Key Observations from the Nationality Law-related Case Law of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights

Abstract

The European Convention on Nationality (ECN) deals with the matter of nationality in greater detail than the 1969 American Convention on Human Rights (AmCHR). Despite the existence of the ECN, a substantial body of case law on nationality by regional courts is lacking in Europe. Against that background it is surprising that not many nationality-related decisions have been handed down either by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Dilcia Oliven Yean and Violeta Bosico Cofi, born in 1996 and 1985 respectively to Dominican mothers, had been denied birth certificates by the Registry Office in spite of the fact that they were born in the Dominican Republic and that Dominican law establishes the principle of ius soli acquisition. The Court summarized the application submitted to it by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.Keywords: American Convention on Human Rights (AmCHR); European Convention on Nationality (ECN); Inter-American Court of Human Rights