Interview of Rza Talibov, Chief of Citizenship Issues Head Department of the State Migration Service, III rank state migration service counselor, on statelessness issues to the magazine "Statelessness in Azerbaijan: Achievements and Goals"

Mr. Talibov, which activities are carried out by the State Mi- gration Service on citizenship is- sues?

- Engagement of the State Migration Service in citizenship issues was authorised by the De- cree of the President dated March 6, 2008. Currently, the Service is engaged in the consideration of applications for acquisition, resto- ration and renunciation of citizen- ship of the Azerbaijan Republic , as well as cases related to the loss

of citizenship of the Azerbaijan Republic . The Service also determines eligibility to the cit- izenship of the Azerbaijan Republic . Moreover, necessary measures are regularly taken to reduce statelessness.

Please provide the information about the essence and importance of the right to citizenship.

- It should be noted that the right to citizenship is one of the most important human rights and determines the legal status of a person. A person may exercise his/her rights and freedoms in full only if he/she is a citizen of any state and the state guarantees the exercise of his/her rights. Thus, stateless people face a number of challenges in thier daily life, namely they have limited access to education, labor and social security service.

Who is considered a citizen of the Azerbaijan Republic?

According to Article 1 of the Law of the Azerbaijan Republic “On Citizenship of the Azerbaijan Republic”, according to Article 52 of the Constitution of the Azerbaijan Republic, a citizen of the Azerbaijan Republic is a person who belongs to the Azerbaijan State and has legal and political ties, as well as mutual rights and obligations to it (State). A person born in the territory of the Azerbaijan Republic, or by a citizen of the Azerbaijan Republic shall become a citizen of the Azerbaijan Republic. A person one of whose parents is a citizen of the Azerbaijan Republic shall become a citizen of the Azerbaijan Republic. Article 5 of the Law of the Azerbaijan Republic “On Citizenship of the Azerbaijan Republic” defined affiliation to the citizenship of the Azerbaijan Republic. According to the requirements of this article, the following persons shall be considered citizens of the Azerbaijan Republic:

Persons who had citizenship of the Azerbaijan Republic before up to the day of en-

actment of this Law (till 07 October 1998) provided that that the citizens of the Azerbaijan Repulic have been registered in a place of residence in the Azerbaijan Republic (or Azerbaijan SSR ) up to the day of enactment of this Law;

Persons who are not citizens of the Azerbaijan Republic or other state, but have been

registered in a place of residence in the Azerbaijan Republic until January 1, 1992;

Refugees who have been settled in the territory of the Azerbaijan Republic from Janu-

ary 1, 1988 until January 1, 1992;

Persons who obtained the citizenship of the Azerbaijan Republic in accordance with this Law.

What legal guarantees on citizenship does the legislation of the Republic of Azerbaijan provide for the solution of cases of statelessness?

-Pursuant to the requirements of the Law of the Azerbaijan Republic “On Citizenship of the Azerbaijan Republic ”, persons who were not citizens of the Azerbaijan Republic or an- other state but have been registered in a place of residence in the Azerbaijan Republic until January 1, 1992; as well as refugees who have been settled in the territory of the Azerbaijan Republic from January 1, 1988 until January 1, 1992 are considered citizens of the Azerbaijan Republic .

Also, in accordance with the third part of Article 12 of the Law, a child born in the territory of the Azerbaijan Republic and whose both parents are stateless, and according to Article 13 of the same Law, a child whose both parents are unknown, and who is located in the territory of the Azerbaijan Republic, is considered a citizen of the Azerbaijan Republic . This means that the current legislation guarantees that no child is born stateless.

Determination of citizenship of the Republic of Azerbaijan is regulated by the Rules for Determining the Citizenship of the Republic of Azerbaijan approved by Resolution 84 of the Cabinet of Ministers on March 18, 2015 which was prepared based on the provisions of the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness dated of August 30, 1961. Persons who had citizenship of the Azerbaijan Republic (or Azerbaijan SSR) before up to the day of enactment of the Law of the Azerbaijan Republic “On Citizenship of the Azerbaijan Republic ” (till 07 October 1998) and who did not leave the territory of the Azerbaijan Republic however failed to get registered in a place of residence up to the day of enactment of this Law are considered to be stateless. The paragraph 4.3 of the Rules for Determining the Citizenship of the Repub- lic of Azerbaijan includes a very important provision which defines the affiliation of these people to the citizenship of the Azerbaijan Republic.

