The President of Latvia intends to submit a draft law to the Saeima in the near future, which will stipulate that new non-citizens can no longer be born in Latvia, as either children of non-citizens should become citizens of Latvia at the time of birth or their parents should choose citizenship of other country for them.
Ombudsman Juris Jansons expressed support for the initiative of the President of Latvia during the discussion, “The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child provides that every child is registered immediately after its birth, and he or she is entitled, from birth, to the right to a name, the right to acquire a nationality, the right to know his or her parents, and be under the guardianship of his or her parents. Being a citizen definitely is in the best interests of the child.”
Director of Market and Public Opinion Research Centre SKDS Arnis Kaktiņš pointed out that the Latvian society positively evaluated the proposal to stop the granting of non-citizen status, “The surveys carried out this year showed that the overwhelming majority, namely 76% of the respondents, supported this initiative. Besides, 51% of those claimed that fully supported the proposal and 25% of the respondents acknowledged that they rather supported it. Only 16% of the respondents said that they did not support this proposal at all or partially.”
Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior Evika Siliņa indicated that supporting the initiative would not create a significant increase in the number of applicants for the citizenship of Latvia. In 2016, 52 newborn babies were registered as non-citizens that was three times less than three years ago.
Associate Professor of the London University College Mārtiņš Paparinskis analysed the issue from the point of view of international law and he acknowledged that he found no legal obstacles for accepting the proposal by the President of Latvia as it fully complied with the continuity doctrine of the Republic of Latvia.
