set out for the assessment of evidence. Free legal aid is available, there is a time limit on the procedure, and mechanisms are envisioned to refer applicants to the asylum procedure or a procedure to confirm Ukrainian nationality if necessary. People recognised as stateless acquire temporary residence for a renewable one-year period. After two years they may acquire permanent residence and there is a route to naturalisation. There are barriers to accessing some socio-economic rights for applicants and recognised stateless people with temporary residence (including access to free healthcare). It remains to be seen how some aspects of the procedure will be operationalised, but the new legal framework is broadly positive.

Definition of a stateless person

Ukrainian law defines a stateless person as a person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law. The definition was brought in line with the 1954 Convention through legal amendments in 2020.

Training

UNHCR and its partners provide annual training on statelessness for the State Migration Service, other government stakeholders, and legal practitioners. As the SDP was only introduced in mid-2020 and is not yet operational, specific SDP-related training is planned only for 2021.
The National School of Judges of Ukraine and UNHCR provide some training on statelessness to judges and lawyers, but not on a regular basis.
During 2018, UNHCR partner NGOs in Ukraine provided several trainings for lawyers from the state Free Legal Aid system and video materials are available online.

Existence of a dedicated statelessness determination procedure (SDP)

An SDP and stateless status were introduced in law in June 2020.
As of February 2021, the procedure cannot yet be fully implemented as bylaws required to operationalise the procedure are yet to be adopted.

Access to the procedure

+/-

The examination will be conducted by the central government body, the State Migration Service, which is responsible for migration, nationality, and regularisation matters under the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Although the new law is clear, detailed instructions have not yet been developed, and it is not yet clear what public information will be available to potential applicants to facilitate access to the procedure.
The application must be made in writing in Ukrainian on a specific form. However, the form is simple, and the law obliges the State Migration Service (SMS) to complete the application upon request of the applicant if they are unable to do so themselves for reasons of literacy or disability. Free translation and interpretation should also be provided if needed to submit the application.
The law provides for flexibility in the documents that should be attached to the application and third parties may be questioned to confirm the applicant's statements.
There is an obligation in law for the SMS to consider the application, but the application may be rejected if the person holds a nationality or stateless status in another State; if they do not hold any photo ID and refuse to submit consent for three third parties to confirm their statements; or if they refuse to provide biometric data.
There is no application fee, no legal stay requirement, nor time limit to access the SDP.
The law is silent on cooperation between agencies, and it is not yet clear how this will be facilitated in practice.

Assessment

The law establishes a shared burden of proof between the applicant and the SMS. The applicant is obliged to cooperate, attend interviews, and provide all information possible. The SMS has a duty to collect all possible information about the applicant and is entitled to request documents or other information from other government agencies, state registries and archives, non-government entities, and foreign authorities.
The law does not clearly establish the standard of proof to be applied in the SDP. However, grounds for refusal are clearly set out in the law and, in the absence of documents, the applicant’s testimony can be confirmed by third parties. As the procedure has not yet been implement, no information is available on the standard of proof applied in practice.
There is clear guidance for decision-makers on the assessment of evidence, and measures are in place to facilitate best evidence from unaccompanied minors, those without legal capacity, people with low literacy levels, disabled persons, and those with health conditions that prevent them from attending appointments. The SMS is also obliged to provide free translation and interpretation for the application.

Procedural safeguards

The Law on Free Legal Aid was amended with the introduction of the SDP to provide access to all primary and secondary state legal services free of charge for all those who apply for stateless status at any stage in the process.
The applicant has the right to an interview and the SMS may also initiate an interview that is mandatory for the applicant to attend.
The SMS is obliged to provide an interpreter in a language the applicant understands if required, as well as free translation at the application stage. However, there is no specific provision for free interpreting during interviews.
There are no legal provisions regarding quality audits nor the role of UNHCR in proceedings.
Decisions (refusals) must be given in writing with reasons within three days of the decision being issued.
There is a timeframe set in law of six months, which can be extended to 12 months with reasoning.
There is a mechanism to link the SDP to the asylum procedure whereby an SDP applicant may be referred to the asylum procedure if a protection issue emerges during the SDP. There is also a mechanism to refer to a procedure to determine Ukrainian nationality if a possible entitlement to nationality emerges during the SDP.

