Slovenia ratifies the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness

SLOVENIA, January 30 - The Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness entered into force on 13 December 1975. It is the leading international treaty that sets out rules for the conferral and non-withdrawal of citizenship in order to prevent new cases of statelessness. It is an essential tool for the prevention and reduction of statelessness worldwide. To date, 81 countries have acceded to the Convention, including 21 European Union member states.

Slovenia's accession to the Convention, announced at the Global Refugee Forum in Geneva in December 2023, reaffirms Slovenia's commitment to human rights and solidarity, including the right to nationality.

The Convention sets out rules for the conferral and non-withdrawal of citizenship in order to prevent new cases of statelessness, representing a significant step toward its global eradication. Although statelessness is not a problem in Slovenia, the Government nevertheless decided to comprehensively regulate the right to nationality.

The applicable Citizenship of the Republic of Slovenia Act, which lays down the methods and conditions for acquiring and terminating Slovenian citizenship, already incorporates most of the legal safeguards required by the Convention to prevent statelessness. Slovenian legal framework has thus long been in line with the objective of reducing statelessness.

The implementation of the Convention requires an amendment to Article 9 of the Citizenship of the Republic of Slovenia Act, which sets out the conditions for acquiring citizenship by birth in the territory of the Republic of Slovenia. The amendment should provide that if a child’s parents have a known citizenship but the child cannot acquire it due to the principle of territoriality, the child will be granted Slovenian citizenship at birth. Article 22 of the Citizenship of the Republic of Slovenia Act, which sets out the conditions for the termination of a minor's Slovenian citizenship through release, will also need to be amended. A safeguard will have to be introduced to ensure that the child cannot be released from Slovenian citizenship unless they have already been granted foreign citizenship. However, as the verification of foreign citizenship is already an integral part of the existing procedure for releasing a minor from citizenship, this amendment will not affect its implementation.