A Syrian citizen, married to an Estonian citizen, turned to court after their application for Estonian citizenship by naturalisation was rejected. The reason for the rejection was that the applicant had not been released from their Syrian citizenship. However, under Syrian law, this is only possible in special cases. The applicant was ready to renounce their Syrian citizenship, but was unable to do so due to their non-democratic country of origin.
The case highlighted a broader issue in relation to human rights and citizenship in Estonia, particularly in situations where a person’s non-democratic country of origin prevents them from renouncing their citizenship, creating legal and human rights dilemmas. In addition, the lawyers pointed out that treating people in similar situations differently is contrary to the principle of equality.
The litigation went through several stages, but did not make it to the Supreme Court. Tallinn Circuit Court’s disposition that an Estonian citizen may not be a citizen of another country at the same time was upheld.
The client was represented by lawyers Markus Hallang and Uljana Ponomarjova (Estonian Human Rights Centre).
Read the detailed information of the case in Estonian.
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