Protection during the procedure

+/-

Applicants under the SDP are considered lawfully temporarily staying on the territory and are provided with a certificate to confirm this.
Applicants have the right to work by law, but access to employment is hindered by the need for potential employers to obtain special permission to employ them, which is contingent on salary and creates significant barriers.
Access to social security can be hindered by the residence status applicants hold - ‘temporarily staying’ in Ukraine - as some social security entitlements are reserved to those holding temporary or permanent residence permits.
Applicants under the SDP will also face obstacles to accessing free healthcare as this is guaranteed by law only to Ukrainian nationals and foreigners or stateless people with permanent residence in Ukraine.
There is no specific risk of detention during the procedure; however, there is not yet any practice to fully assess this. If a person held in immigration detention applies under the SDP, this does not constitute grounds for release from detention.

Appeals

An applicant has the right to appeal a negative SMS decision to the administrative court within 20 days from receiving the written refusal decision.
Free legal aid is provided at all stages until a final decision is made.
There is a court fee for an application to the administrative court, which is set according to subsistence levels (approximately 25 EUR).
The implementation of the SDP has not begun so it is not yet possible to assess the quality of decision making.

Statelessness status

+/-

According to the draft bylaw, within 10 days of receiving a positive decision, the recognised stateless person must apply to the SMS to obtain a temporary residence permit.
A temporary residence permit is issued for one year and can be renewed. After two years, a recognised stateless person can apply for an immigration permit and obtain a permanent residence permit.
The rights granted to recognised stateless people depend on their residence status. Some rights are granted upon recognition and receipt of a temporary residence permit (for example, a travel document, the right to work, the right to primary, secondary, and higher education, and some social security entitlements).
However, other rights are granted only upon acquiring permanent residence after two years of temporary residence (for example, family reunification, some social security entitlements, and the right to free healthcare).
In relation to higher education, stateless people may access this for free within a quota defined by the Cabinet of Ministers, but in practice there is no evidence of any stateless people accessing this.
As the right to free healthcare is only guaranteed to stateless people with permanent residence, temporary residence holders may be excluded from the state insurance programme and face obstacles accessing free healthcare.
Only Ukrainian nationals are entitled to active and passive political rights, so stateless people cannot vote in any elections.
Grounds for revocation of stateless status are in line with international standards.

Detention

Analyses law, policy and practice relating to immigration detention generally, but focusing on protections in place to prevent the arbitrary detention of stateless people during removal and deportation procedures. Subthemes examine areas such as the identification of statelessness and assessment of whether there is a reasonable prospect of removal, procedural safeguards such as time limits, judicial oversight, and effective remedies, as well as the rights granted to stateless people upon release from detention and protection against re-detention.

There are significant gaps in the legal framework on immigration detention in Ukraine. Despite reforms in 2016, the authorities are still permitted to detain people without a court order. A proposed country of removal does not need to be identified prior to detention, statelessness is not considered juridically relevant, the law does not stipulate that detention is a last resort, and the two available alternatives are rarely used. There is a maximum time limit on detention, and written information on rights is provided to detainees. There is free legal aid and some remedies for challenging detention, but there are barriers to accessing these. Some protections are provided on release and there is a route to temporary residence, but re-detention is a risk and socio-economic rights are limited.

Immigration detention

A proposed country of removal does not need to be identified prior to detention for removal.
Statelessness is not considered a juridically relevant fact in decisions to detain and stateless people are detained in practice.
The law does not provide for detention to be a last resort and the two existing alternatives to detention are hardly used.
There is no vulnerability assessment, although refugees and people with subsidiary protection should not be detained. Nevertheless, statelessness is not considered as giving rise to vulnerability and asylum seekers and stateless persons can be held in detention if they submitted their claim for international protection or recognition under the new SDP after the detention order was imposed.

