Netherlands - Council of State (Raad van State), ECLI:NL:RVS:2016:2912

Court name: Council of State of the Netherlands (Raad van State)
State: Netherlands
Date of decision:
Legal instruments: Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)
Key aspects: Acquisition of nationality, Burden of proof, Childhood statelessness, Determination/confirmation of nationality, Respect for private and family life, Statelessness determination

The applicant is the mother of a stateless child born in the Netherlands, who applied for confirmation of Dutch nationality for her son. The application was rejected as the municipality neither considered it established that the child is stateless, nor that he has fulfilled the legal residence requirement. The applicant claimed that denial of confirmation of nationality for her son constitutes violations of article 8 ECHR, article 7 CRC and article 24 ICCPR, but those arguments failed in Court. The Court mentions the plans of the Dutch government to introduce a statelessness determination procedure.