Briefing Paper for Expert Consultation on Issues Related to Minorities and the Denial or Deprivation of Citizenship, 6-7 December 2007, Convened by the UN Independent Expert on Minority Issues

Claude Cahn and Sebihana Skenderovska

I. Introduction

A number of large forces in Europe have in recent years weakened the power of the nation-state in Europe and/or given rise to competing trans-national authorities, particularly the European Union. Although extensive efforts have been made to link these practices to fundamental human rights or to the rights of European citizens – and indeed many hundreds of thousands of Europeans have benefited from these developments –, in practice a number of persons with genuine effective links to one or more European states are precluded from full and effective citizenship in all or any European states or polities. Many may even lack the recognized citizenship of any country. This exclusion is frequently on grounds of ethnicity or perceived race. Roma – a stigmatized, pariah minority – are particularly affected. Exclusion from the polity can and frequently does give rise to expulsion or threat of expulsion from country.

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