Everything you need to know about statelessness

Birth registration of Roma children is becoming more difficult: a case study from Serbia

This piece draws on Praxis’ work providing free legal aid to people at risk of statelessness in Serbia. It details the case of Sara, a Roma child…

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and statelessness on Roma women and girls

In November 2021, the 8th International Roma Women’s Conference took place in a hybrid format, organised by the Council of Europe’s Roma and…

North Macedonia takes important first step towards ending statelessness

On 3 January North Macedonia officially acceded to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, joining 74 other countries which have…

Join the feminist revolution in work to address statelessness

When black feminist theory was referenced on the podium at the closing plenary of the World Conference on Statelessness in the Hague last month, a…

Roma in Serbia still denied birth certificates – ENS members take legal action to challenge register offices’ unlimited power

The purist in me imagines bureaucrats running around maternity wards, struggling to catch all the details (“Name? Mother’s name? Sorry, can you…

Using the UN Human Rights Special Procedures to address statelessness

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have not to date made as much use as they could of the United Nations (UN) Special Procedures to raise and…

Thoughts on Strategic Litigation: Can EU law prevent and reduce Roma statelessness in Europe?

The Court of Justice famous weighed in several years ago on the relevance of EU law to situations where EU citizens are made stateless (Case C-135/08…

Legally Invisible in Serbia

Just outside the front door of their shack in an informal Roma settlement in central Belgrade, Serbia, 15-year-old Deni and his six brothers and…

CESCR’s recommendation – Serbia to ensure effective access to personal documents for Roma and displaced persons, and in the meantime to facilitate their access to economic, social and cultural rights

In May 2014, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights considered the Second Periodic Report of Serbia on the measures applied and…

Abandoned by parents, neglected by the State

„...I just want to get an ID card, like other citizens, and then register the birth of my children. My greatest wish is that my children go to…

Out of Limbo: Promoting the right of stateless Roma people to a legal status in Italy

A significant proportion of Roma people originating from the Balkans and living in Italy are stateless or at risk of statelessness. In most cases…

Romani Minorities Caught in-between: Impeded Access to Citizenship and de facto Statelessness in the Post-Yugoslav Space

Since the 2004 and 2007 EU enlargements, Roma became the EU largest minority, but also continue to be one of the most vulnerable groups of citizens…