Netherlands - Court of the Hague, ECLI:NL:RBDHA:2019:7638

A child is born in the Netherlands in 2016, and has resided there since, without a legal residence permit. A request was made on behalf of the child to determine that he has Dutch nationality, on the basis of direct application of article 1 of the 1961 Convention, as he would otherwise be stateless. The Court refuses, as it considers this to be a question of granting Dutch nationality, and not of determination of Dutch nationality, which the Court is not empowered to do.

Case name (in original language)
ECLI:NL:RBDHA:2019:7638
Case status
Decided
Case number
ECLI:NL:RBDHA:2019:7638
Date of decision
State
Court / UN Treaty Body
Court of the Hague
Language(s) the decision is available in
Dutch
Applicant's country of birth
Netherlands
Applicant's country of residence
Netherlands
Relevant Legislative Provisions

1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness

1997 European Convention on Nationality

Article 17 of the Royal Law on Dutch nationality

Facts

A child was born in 2016 to two parents who have been residing without a legal residence permit in the Netherlands since 2014. Parents were born in Israel, presumably of Arabic origin. 

Decision & Reasoning

"First of all the Court notes that the request to the Court has been based on Article 17 of the Royal Law on Dutch Nationality (RWN). On the basis of this Article the Court can only determine whether or not the applicant possesses Dutch nationality. The Court cannot grant Dutch nationality."

"It has not been established that the child has acquired Dutch nationality on the basis of one of the provisions of the RWN. The legal representative of the child has himself asserted that the RWN does not regulate situations such as that of this child. RWN contains an exhaustive set of circumstances in which Dutch nationality can be acquired and retained, and the case of the child does not fall under any of these circumstances, wherefrom follows that the child did not acquire Dutch nationality at birth or at any other later moment in time. The appeal to the 1961 Convention does not change this, as in this specific procedure the Court is bound to the legal scope of RWN, and cannot grant Dutch nationality - but merely determine it."

Outcome

The child does not have Dutch nationality.