Identification of statelessness

coming soon

Information and analysis coming soon

Procedural safeguards

+/-

There is a maximum period of detention set in law of 18 months.
The law provides that individuals are informed of the reasons for detention in writing prior to being detained, and detainees are provided with information on their rights and duties in a language they can understand, with interpreters if needed.
It is not yet clear how people held in immigration detention will be able to access the new SDP, and application under the SDP is not a ground for release from detention.
There are periodic reviews of the necessity for the continuation of detention before a court. To extend detention beyond an initial six months, the detaining authority must file an administrative request at least five days before expiry of the first six months. The authority can then file for extension every three months. Detention can be extended if there is a lack of information from the country of nationality or lack of identity documents. This puts stateless people at a disadvantage in practice and results in them often being detained for the maximum of 18 months.
A detainee can appeal against the court judgement of first instance and to the court of cassation against the judgment of the appeal court. A detainee can also challenge the extension of their detention. However, there are obstacles such as time limits - the appeal must be lodged within ten days, which is difficult in immigration detention and due to poor access to free legal aid.
By law free legal aid is available to challenge detention but access is hampered by a requirement to present documentation to access it, and lack of access to detention centres (in rural areas) for lawyers. Upon submitting an application under the new SDP, a stateless person would acquire the right to free legal aid, but it is not yet clear how this will work in practice in a detention setting.
There are no clear rules governing the process of re-documentation or ascertaining nationality.

Protection on release

+/-

People released from detention are issued with a certificate of immigration detention and are entitled to apply for a temporary residence permit. However, there are barriers to exercising this right, as one of the conditions is compulsory registration of place of residence, which is difficult for released detainees. The applicant must also have been detained for the maximum period to acquire a temporary residence permit on grounds of release from detention.
Once operational, if a person applies under the SDP or has had their statelessness determined during detention, they will acquire a temporary residence permit on release through a simplified procedure.
There are no legal provisions on re-detention, so there is no rule in Ukrainian legislation on whether cumulative time spent in detention counts towards the maximum time limit.

Return and readmission agreements

Ukraine has ratified 12 bilateral agreements on readmission, but statelessness is not considered a juridically relevant fact in any of the agreements. No information is available as to whether stateless people are returned under the agreements.

Prevention and Reduction

Assesses the adequacy of safeguards in nationality laws to prevent and reduce statelessness, including facilitated routes to naturalisation for stateless people, and protections for otherwise stateless children born on the territory or to nationals abroad, foundlings and adopted children. Examines law, policy, and practice on birth registration, including access to late birth registration, and reduction measures taken by States to prevent and reduce in situ statelessness. Analyses provisions on deprivation of nationality and whether there are safeguards related to renunciation and deprivation of nationality to prevent statelessness from occurring.

There are legal safeguards in Ukrainian nationality law to prevent statelessness in the case of foundlings, adopted children and children born to Ukrainian nationals abroad. However, the safeguard for children born in Ukraine who would otherwise be stateless only applies if parents are legally resident in the country, leaving a real risk that children are born stateless in the country. There are also significant barriers to universal birth registration, with at least one parent being required to present proof of identify and legal residence to register a birth. Additional evidence is required for late birth registration, including a passport to register those over 16 years-old, which is impossible to acquire without a birth certificate. These barriers to birth registration were the subject of a recommendation to Ukraine under the Universal Periodic Review. They hinder efforts to reduce the large in-situ stateless population in Ukraine, which is disproportionately made up of ethnic minorities, including Roma.

