Realising Non-citizens’ Right to a Nationality: A Pressing Human Rights Issue to Be Put Higher on the EU Agenda

Abstract

The study aims to highlight the controversial human rights situation of the so-called “non-citizens” residing in the Baltic successor states of the USSR that since have become members of the EU through the prism of fundamental rights and non-discrimination, and the detrimental impacts inherent to the lack of effective nationality with special regard to the inability to fully enjoy the rights and opportunities associated with EU citizenship. It stresses the utmost importance for the European Union to promote the human rights of non-citizens living in EU territory in the Baltic region, especially in Latvia and Estonia, where the vast majority of non-citizens belonging to the Russian-speaking minorities reside.