(As prepared)

Mr. Chairman, to be a citizen of a state is to be able to enjoy to the fullest one’s rights and freedoms in that state, along with the social and economic benefits offered by that state. We can go back in history thousands of years to find people who sought to protect their rights and freedoms – indeed their very lives – by asserting their status as a citizen. Unfortunately, even today many states deny citizens basic rights and freedoms, such as citizenship, as a means of discriminating against select individuals, often and especially including those belonging to minorities.

Such discrimination in citizenship has become a more profound problem in the 1990s, as new states have emerged in the OSCE region. Sometimes a dominant group seeks to justify statehood on the basis of its own aspirations for independence and power within the new state, even at the expense of others living in the country. Asserting statehood in this way may ignore dramatic demographic changes of prior decades. New citizenship laws should not seek to reverse these changes, even when the changes were coerced by the authorities of a previously occupying or other form of non-representative state. These laws cannot be just if they render innocent people stateless or have the effect of forcing people to leave their homes and livelihoods.

Fortunately, progress has been made in some states regarding citizenship laws, from the Baltics to the Balkans. In the Czech Republic, an amendment to the citizenship law signed by President Havel on August 23 will, when fully implemented, at long last enable thousands of Roma rendered stateless to regularize their status. We would welcome learning how the Czech Government plans to disseminate, particularly to the Romani minority, information about new citizenship opportunities and what kind of outreach campaign will ensure that all those who are newly eligible for citizenship will have the right to apply. Greece took the significant step of repealing Article 19 of its Citizenship Code. We and others in the international community commend Greece. We hope that Greece will also revoke Article 20, which has not been enforced for several years but remains on the books. Such a step would help safeguard the rights of all Greek citizens. In the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the 15-year residency requirement which disenfranchised those who had been legally residing in that republic at the time of independence in 1991 will likely be changed. We hope the progress of the last year regarding citizenship for Crimean Tatars in Ukraine continues.

In Croatia, delays in providing citizenship and travel documentation to ethnic Serb citizens abroad -- exacerbated by procedural obstacles placed by Belgrade authorities -- have contributed to the slow pace of refugee returns. The Croatian Law on Citizenship distinguishes between those who have claim to Croat ethnicity and those who do not, extending citizenship to ethnic Croats abroad while imposing stricter requirements on non-Croats.

In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, we must recognize that full participatory democracy and social stability in newly created or freed states cannot be attained without an inclusive approach to citizenship. Assuring protection against discrimination and statelessness should continue to be a high priority for all OSCE participating States.