Naturalisation

+/-

A stateless person may apply for naturalisation on general grounds, which include holding an immigration permit and continuous legal residence on the territory of Ukraine for five years. There is legal uncertainty around the term "continuous residence on the territory of Ukraine" when applied to stateless persons. As a recognised stateless person may only apply for an immigration permit after two years' temporary residence, it is unclear whether they will be able to naturalise five or seven years from recognition as a stateless person under the SDP.
Stateless people must meet all other naturalisation requirements, with the only difference being that they must provide a declaration of non-possession of another nationality rather than proof of renunciation of another nationality.
Barriers faced by stateless people seeking to acquire Ukrainian nationality through naturalisation include an obligation to provide an identity document, and proof of an income over the last six months, or savings amounting to 20 times minimum subsistence (currently at least 40,540 UAH (1,195 EUR). There is a fee of 179.74 UAH (5.30 EUR) for issuing an immigration permit and 8.50 UAH (0.25 EUR) for the application for naturalisation.
A person who has committed a 'serious or grave crime' inside or outside Ukraine is excluded from naturalisation under the law.

Stateless born on territory

There are provisions in law to automatically grant Ukrainian nationality to some children who would otherwise be stateless, but eligibility is dependent on the status of the parents, so there is no full safeguard against children being born stateless on the territory. In practice, children must request a certificate of affiliation of nationality from the authorities.
If parents are legal residents there is no requirement for the child to have legal residence to acquire nationality.
There are no age limits for the application in law, but in practice, it is more difficult after 18 years-old (age at which a person can apply to state authorities without a mandatory legal representative), as the authorities may question a young person’s residence in Ukraine if they do not have the required identity documentation.
There is a specific provision for children of parents granted international protection in Ukraine to acquire nationality.

Foundlings

Foundlings acquire nationality automatically at birth. It is necessary to register the fact of acquiring nationality by applying to the authorities for this to be added to the birth certificate.
Ukrainian legislation refers to a 'new-born' but there is no definition of what this means in practice. Nationality cannot be withdrawn from foundlings if it would result in statelessness.

Adoption

There is no provision in Ukrainian law for a child to lose or be deprived of their nationality, so a child adopted by foreign nationals would not lose their Ukrainian nationality.
There is a provision in law for a foreign child (under 18 years-old) and a stateless adult with permanent residence adopted by Ukrainian parents to acquire nationality.

Ius sanguinis

There is a provision in law for a child born abroad to at least one Ukrainian parent to acquire Ukrainian nationality automatically at birth, and there are no discriminatory provisions.

Birth registration

+/-

The law provides that children should be registered and issued with a birth certificate within a month of birth, but documents proving the identity and legal residence of at least one parent are required to complete the registration. If the parents are undocumented, the child can be registered by a third party, but the legal bond to the parents would be undetermined.
The nationality of the child is not determined or recorded upon birth registration, only the names and nationality of the parents are recorded. The child's nationality is determined later (based on parents’ passports or proof of residence) only if a certificate of affiliation to Ukrainian nationality is requested to apply for a passport.
There are no mandatory reporting requirements on health or civil registration services to report undocumented parents to the immigration authorities, but this is not explicitly prohibited in law.
There are credible reports (for example, from UNHCR) of ‘legal orphans’ in Ukraine, or the children of undocumented parents whose details cannot be registered on their birth certificates. There are also problems with the registration of children born in prisons and credible reports that ethnic minorities, including Roma, are disproportionately impacted by barriers to birth registration. Ensuring universal access to birth registration for all children born in Ukraine, including ethnic minorities, was the subject of a recommendation Ukraine received and accepted under the second cycle of the Universal Periodic Review.
Late birth registration is possible, but parents must either indicate a valid reason for missing the one-month deadline or pay a fine (17-52 UAH / 0.50-1.53 EUR). If the birth is registered more than one year after birth and before the child is 16 years-old, additional documents are required. If the registration takes place more than 16 years after birth, a passport is required, but it is almost impossible to acquire a passport without a birth certificate.
Children born in the non-government-controlled areas (NGCA) face additional challenges in obtaining civil registration documents, as the documents issued in these areas are considered invalid by the Government of Ukraine and the procedures aimed at resolving this issue have not been implemented in practice. A judicial procedure must be used to register the birth of children born in NGCA, but it is costly and often lengthy. The Ministry of Justice has estimated that only 45% of children reported to have been born in the areas of Donetsk and Luhansk and 12% in Crimea have obtained a birth certificate.

