Furthermore, the Ministry of the Interior informed us that the administrative authority is obliged to consider the benefits to the child that are acquired by citizenship when deciding on granting citizenship to a minor. The administrative authority is obliged to act in this way in accordance with the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Convention). According to the provisions of Articles 3, 8 and 9 of the Convention, the child’s best interests should be the main goal of all activities concerning children, whether administered by national or private social care institutions, courts, administrative authorities or legislative authorities. Signatories are obliged to respect the child’s right to preserve their own identity, including citizenship, name and family relations, i.e. in accordance with the law and without unlawful hindrance. If the administrative authority assesses that child’s best interests must be protected against the consequences of a negative decision with regard to obtaining citizenship of the Republic of Slovenia, they can base their decision on the mentioned Convention. Given the foregoing facts, the Ministry of the Interior assessed that an amendment to the ZDRS is unnecessary, since the aforementioned legal bases already allow minor children to acquire citizenship of the Republic of Slovenia to a sufficient extent. The Ministry of the Interior also proposed that the complainant – with regard to the fact that the actual situation of the case had not been completely resolved and it was not possible to establish the best interests of the child if s/he obtained Slovenian citizenship – should obtain more concrete information and contact the competent Sector for Citizenship at the Ministry of the Interior, where she would be offered professional assistance in the procedure for acquiring citizenship for a minor. The Ombudsman informed the complainant of this proposal, and proposed to the complainant to contact the Ministry of the Interior and notify us on the result of the procedure. The complainant did not contact the Ombudsman again, so we do not know how the matter was arranged. Regardless of this, the Ombudsman assesses that the ZDRS could contain a provision that in similar cases would permit a child’s application for Slovenian citizenship to a foreign citizen. In this particular case, it could also be considered that the mother, who is a foreign citizen, has arranged her residence in the Republic of Slovenia, is employed here and that this is her main living environment. Example: Wrong form and written explanation in procedure for granting Slovenian citizenship The Ombudsman considered a complaint about the granting of Slovenian citizenship based on the national interest of the Republic of Slovenia. The complainant stated that he had submitted an application to acquire Slovenian citizenship which was not approved, since he did not fulfil the condition of five years of involvement in Slovenian associations. The complainant received a form from the administrative unit to submit an application for Slovenian citizenship; however, it was indicated on the form that several years of involvement in Slovenian associations is required. Via an attorney, the applicant found that on the basis of Article 3 of the Decree on criteria for establishing the compliance of the national interest for acquiring citizenship of the Republic of Slovenia through Article 13 of Act on the Citizenship of the Republic of Slovenia (Decree) persons with Slovenian nationality must, for acquiring Slovenian citizenship, prove active relations with the Republic of Slovenia and at least five years of involvement in Slovenian associations. The complainant believed that he was entitled to a positive reply because he had submitted the application in good faith and in accordance with the instructions on completing the form. In a telephone conversation, the complainant stated that he had not been informed by the official about the five-year active participation condition and that the application had cost him around 400 euros. 96 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS OMBUDSMAN OF THE REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA FOR 2015 The Ombudsman explained everything concerning the conditions for acquiring Slovenian citizenship to the complainant. We believed that in this case it was disputable that the complainant had received a form and explanations from the administrative unit, which contained the wrong legal basis, so we sent an inquiry to the Ministry of the Interior. Based on the documentation attached to the complaint (decision of the Ministry of the Interior which did not grant the acquisition of Slovenian citizenship, application for Slovenian citizenship based on national interest obtained by the complainant, and the application for Slovenian citizenship based on national interest available on the Internet), we established that the applications were different. The application form which the complainant received contained the condition of several years’ involvement in Slovenian associations, while the application available on the Internet contained the condition of five years involvement in Slovenian associations. We informed the Ministry of the Interior that the complainant had disposed of an application which he acquired at the administrative unit including explanations that do not apply to the provisions of the Decree on criteria for establishing the compliance of the national interest for acquiring the citizenship of the Republic of Slovenia through Article 13 of Act on the Citizenship of the Republic of Slovenia (Decree). The complainant relied on the fact that the explanations were harmonised with the valid legislation, and when submitting the application, according to his statements, he was not warned about the condition of five years active participation in a Slovenian association. The Ombudsman assessed that in this case there could have been a violation of the principle of the protection of rights of clients and the principle of good administration, so we requested the Ministry of the Interior to give more explanations. In their reply, the Ministry of the Interior initially explained the process of acquiring Slovenian citizenship based on the complainant’s national interest. In accordance with the Act on the Citizenship of the Republic of Slovenia (ZDRS), the Ministry of the Interior is competent to decide on citizenship acquisition procedures, so it is also competent to provide all answers that refer to the methods and conditions of acquiring citizenship on this basis. Administrative units do not have this legal authorisation, but they can accept an application for extraordinary naturalisation and forward it to the Ministry of the Interior. In accordance with the principle of the protection of clients’ rights in administrative procedures, administrative units are obliged to inform clients of the legal and implementing regulations and conditions for acquiring citizenship after extraordinary naturalisation. Furthermore, the Ministry of the Interior indicated that the form for applying for extraordinary naturalisation is not a prescribed form, but prepared by the Ministry of the Interior as an aid to clients to indicate all essential information to enable the easier and quicker resolution of applications. The explanation on the completion of the form in the opinion of the Ministry of the Interior is not intended as legally binding, but as an aid to completing the application form. Forms were published on the e-government website observing the latest amendment of the Decree and the Ministry of the Interior believed that it was possible that the administrative unit still possessed old forms. The Ministry of the Interior emphasised that the most applicants living abroad decide to submit the application for citizenship through diplomatic representations of the Republic of Slovenia, so administrative units only rarely handle cases of extraordinary naturalisation. To avoid potential further misunderstandings, the Ministry of the Interior notified all administrative units about the use of appropriate forms and explanations. Based on the statements in the complaint, the reply of the Ministry of the Interior and the documentation attached to the complaint, the Ombudsman assessed that the complaint was justified. In our opinion, the concrete procedure violated the principles of the protection of the rights of clients and good administration when the administrative unit gave the complainant an old application form for acquiring citizenship based on national interest, including the instructions for completing the form which did not contain the provisions of the valid Decree. The Ombudsman believes that the fact is – regardless of which form is involved – that the form was prepared by a state authority and the complainant received it from an administrative unit. As a lay person, he expected the form to be accurate and that the explanations contained the provisions of the valid Decree. He verified this at the administrative unit, where they confirmed that he had the valid form, including explanations. The complainant had no reason to doubt the accuracy of the form and explanations he received. Believing that the form and explanations were valid and the he fulfilled the conditions to acquire Slovenian citizenship, he submitted the application for citizenship, paid the administrative fee for the application and attached all necessary documentation, which was translated into Slovenian. Thus the costs were incurred by the ANNUAL REPORT OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS OMBUDSMAN OF THE REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA FOR 2015 97 2.6 ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS 2.6 ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS The Ministry of the Interior explained the provision of Article 5 of the ZDRS and stated that the existing legal regulation prioritises a more genuine relationship, i.e. the fact that the child is born abroad and that one of the parents is a foreign citizen. The other parent who is a Slovenian citizen may submit a special statement requesting that the child be granted citizenship of the Republic of Slovenia. An application for citizenship is not required if the child remains without citizenship, since in such a case the child acquires citizenship by law. If the parent does not want to apply for citizenship, the ZDRS allows the child to submit an application at the age of 18. The ZDRS does not allow a foreign citizen to apply for citizenship of the Republic of Slovenia for a minor, since there is no circumstance to connect the child with the Republic of Slovenia.