Progress made in eradicating statelessness around the world is being put at risk by ongoing conflicts, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said last week.
Speaking in Geneva on the second anniversary of the launch of the #IBelong campaign to end statelessness by 2024, Mr Grandi renewed calls for a concerted effort by the international community to help the at least 10 million people globally who are stateless.
“Invisible is the word most commonly used to describe what it is like to be without a nationality,” he said. “UNHCR is profoundly committed to continue and intensify the campaign, raising awareness of the governments on the issue of statelessness, so that no one is left behind and we all can say after a few years – I belong”.
Since the launch of the campaign in 2014, 10 more countries have become parties to the UN statelessness conventions which contain measures to help prevent and reduce statelessness while a number of countries such as Côte d’Ivoire, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia and Thailand have made what UNCHR says are “significant strides” in reducing the number of stateless persons in their respective territories.
The campaign has been welcomed by the World Council of Churches which has been working closely with the UNHCR’s statelessness section since 2012.
Stanley Noffsinger, director of the WCC Office of the General Secretariat, said the WCC was promoting two specific aspects of the UNHCR campaign: birth registration and gender equality in nationality laws.
“These are two entry points where we are engaging our 348 member churches representing more than 500 million persons of Christian faith and partners to collaborate on eradicating statelessness,” he said.
Mr Noffsinger said that like many others, he has eaten with and worked with those who have no legal identity. “We have felt their despair deep in the enclaves of our own souls. It is for them we continue this work. It is for a more complete humanity that recognises each person’s value and worth for which we labor. It is toward that end we unite this day as a voice for the inclusion of all people in this pilgrimage for justice and peace.”
