Human Rights Committee - Zhao v. Netherlands

Court name: Human Rights Committee
State: Netherlands
Date of decision:
Key aspects: Acquisition of nationality, Childhood statelessness, Determination/confirmation of nationality, Standard of proof, Statelessness determination

A child was born in the Netherlands was registered as having 'unknown' nationality and the authorities refused changing it to 'stateless' on the ground that the child had not proved that he had no nationality, as the burden of proof was on the child and not on the authorities. Without being recognised as stateless, the author could not acquire Dutch nationality. The Committee adopted the view that this requirement rendered the author of the complaint unable to effectively enjoy his right as a minor to acquire a nationality, in violation of the rights guaranteed under Article 24(3) in conjunction with Article 2(3) ICCPR.