Right to family in the context of migration
Liechtenstein has made reservations to certain articles in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). One reservation concerns Art. 10 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which states that applications for family reunification concerning the best interests of the child and family unity should be treated by States in a benevolent, humane and expeditious manner.
As family reunification is regulated very restrictively in the Foreign Nationals Act (FNA), the Ombudsman's Office for Children and Adolescents (OACY) has been recommending to the government since 2019 that a hardship provision be introduced in the FNA that prioritizes the best interests of the child and that the reservation to the Convention on the Rights of the Child be withdrawn. In 2023, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child again recommended that Liechtenstein take the necessary legal and other steps to create a family reunification and naturalization practice that is compatible with the principles and provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and to consider withdrawing the corresponding reservations in the near future. In 2019, the Ministry of the Interior responded to a specific request to amend the law with a negative response. It saw no need and referred to the legal process for those affected.
Introduce a hardship provision for family reunification in the Foreign Nationals Act and withdraw the reservation to Art. 10 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
