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UNHCR announces push to end statelessness worldwide by end-2024

Almaty, Kazakhstan, November 4, 2014 - UNHCR is today launching a global "I Belong" campaign aimed at ending within 10 years the problem of statelessness - a devastating legal limbo for the millions of people worldwide who lack any nationality and the human rights protections that go with it. The goal of eradicating statelessness is looking increasingly possible thanks to dramatic recent progress in the number of States acceding to two key UN human rights treaties.

At least ten million people worldwide are currently stateless and a baby is born stateless every ten minutes. Not allowed a nationality, they are often denied the rights and services that countries normally offer their citizens. "Statelessness can mean a life without education, without medical care or legal employment... a life without the ability to move freely, without prospects or hope," the Open Letter said. "Statelessness is inhuman. We believe it is time to end this injustice."

Most situations of statelessness are a direct consequence of discrimination based on ethnicity, religion or gender. Moreover, 27 countries at present deny women the right to pass their nationality onto their children on an equal basis as men, a situation that can create chains of statelessness that span generations. There is also a very real link between statelessness, displacement and regional stability.

UNHCR's campaign is being launched amid signs of a shift in international attitudes surrounding statelessness. Just three years ago, there were barely 100 States parties to the two statelessness treaties - the 1954 UN Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. Today the number of accessions stands at 144, bringing critical mass within reach.

UNHCR also released today a Special Report on Statelessness which highlights the human impact of the phenomenon, and a ten-point Global Action Plan to End Statelessness which aims both to resolve major existing crises and to ensure no child is born stateless in the future.

"Statelessness makes people feel like their very existence is a crime," said Guterres. "We have a historic opportunity to end the scourge of statelessness within 10 years, and give back hope to millions of people. We cannot afford to fail this challenge."

For Central Asia there are reportedly 30,000 stateless people. There are two main causes statelessness in the region; the dissolution of USSR and cross-border movements and mixed marriages. There are many examples of States being proactive in ending statelessness in Central Asia. For example, in Kyrgyzstan, more than 65,000 former USSR citizens have acquired or confirmed their Kyrgyz citizenship since 2009. While Turkmenistan stands out for it monumental efforts to reduce and prevent statelessness. Kazakhstan is in the process of identification stateless persons, while Tajikistan has reformed nationality law, which is pending in Parliament.

"Central Asia represents unique opportunity when it comes to the statelessness issue, because there is a great willingness among the governments in the region to solve these problems. Also the problem is manageable in terms of the numbers and also in terms of resources that these countries have available to help solve these problems. So, with the interest and willingness of the government and in partnership with civil society and of course with UNHCR I am very optimistic that this region can be perhaps the first region in the world to completely eliminate this problem of statelessness" - said Mr. Bernard Doyle, Regional Representative/Regional Coordinator for Central Asia.

2014 marks the 60th anniversary of the 1954 UN Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, which, alongside the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, provides the international legal basis for ending statelessness. With enough political will, UNHCR believes statelessness can be resolved. And unlike so many other problems facing governments today, statelessness can be solved in our lifetime.