Reducing in situ statelessness

There are credible reports of sections of the community facing a high risk of births not being registered, including Roma communities, homeless people, children born in detention or prisons, and children born in the non-government-controlled areas (NGCA).
In 2015, the Ukrainian Government adopted its ‘Plan on the Implementation of the National Strategy for Human Rights up to 2020’, which sets a goal to achieve universal birth registration for all children regardless of origin or social status. The Ministry of Justice runs several programmes under the plan and regularly reports on progress.
The new SDP was introduced in law in 2020, although as of February 2021, bylaws for its implementation have not yet been adopted. In 2019, the Cabinet of Ministers adopted the pilot program "E-baby" ("Є-малятко"), which aimed to facilitate access to a range of different services and entitlements through a single application: birth registration; registration of child’s place of residence; access to child-related social security entitlements; registration in the Population Registry; and determination of the child’s Ukrainian nationality. In 2020 the "Є-малятко" was updated and connected to the "Diia" application to make the services available online. However, according to the Ministry of Justice, this service is still only available in limited locations.

Deprivation of nationality

+/-

There are provisions for the deprivation of nationality in Ukrainian law that could result in statelessness. If nationality was conferred or acquired on fraudulent grounds, there is no safeguard to prevent statelessness.
There is a legal safeguard that permits renunciation of Ukrainian nationality only if the person has obtained another nationality or documentary proof that they will do so after renouncing their Ukrainian nationality. A stateless person who lost Ukrainian nationality and did not acquire another nationality can applied for its restoration, but this safeguard is not automatic and is subject to certain conditions.
There are no provisions permitting deprivation of nationality on national security grounds.
The State Migration Service of Ukraine is responsible for drafting submissions on deprivation of nationality, the Presidential Commission on Citizenship considers submissions, and the President takes the decision. Decisions may be challenged before a court.
Deprivation of nationality is applied in practice: seven people were deprived of their Ukrainian nationality in 2017, for example. The State Migration Service has stopped publishing data on deprivation of nationality cases, so no data is available for 2020.

Resources

Library of resources, legal instruments, publications and training materials on statelessness, specifically relevant to this country. More regional and international materials, as well as resources from other countries, are available on the Resources library. Domestic case law can be consulted in the Statelessness Case Law Database (with summaries available in English).

Please note that we are in the process of adding new resources, so check back soon.

International and regional treaties

United Nations - Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons (Jan 1954)

Council of Europe - European Convention on Nationality (Nov 1997)

Council of Europe - Convention on the Avoidance of Statelessness in relation to State Succession (Jan 2006)

United Nations - Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness (Jan 1961)

Publications

ERRC, ENS and ISI - Statelessness, Discrimination and Marginalisation of Roma in Ukraine (Mar 2018)

European Network on Statelessness - Thematic briefing: Birth registration and the prevention of statelessness in Europe (Jul 2020)

R2P, DESYATE KVITNYA, ENS, ERRC, ISI - Joint Submission to the Human Rights Council at UPR28 - Ukraine (Mar 2017)

European Network on Statelessness - Statelessness determination and protection in Europe (Sep 2021)

Right to Protection (R2P) & ENS - Socio-economic rights of a person recognized as stateless in Ukraine and a person who has applied to be recognized as stateless under the statelessness determination procedure (Ukrainian) (Sep 2021)

ENS, ERRC, ISI - Roma Belong: Statelessness, Discrimination and Marginalisation of Roma in the Western Balkans and Ukraine (Oct 2017)

Ukraine

Additional resources

ASSESSMENT KEY

ADDITIONAL INFO

Latest news on Ukraine

Sign up to our newsletter