On March 25, 2019, the Police of the Republic of Armenia issued official clarification No. N 1 regarding the change of a child's citizenship. Specifically, how is the issue of terminating a child's citizenship resolved if the parents are divorced or one parent is absent?
According to part 2 of Article 17 of the Law on Citizenship of the Republic of Armenia, if one of the parents has lost Armenian citizenship and the other is a citizen of the Republic of Armenia, then their child loses Armenian citizenship if there is parental consent, or if the child resides outside the Republic of Armenia, and there is consent from the parent who is a citizen of the Republic of Armenia.
According to part 5 of Article 47 of the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, a citizen of the Republic of Armenia cannot be deprived of the right to change citizenship. According to part 6 of Article 47 of the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, the procedure for exercising the right to change citizenship is established by law.
By establishing the requirement for the consent of the parent who is a citizen of the Republic of Armenia to be presented by the other parent for the termination of the child's citizenship, the law does not provide any exceptions for cases where the parents are divorced or where the parent who is a citizen of the Republic of Armenia is wanted, or for any other circumstances.
According to part 2 of Article 24 of the Family Code of the Republic of Armenia, issues of motherhood, fatherhood, child upbringing and education, as well as other family life issues are jointly resolved by the spouses based on the principle of equality of spouses. Article 49 of the same law states that parents have equal rights and bear equal responsibilities towards their children (parental rights). At the same time, the law clearly defines the grounds for depriving or restricting parental rights based on the fact of kinship with the child, under which circumstances only the parent can lose their rights related to the child.
Based on the above, we officially clarify:
In accordance with part 2 of Article 17 of the Law on Citizenship of the Republic of Armenia, to change a child's citizenship, it is necessary to present the consent of the parents (or one parent), regardless of whether the parents are divorced or one of the parents is wanted or any other circumstance.