Open Society Justice Initiative Seeks Relief for Slovenia's “Erased” Citizens

STRASBOURG—The Open Society Justice Initiative submitted comments to the European Court of Human Rights this week highlighting the plight of thousands of residents of Slovenia who were unjustly "erased" from the government's register of citizens in 1996.

The comments were submitted in the case of Makuc and Others v. Slovenia. In the case, 11 long-term residents of Slovenia are challenging the Slovene government's stripping them of legal status. The government's action, which followed Slovenia's secession from Yugoslavia, left them no meaningful opportunity to obtain Slovene citizenship.

"This is a pivotal opportunity for the European Court to rectify the Slovene government's arbitrary denial of nationality," said Robert O. Varenik, acting executive director of the Justice Initiative. "Slovenia's actions effectively rendered most of these applicants stateless, in violation of international law."

After the dissolution of Yugoslavia and the emergence of an independent Slovenia, the new state adopted laws allowing residents to apply for Slovene citizenship. However, the citizenship application process was cumbersome and the government did not publicize it effectively. As a result, thousands of legal residents of Slovenia did not apply. In 1996, the Slovene government literally erased the names of 18,305 residents from its register of citizens. These names were placed on a register of foreigners residing illegally in Slovenia. Since then, these erased citizens have been denied social services including health care and schooling, and some have been rendered stateless.

The Justice Initiative's brief argues that the Slovene government's action violates Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects individuals' right to sustain the personal, social, and economic relations that link them to the society in which they habitually reside. It also argues that the erasure in Slovenia was discriminatory because it disproportionately affected ethnic minorities, especially Roma.

"Although the European Convention does not explicitly recognize the right to nationality, Slovenia's actions are still constrained by human rights law and the country must be held accountable under existing standards," said Varenik.