What will be the grounds granting Belarusian citizenship and denaturalization?

On December 14, the Parliament voted for amendments to the Law "On Citizenship". The document was adopted at once in the first and second readings.

There are many innovations. They concern both the deprivation of citizenship and the oath. In particular, the bill will make it possible to form data banks of the citizens who have foreign citizenship, residence permits or other documents that give privileges on the grounds of political views or national affiliation. The most important point of the law is the possibility to deprive of citizenship those who are outside the country if there is a court verdict in force (if it confirms participation of such a person in extremist activity or causing serious harm to the interests of Belarus).

Liliya Ananich, Deputy Chairperson of the Standing Committee of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus:

“The decision on the loss of citizenship will be taken by the President of the Republic of Belarus. The law provides a clear list of grounds, criminal acts. And it is very important to stress that committing criminal acts against the state, against national security, regardless of the grounds for acquiring citizenship, can lead to the loss of citizenship of the Republic of Belarus.”

Also the Oval Hall supported a number of documents that relate to the courts and their work. One of the innovations provides the Belarusians with the right of direct access to the constitutional justice. It means, that it will be possible to appeal violations of one's rights on one's own, without resorting to additional instances, namely to the state bodies.”

One of the innovations also improves the form of appeal to the Constitutional Court: it is about the possibility of submitting an appeal in electronic form.