The Scars of the Erasure_web

Erasure_4a 10.1.11 20:29 Page 133THE ERASURE AS A VIOLATION OF LEGALLY PROTECTED HUMAN RIGHTS1335. Children’s rightsAs a vulnerable social group, children enjoy special protection, so accordingto international conventions, signatory states have additional obligations towardschildren. According to the last count of erased people, conducted by the Ministryof the Interior in January 2009, of 25,671 erased persons altogether, as manyas 5,360 were younger than 18, i.e. almost 21 percent.Since children could not apply for citizenship on their own, but the applicationhad to be submitted by their parents or guardians, their loss of legal statuswas tied to that of their parents or guardians. Only a few parents applied for citi -zenship for themselves only. Most applied for both themselves and their children,but there were cases in which the parents’ application was approved and thechildren’s was not, although they were submitted on the same day (see Tatjana’sstory above; she was still a minor when she was erased).In addition to all the rights discussed in this chapter, the Convention onthe Rights of the Child protects several additional rights. According to Article 3of the Convention, in “all actions concerning children, whether undertaken bypublic or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative autho -rities or legislative bodies, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration.”The signatories “undertake to ensure the child such protection andcare as is necessary for his or her well-being, taking into account the rights andduties of his or her parents, legal guardians, or other individuals legally responsiblefor him or her, and, to this end, shall take all appropriate legislative andadministrative measures.” Furthermore, the signatories undertake to ensure“that the institutions, services and facilities responsible for the care or protectionof children shall conform with the standards established by competent authorities,particularly in the areas of safety, health, in the number and suitability oftheir staff, as well as competent supervision.”The rights protected by this Convention that are of particular importancefor the erased children are as follows:• the right to be registered immediately after birth and the right to acquirea nationality, protected by Article 7; the signatory states are obliged toensure the implementation of these rights in accordance with their nationallegislations and obligations under international regulations in thisfield, “in particular where the child would otherwise be stateless.” InSlovenian legislation, the main principle observed in awarding citizenshipwas, and still is, the ius sanguinis principle (the nationality of the childis the same as the nationality of the parents). In practice this meant thatchildren born in Slovenia to parents who were citizens of other republicsof the former Yugoslavia, were registered in the central register of thehome republic of their parents. If the parents were citizens of differentrepublics, the child was registered in the republic chosen by the parents.