Netherlands - Council of State (Raad van State), ECLI:NL:RVS:2013:823

Court name: Council of State of the Netherlands (Raad van State)
State: Netherlands
Date of decision:
Key aspects: Acquisition of nationality, Discrimination, Standard of proof, State succession, Statelessness determination

The applicants are ethnic Armenians from Azerbaijan, and claim to be stateless. The applicants applied for naturalisation, which was denied to them on the basis that their identity could not be adequately established, as they neither submitted a valid travel document nor a valid birth certificate from Azerbaijan, and the Dutch municipality records did not formally recognise them as stateless.The Court upheld the administrative decision.

France - Versailles Administrative Court, no. 13VE00323

Court name: Versailles Administrative Court
State: France
Date of decision:
Legal instruments: 1954 Statelessness Convention
Key aspects: Acquisition of nationality, Deprivation of nationality, Statelessness determination

Applicants, both originally from Kazakhstan, appealed the rejection of their statelessness status. They had a document from the Kazakhstan embassy indicating they were no longer nationals, but OFPRA considered they needed to attempt to re-acquire the Kazakh nationality before benefiting from the statelessness status in France, and that the applicants' previous unsuccessful attempts to seek asylum are not an obstacle in attempting to reacquire their former nationality. The Court sided with OFPRA and confirmed the rejection of the statelessness status.