#IBelong Campaign to End Statelessness

How It Helps

The campaign is effectively mobilizing governments and civil society.

At the international level, the UN General Assembly has adopted by consensus a resolution in which it “welcomes the call by the High Commissioner for action to end statelessness within a decade”. In addition, the UN Secretary-General used his annual opening address to the General Assembly on 8 January 2015 to “urge Member States to support the campaign to end statelessness and ensure that everyone enjoys the right to a nationality.”

At the 14th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, Nobel Peace Laureates and Peace Laureate Organisations demonstrated their support for the Campaign by issuing a declaration which stated: “We support the campaign of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to end statelessness within ten years.”

At a meeting in Brazil, 28 Latin American and Caribbean States adopted the Brazil Declaration and Plan of Action in which they committed to eradicating statelessness by 2024, becoming the first region to respond to our campaign.

At a ministerial conference in the Asia Pacific that was co-hosted by UNHCR in Bangkok, 44 States adopted a Ministerial Declaration, endorsing the goal of universal civil registration. The Declaration and accompanying Regional Action Framework emphasize the importance of including stateless people within national baseline studies and recognize the role of birth registration to prevent statelessness.

In February 2015, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and UNHCR, organized the first-ever Conference on Statelessness in West Africa and adopted the Abidjan Declaration of Ministers of ECOWAS Member States on Eradication of Statelessness under which States expressly approved the Conclusion and Recommendations of the Ministerial Conference on Statelessness in the ECOWAS Region, a document which includes 62 recommendations on prevention and reduction of statelessness, partnership and information-sharing, identification and protection of stateless persons.

The Justice and Home Affairs Council of the European Union has also adopted the first EU Council Conclusions on Statelessness. The Conclusions invite the European Commission to launch exchanges of good practices among Member States, encourage the active coordination of national statelessness contact points, and welcome the IBelong Campaign.

The Strategy

States are encouraged to take one or more of the following 10 actions to achieve the goals of the campaign:

• Action 1: Resolve existing major situations of statelessness.
• Action 2: Ensure that no child is born stateless.
• Action 3: Remove gender discrimination from nationality laws.
• Action 4: Prevent denial, loss or deprivation of nationality on discriminatory grounds.
• Action 5: Prevent statelessness in cases of state succession.
• Action 6: Grant protection status to stateless migrants and facilitate their naturalization.
• Action 7: Ensure birth registration for the prevention of statelessness.
• Action 8: Issue nationality documentation to those with entitlement to it.
• Action 9: Accede to the UN statelessness conventions.
• Action 10: Improve quantitative and qualitative data on stateless populations.

UNHCR, other UN agencies, regional organizations, civil society and stateless people all have roles to play in supporting governments to end statelessness by 2024.