Slovenia is party to the 1954, but not the 1961 Convention nor the Council of Europe statelessness instruments. Statelessness can be identified through administrative procedures for the acquisition of a residence permit or naturalisation, leading to different rights depending on the status granted and prescribed conditions. However, people are not granted protection based on their statelessness and the definition of a stateless person in Slovenian law is narrower than the 1954 Convention. There is no obligation on the authorities to consider a claim of statelessness, the burden of proof is on the applicant and there is no legal aid except for judicial review. The protection granted by each permit varies, but a grant of ‘permission to stay’, for example, only ensures access to emergency healthcare, primary education, and basic financial assistance.
There are some gaps in protection against the arbitrary detention of stateless people. Under the Slovenian Constitution, a proportionality test must be carried out when deciding to detain, but in practice a country of removal may not be identified prior to detaining, and alternatives to detention are not routinely considered. There are provisions in nationality law to prevent statelessness in the case of foundlings, adopted children and most children born to Slovenian parents abroad. However, the acquisition of nationality at birth by children born in Slovenia who would otherwise be stateless depends on the status of the parents, who must be stateless or unknown. Slovenia generally performs well on birth registration, but there is no framework or procedure for determining a child’s nationality if born to foreign nationals in the country. There have also been reports of officials refusing to register paternity where foreign parents are unable to produce a marriage certificate, but the competent authorities issued guidance in 2021 to encourage administrative units to register paternity where it is evident that the parents are unable to establish paternity in their country of nationality. Slovenia has received several UPR recommendations relating to the status of ‘erased persons’. There are safeguards to prevent statelessness in all provisions for loss and deprivation of nationality, and deprivation is not applied in practice.
Katarina Vučko, The Peace Institute
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