The growing number of countries taking action against statelessness means that the international community is approaching a critical point in its efforts to end statelessness forever
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, warned today that recent advances in the fight to end statelessness - one of the main causes of human rights deprivation for millions of people around the world - are being threatened by the rise of harmful forms of nationalism.
In Geneva, ahead of the opening of the annual meeting of the UNHCR Executive Committee, which starts today, Grandi said that the growing number of countries taking action against statelessness means that the international community is approaching a critical point in its efforts to end statelessness for good.
"Five years ago, public awareness of statelessness and the damage it causes was still negligible. That is changing, and today the prospect of ending statelessness has never been closer," said Grandi.
"And yet progress is far from guaranteed: damaging forms of nationalism and the manipulation of anti-refugee and migrant sentiment - these are powerful trends internationally that risk reversing progress. Solutions are urgently needed for millions of people without citizenship or at risk of statelessness around the world - including the Rohingyas in Myanmar and minority populations at risk of statelessness in Assam, India. Without this, we run the risk of further deepening the exclusion that already affects the lives of millions of people. This is why a redoubling of efforts has become crucially necessary. "
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, launched the global #IBelong campaign in 2014, with the aim of ending statelessness by 2024. Since then, some 15 countries have recently acceded to the two main treaties on statelessness, the 1954 UN Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. With additional accessions and further commitments expected this week, the total number of accessions to the first of these treaties, the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, could soon exceed the remarkable figure of 100 countries.
In the first five years of the Campaign, more than 220,000 stateless people have acquired a nationality, including as a result of national efforts coordinated and motivated by the #IBelong campaign, in places like Kyrgyzstan, Kenya, Tajikistan and Thailand. In July this year, Kyrgyzstan became the first country in the world to announce the complete resolution of all known cases of statelessness.
In addition, since the launch of the campaign, two countries, Madagascar and Sierra Leone, have reformed their nationality laws to allow mothers to confer citizenship on their children on an equal footing with fathers. However, 25 countries continue to make it difficult or impossible for mothers to grant citizenship to their children, one of the main causes of statelessness in the world. As not all nationality laws contain safeguards to ensure that no child is born stateless, statelessness can also be passed down from generation to generation.
Ending all forms of discrimination in nationality laws would help the international community fulfill the commitment that all states made when adopting the Sustainable Development Agenda to "leave no one behind".
Today, leading figures in media, human rights, refugees and statelessness are joining representatives of member states in Geneva at a special session of the UNHCR Executive Committee meeting, known as the High-Level Segment on Statelessness, to take stock of progress so far and commit to further action to end statelessness by 2024.
Among those present were UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Cate Blanchett, British journalist and presenter Anita Rani, former refugee and stateless activist Maha Mamo, OSCE High Commissioner for National Minorities Lamberto Zannier and others.
Some countries will put promises into action by formalizing instruments of accession to treaties on statelessness.
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