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Fourteen years after a group of stateless Palestinians filed a lawsuit against the Danish authorities, the Danish Supreme Court is now considering whether the delay in granting them citizenship violated the rules and obligations that Denmark was bound by, and whether they deserve financial compensation, according to dk-sundhed.dk, citing Ritzau.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Supreme Court is considering the final chapter of the case.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Danish Supreme Court began hearing the case on Monday to determine whether 22 plaintiffs who were previously stateless were delayed in obtaining Danish citizenship in violation of international rules and obligations, and whether they are entitled to financial compensation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The case goes back to what is known as the \u00abstatelessness issue,\u00bb which was revealed in 2011, when it emerged that stateless Palestinians were denied Danish citizenship despite the obligations imposed on Denmark by international agreements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Supreme Court is expected to issue its ruling later this month of August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A lawsuit that lasted 14 years within the judicial system<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Palestinians, who now hold Danish citizenship, filed their lawsuit against the Danish authorities 14 years ago, but the case remained unresolved for many years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The plaintiffs first waited for the Stateless Persons Commission to conclude its investigation, and then had to wait again after the Supreme Court in 2018 settled a similar case concerning compensation claims filed by other stateless persons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The case documents show that the lawsuit was filed in the Copenhagen City Court on July 10, 2012, before being transferred in December of the same year to the Supreme Court of Eastern Denmark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Retrial after discovering the incompetence of one of the judges<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The case was subject to hearings in the Supreme Court of Eastern Denmark during 2021 and 2022, where five hearings were held, before a new problem emerged during the judges\u2019 deliberations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After the trial sessions ended and the judges began deliberating on the verdict, one of them discovered that he was not qualified to hear the case, which led to the case being returned and new dates being set before a different judicial body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the spring of 2025, the court reconvened with a new panel of judges and issued its ruling on May 28, 2025, after the case had previously been heard in December 2021, January and September 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Only three received compensation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In May 2025, the Supreme Court of Eastern Denmark decided to award only three of the 33 plaintiffs involved in the case compensation of 10,000 kroner each.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As for the rest of the plaintiffs, the court did not grant them compensation, which prompted 22 of them to appeal the ruling to the Danish Supreme Court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The court documents indicate that the Ministry of Immigration and Integration had previously acknowledged that there was a basis for granting some of the plaintiffs compensation for the delay in obtaining citizenship, and the court set the compensation in cases where the delay was proven at 10,000 kroner per person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Claims for compensation of 500,000 kronor filed before the Supreme Court<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The total value of the claim being considered by the Supreme Court is 500,000 kroner. The plaintiffs had previously objected to the case being kept pending the resolution of other cases, according to their lawyer, Christian F. Jensen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The lawyer said his clients objected to the suspension of the case, but it happened despite their objection, adding that this is one of the reasons the case has reached 2026, instead of being resolved at the same time as the cases of the other plaintiffs, according to the aforementioned sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The plaintiffs' lawyer criticizes the length of the litigation proceedings.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Lawyer Christian F. Jensen also strongly criticized the length of time it took for the case to reach its conclusion before the Supreme Court in eastern Denmark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said the way the case was handled in court constituted, in his words, \u00abanother stain on the Danish judicial system.\u00bb He added that what happens in such cases is that citizens are \u00abexhausted\u00bb by the length of the procedures, while the authorities do not face the same problem, according to the sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The court documents confirm that the case was returned to trial due to the incompetence of one of the judges. The court also decided that the public treasury should bear additional costs incurred by the Ministry of Immigration and Integration due to the return of the case, and set those costs at 50,000 kroner including VAT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The case sparked a political crisis in 2011<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n When the issue of stateless Palestinians came to light at the beginning of 2011, it caused political repercussions, including the dismissal of former Integration Minister Birthe R\u00f8nn Hornbech from the Venstre party in the spring of that year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The authorities then formed the \u00abCommittee on Stateless Persons,\u00bb which issued its final report in 2015. The committee concluded that Denmark had, for years, implemented procedures that conflicted with its international obligations, because it had not adhered to the rules that give stateless persons an easier way to obtain Danish citizenship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Stateless Persons Committee report has become part of the case.