Disintegration and Statelessness
| Date | 01 March 1994 |
| Author | Peter van Krieken |
| DOI | 10.1177/016934419401200103 |
| Published date | 01 March 1994 |
| Subject Matter | Part A: Article |
Disintegration and Statelessness
Peter van Krieken
...
Abstract
In this article, the author focuses on the statelessness issue. He submits that in the
aftermath
of
the disintegration
of
Unions and Federal Republics many an individual will
end up empty handed, i.e. without a nationality. The article deals with: nation building,
citizenship, citizens and non-citizens, non-citizens andforeigners, statelessness, the status
of
stateless persons and the UNHCR's involvement. Special attention has been
paid
to the
Baltic countries. The author concludes, inter alia, that on the legal level one must make
sure that all countries which (re-Igain their independence do follow international
standards and do include in their municipal legislation a generous and liberal set
of
rules
and regulations governing the status
of
the so-called non-nationals. He also advocates an
early accession to the international instruments relating to statelessness.
1. Introduction
One of the main issues of the early '90s is the destabilization resulting from the
disintegration of federal republics or colonial empires. I, of course, refer to the cases of
Yugoslavia and the USSR. Although initially welcomed by many, these disintegration
processes have meanwhile resulted in so much violence, insecurity and outbursts of
nationalism, that most observers now seem to agree that the emerging problems will
dominate many a debate on stability, security and human rights for more years to come
than one might have wished.
One of the issues which need to be addressed, is the status of the inhabitants and
residents of the many Republics which have meanwhile obtainedthe status of Independent
States. This refers to countries like Slovakia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia, Moldovia and many others. At stake is whether all residents of these newly
emerged countries will automatically be entitled to the citizenship of that State. In
practice, this will not be the case, and many of the residents may end up stateless, i.e.
without citizenship.
One of the ways to address this issue is by concentrating on the citizenship-,
nationality- and/or naturalization laws of the countries at stake. These laws, however, will
turn out to be imperfect, and all these countries are, therefore, bound to have bigger or
smaller numbers of stateless persons.
In the context of this article, I shall therefore concentrate on the statelessnessissue,
rather than the topics linked to citizenship and/or naturalization (on the latter issues see
e.g. Van Krieken 1993a and 1993b). Moreover, as countries of reference I shall refer to
the Baltic Republics, because of the very fact that these countries are considered to have
re-gained their independence (rather than: gained)which results in specific features. With
*Dr. P.I. van Krieken was Deputy Regional Representative at the UNHCR Regional Office for the Nordic
and Baltic Countries (hence his interest for the Baltics) and is now Head of UNHCR'sPeshawar Office.
This contribution represents the author's personal views which are not necessarily shared by the UN or
UNHCR.
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