BY EUDO-CITIZENSHIP expert for Ukraine Oxana Shevel. 

 

On August 14, two MPs from the nationalist party Svoboda (Freedom) registered in the Ukrainian Parliament an amendment to the law on citizenship. The proposed amendment adds a paragraph to Article 14 of the law that specifies conditions for loss of Ukrainian citizenship. If passed, the amendment would make “participation in the illegal military, terrorist and other organisations aimed against sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine” a ground for loss of Ukrainian citizenship – unless loss of citizenship would render the person in question stateless. Loss of citizenship, per current Article 19, enters into force once the corresponding presidential decree is signed.

The legislators argued in the explanatory memorandum accompanying the amendment that the change to the citizenship law they propose would make Ukrainian citizenship legislation more closely aligned with the 1997 European Convention on Nationality, in particular paragraph 1 item d of Article 7 (Loss of nationality ex lege or at the initiative of a State Party). This paragraph allows state parties to provide for loss of citizenship in their legislation at the initiative of the state in cases of “conduct seriously prejudicial to the vital interests of the State Party.” The authors further note in the explanatory memorandum that recently in Ukraine the number of illegal armed and terrorist groups engaged in acts against vital national interests of the state has greatly increased, and many members of these groups are Ukrainian citizens, with a majority of them also holding another citizenship, usually of the Russian Federation. The amendment, according to the authors, is aimed at remedying the situation whereby “Ukraine is keeping as citizens people who are fighting against its sovereignty and territorial integrity by military and terrorist methods.”

 

Access the full text of the amendment and explanatory memorandum (in Ukrainian).