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Stateless Persons Commission was formed with the aim of investigating how Danish authorities handle citizenship applications from stateless persons, and whether the procedures followed are in line with international agreements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The case documents show that the committee\u2019s report and conclusions were submitted to the court, and that the Ministry of Immigration and Integration declared during a court hearing in 2020 that the basic facts and conclusions contained in the report could be treated as undisputed between the parties to the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This means that the report was not disputed in terms of the basic facts it established, and therefore the plaintiffs did not have to re-establish those facts before the court. This does not mean that the ministry automatically acknowledged that all the plaintiffs were entitled to compensation, as this matter remained disputed before the court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The court examines the right to family life and the prohibition of discrimination.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The current case is not limited to the issue of delays in granting citizenship, as the Supreme Court must also examine whether the Danish authorities have violated Article 8 and Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Article 8 concerns the right to respect for private and family life, while Article 14 prohibits discrimination in the enjoyment of the rights and freedoms protected by the Convention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Supreme Court of Eastern Denmark had previously rejected the claim that these provisions had been violated in the case, a decision which the plaintiffs are appealing to the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The judgment documents show that the plaintiffs base their case, among other things, on the argument that the delay in granting citizenship and the accompanying lack of guidance regarding their rights under international agreements affected their rights, while the defendant rejected these arguments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The court also considers the statute of limitations.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Supreme Court will also examine another legal issue, namely whether some compensation claims have lapsed due to the statute of limitations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Ministry of Immigration and Integration argued before the court that some of the claims were so old that they were subject to the statute of limitations, and based this on Article 3 of the Danish Statute of Limitations Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The court documents indicated that the lawsuit was filed on July 10, 2012, and that the ministry argued that claims arising before July 10, 2009, could have been time-barred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Supreme Court had previously ruled on a similar case in 2018.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The current case gains additional importance because of a previous ruling by the Danish Supreme Court on June 20, 2018, which addressed similar claims made by 17 stateless people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The court concluded at the time that people who could have obtained citizenship earlier if their applications had been processed in accordance with international rules for stateless persons could have been entitled to compensation of 10,000 kroner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The court also concluded in that case that the processing period for citizenship applications generally ranged between 16 months and two years, and that those who obtained citizenship within this period had their applications processed in accordance with international rules for stateless persons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Ministry of Immigration declined to comment on the matter.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ritsau contacted the Danish Ministry of Immigration and Integration for comment on the current case, but the ministry declined to comment, explaining that it was a pending lawsuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The case now awaits the final word from the Supreme Court, after a legal journey that began 14 years ago, and witnessed official investigations, trials, and retrials due to the disqualification of one of the judges, before finally reaching the highest judicial level in Denmark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u0628\u0639\u062f 14 \u0639\u0627\u0645\u0627\u064b \u0645\u0646 \u0631\u0641\u0639 \u0645\u062c\u0645\u0648\u0639\u0629 \u0645\u0646 \u0627\u0644\u0641\u0644\u0633\u0637\u064a\u0646\u064a\u064a\u0646 \u0643\u0627\u0646\u0648\u0627 \u0639\u062f\u064a\u0645\u064a \u0627\u0644\u062c\u0646\u0633\u064a\u0629 \u062f\u0639\u0648\u0649 \u0636\u062f \u0627\u0644\u0633\u0644\u0637\u0627\u062a \u0627\u0644\u062f\u0646\u0645\u0627\u0631\u0643\u064a\u0629\u060c \u062a\u0646\u0638\u0631 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u062d\u0643\u0645\u0629 \u0627\u0644\u0639\u0644\u064a\u0627 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