Statelessness Index – Latvia (update March 2020)

The Statelessness Index assesses how countries in Europe protect stateless people and what they are doing to prevent and reduce statelessness. The Statelessness Index was designed and is actively maintained by the European Network on Statelessness (ENS). Latvian Centre for Human Rights is a country expert for Latvia. 

The Index update for Latvia includes details of an important new law, which saw the country take a positive step towards the prevention of childhood statelessness in 2019. From 1 January 2020, children born to ‘non-citizens’ in Latvia acquire Latvian nationality automatically at birth, unless they acquire – or their parents opt for them to acquire – another nationality. There is also now a route for the children of Latvian ‘non-citizens’ born abroad to acquire Latvian nationality upon registration with the authorities (if they do not acquire another nationality).

The Index update also includes new information and analysis on birth registration and updated population data.

Read the country report for Latvia: https://index.statelessness.eu/country/latvia

Publicēts: 2020-04-08