UNHCR, Internal Affairs to observe 1st anniversary of statelessness

URL: http://slconcordtimes.com/unhcr-internal-affairs-to-observe-1st-anniversary-of-statelessness/

Concord Times, 24 Feb 2016

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) have said they would jointly commemorate the first anniversary of the Abidjan Declaration to Eradicate Statelessness in West Africa by 2024 on Thursday, 25 February, 2016. Last year, ministers from the 15 Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) countries met in Abidjan and adopted the eradication of statelessness in the region. The declaration was further endorsed by Heads of State at summit in Accra, Ghana, subsequently. Minister of Internal Affairs Joseph Bandabla Dauda told journalists at his ministry’s conference room that an estimated 100 million people are stateless globally. He said ECOWAS countries had agreed to a declaration on the prevention of new cases of statelessness through legislative reforms. He said the whole issue emanated from the 1952 and 1954 United Nations Conventions, which sought that every individual be given an opportunity to belong to a particular state. “We held a meeting on February 25 last year where we had a declaration which sought that the ECOWAS community commits themselves to eradicate statelessness. We agreed to do it through legislative reforms, civil registration and access to nationality documents,” he said, adding that the declaration also protect stateless people within the country. Mr. Dauda assured of his government’s commitment to continue supporting issues of statelessness, adding that following last year’s meeting they appointed a focal person, Ms Ann Marie Sidikie, to work on issues relating to statelessness and the initiation of procedures to accede to the international convention on issues relating to statelessness which have domesticated by Sierra Leone. Moijama Siafa, officer-in-charge of the UNHCR office in Freetown, described a statelessness person as someone who is not recognised as a national by any state under the operation of its law. She said statelessness was a global issue and that nationality is the bedrock of statelessness, while the lack of result in finding solutions to statelessness could have severe negative impacts on individuals. Ms Siafa maintained that international law was against statelessness, including Article 15 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights which states that “everyone has the right to nationality.” “Despite these firm international commitments, new cases of statelessness have continued to arise and tackling these problems remains a major challenge in the 21st century. Stateless persons are most times not foreigners. They are people usually born in a state but lack the ability to prove their nationality to the state,” she said.