Italy – Court of Rome (Contentious- Civil Court), first instance decision of 21 October 2019

The applicant is a deaf-mute individual who had been denied medical treatment because he was in Italy in an irregular state. He lived with his parents (both of whom claimed to be stateless persons from the former Yugoslavia) along with his 6 siblings in a refugee camp in Rome. The applicant had never obtained Italian or Yugoslavian citizenship. He therefore urgently applied to be recognised as stateless, obtain a residence permit and a travel document. The Chamber of Judges recognised his statelessness status, applying the principles set out by the Italian Supreme Court in previous decisions (and in particular in the Supreme Court decision 28873/08 dated 9 December 2008).

Case name (in original language)
Tribunale ordinario di Roma, sezione civile I, Pres. Rel. Est. Dott.ssa Valeria Chirico
Case status
Decided
Case number
20182/2019
Citation
Italy – Court of Rome (Contentious- Civil Court), first instance, case 20182/2019
Date of decision
State
Court / UN Treaty Body
Civil Court of Rome (Tribunale ordinario di Roma)
Language(s) the decision is available in
Italian
Applicant's country of birth
Italy
Applicant's country of residence
Italy
Relevant Legislative Provisions

1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons

Facts

The applicant provided evidence demonstrating that he had been born in Italy in 1992 and has been a resident of Italy since birth. He also provided evidence that he had not registered as a citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina or the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Mostar.

The father was granted statelessness status, while the mother's statelessness status was denied (on the basis of her alleged Bosnian citizenship).

Decision & Reasoning

The Court of Rome recognised the statelessness status on the basis of the principles already set out by case law from Italian Supreme Court and in particular considering that:

  1. Statelessness status must be considered as similar to the status of a foreigner entitled to international protection (i.e., full respect for human and fundamental rights). (Supreme Court decision 28873/08);
  2. In order to apply Article 1 of the 1954 Statelessness Convention, and in assessing whether the person could have obtained nationality of other countries, it is necessary to consider only the legislation of the countries with which the person has a "legally relevant link" and the burden of proof in this respect is "mitigated".

In this case, the Court of Rome concluded that the applicant could not be considered a Bosnian citizen according to the applicable law, i.e., Article 5 of the Law on Citizenship of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Official Gazette 13/99) because he had been residing in Italy since birth (whereas Bosnian law grants citizenship only to those born on Bosnian territory since 1995). Further, the applicant could not be considered "naturalized" because Bosnian law requires the applicant to have been in the territory of Bosnia for at least 8 years (or in exceptional cases 3 years).

In light of the above the Court of Rome recognised the statelessness status of the applicant.

Outcome

The applicant is granted statelessness status with the relevant effects under Italian law.

Caselaw cited

Supreme Court decision 28873/08 dated 9 December 2008