The UN refugee agency UNHCR on Tuesday called on states to take faster and more resolute action to help meet the campaign goal, four years after the launch of a decade-long campaign to eradicate statelessness globally.
Volker Turk, the Assistant High Commissioner for Protection at the UNHCR, said at a UN briefing that important results have been achieved since November 2014 when UNHCR’s #IBelong campaign began, but millions remain stateless.
The UN official turned to the historical connection to the issue, saying “we just have seen the 100 years of the ending of the First World War.
“If one goes back to that time and look at population movements including population transfers in the wake of the First World War you will see millions of people were on the move.
“Millions of people at that time did not belong to any State.
“Statelessness issues came to the fore of the international community at the stage,’’ he said noting it was clear that there needed to be efforts to address it.
He said that over 166,000 stateless people have acquired or had their nationality confirmed while 20 States have acceded to the Statelessness Conventions.
He said the total number of parties to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons to 91 and 73 to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.
Turk said that nine states have established statelessness determination procedures and six states have reformed their nationality laws.
He noted that another two have eliminated gender discrimination preventing women from passing on their nationality to their children.
Media report said in spite of these accomplishments, millions of people remain stateless and living in limbo around the world, with the majority to be found in countries in Asia and Africa.
Filippo Grandi, the UNHCR chief said: “Today I call on politicians, governments and legislators around the world to act now, to take and support decisive action to eliminate statelessness globally by 2024.’’
Turk said that it is difficult to determine with precision how many people are stateless or at risk of statelessness worldwide.
In 2017, approximately 70 countries reported 3.9 million stateless individuals. But UNHCR estimates that this is only a fraction of the total, while the true number could be as much as three times higher at around 10 million.