This can be regarded as a result of the purposeful and humanitarian policy followed by our state in reducing statelessness and tackling the causes of statelessness.

In addition, in order to facilitate the naturalization of stateless persons in the country, the Law of the Azerbaijan Republic “On Citizenship of the Azerbaijan Republic “ was amended by the Law of the Azerbaijan Republic No. 980-VQD dated February 1, 2018.

According to this amendment, in cases envisaged by the international agreements to which the Republic of Azerbaijan is a party, the fact of non-affiliation to citizenship of any state, as well as lack of permanent residence permit in the Republic of Azerbaijan of the person who came to the Republic of Azerbaijan by January 1, 2006 with a passport of former USSR or other document and permanently reside here, who is not affiliated to citizenship of any state and does not hold valid identity documents is determined by the court.

What are the specific measures taken to reduce statelessness and what are your goals for future?

In order to strengthen cooperation to increase awareness on the fight against statelessness and effective protection of the rights of the stateless persons the State Migration Service has joined since 28 April 2015 the “Global Action Plan” adopted within the framework of the UNHCR’s campaign “To end statelessness within 10 years”

As a result of measures taken by the State Migration Service during 2008-2020 (until 01 October 2021) to document stateless persons, 1830 stateless persons (1873 persons, if count- ed together with their children) were granted citizenship of the Azerbaijan Republic by the relevant decrees of the President of the Azerbaijan Republic .

Moreover, during this period, 162,308 people were recognized as citizens of the Azerbai- jan Republic and they were provided by the relevant state agency with documents confirming their identity as citizens of the Azerbaijan Republic .

Furthermore, in order to prevent and reduce stateless in the Azerbaijan Republic, as well as to document stateless people the State Migration Service has carried out extensive aware- ness-raising activities in the cities and regions of the country. In addition, numerous meetings were organized together with the local executive authorities through the regional migration offices of the Service, a number of explanatory talks were held and relevant activities were carried out for documentation of undocumented persons.

During 2016-2018,numerous meetings and awareness-raising campaigns were held in the areas of the regional migration offices of the Service to legalize persons living illegally in the territory of the Azerbaijan Republic. In total of 389 people were counselled as a result of the meetings. Measures have been taken to legalize 194 persons out of them.

Implementation of the specific work to eliminate statelessness as well as conduct of nu- merous awareness-raising events and meetings on statelessness in different regions of the country by the State Migration Service has yield positive results. Thus, both the numbers of

application for determination of affiliation to the citizenship and the applications for acqui- sition the citizenship give grounds to say so.

As to our goals, during the 70th session of the Executive Committee of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) held in Geneva, Switzerland on October 7-11, 2019, the Azerbaijan Republic has pledged to naturalize all stateless persons registered in the country during the next 3 (three) years.

For this purpose the respective activities to eliminate and prevent statelessness in the coun- try have been accelerated. Thus, the relevant analysis of the final list of stateless people reg- istered in the country as well as the work to be done in order to ensure their naturalization within the following three years has been carried out. The Ministry of Interior has sent letters to 494 persons who have been permanently residing in the territory of Azerbaijan and possess documents confirming their statelessness, thus advising them to apply to the State Migration Service to obtain citizenship. During from 7 October 2019 until 18 October 2020 the applications of 143 stateless persons have been accepted for consideration.

During the reported period 52 individuals, permanently residing in the Azerbaijan Republic and who have been provided by the Ministry of Interior with the documents confirming their statelessness as well as 34 stateless persons (86 persons in total) have been granted citi- zenship by the relevant Decree of the President of the Azerbaijan Republic .

Thus, in order to eradicate all cases of statelessness the State Migration Service intends to continue its large-scale work in this direction.