In Belarus, there are about 6,000 stateless people.
UNHCR's Special Advisor on Statelessness Carol Batchelor during the “International Conference on Statelessness in the member states of the CIS ” © UNHCR / P. Erofeev
Belarus’ accession to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness would be an important step, Carol Batchelor, Special advisor on Statelessness at the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said in an interview with BelaPAN.
Ms. Batchelor stayed in Belarus on December 4 and 5 to attend an International Conference on Statelessness in the member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The event had been organized by the UNHCR Belarus in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Belarus and the CIS Executive Committee.
The representative of the UN Refugee Agency said that the problem of statelessness was important to all countries.
“There is no state that can say that it does not have a single stateless person on its territory,” she said, adding that stateless persons were not entitled to protection from any state.
She welcomed the conference as evidence of Belarus’ active efforts to address the problem and described it as a constructive discussion where participants exchanged experience and best practices.
“Such discussions are very helpful as it is impossible to solve the problem alone, countries need to cooperate in this matter,” she said.
Ms. Batchelor emphasized the problem of birth registration for children who are born to stateless parents, explaining that children who had no birth registration and citizenship had no access to healthcare and were unable to go to school.
“This is a problem for the state too because such people cannot make a contribution to its development,” she noted.
“It is impossible to solve the problem alone, countries need to cooperate in this matter.”
UNHCR's Special Advisor on Statelessness Carol Batchelor during the “International Conference on Statelessness in the member states of the CIS ” © UNHCR / P. Erofeev
International Conference on Statelessness in the member states of the CIS © UNHCR / P. Erofeev
UNHCR's Special Advisor on Statelessness Carol Batchelor during the “International Conference on Statelessness in the member states of the CIS ” © UNHCR / P. Erofeev
UNHCR's Special Advisor on Statelessness Carol Batchelor during the interview with BelaPAN © UNHCR / P. Erofeev
UNHCR's Special Advisor on Statelessness Carol Batchelor during the interview with BelaPAN © UNHCR / P. Erofeev
In 2014, UNHCR launched a 10-year campaign aimed at ending statelessness, according to the UNHCR advisor. Called #IBelong, the campaign involves a 10-point Action Plan.
“We suggest that all countries, including Belarus, consider and resolve all cases of statelessness on their territory, guarantee birth registration for children, provide these people with proper documents, join the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness,” she said, adding that the UN Refugee Agency also called for an end to gender discrimination in the matters of citizenship.
“We suggest that all countries, including Belarus, consider and resolve all cases of statelessness on their territory.”
Ms. Batchelor expressed concern about some countries’ laws preventing mothers from passing their nationality to their children and failure by some countries to report the number of stateless persons on their soil.
“Only 75 states are collecting information about the number of stateless persons on their territory, their whereabouts and the reasons for their statelessness,” she said. According to her, UNHCR welcomes Belarus’ efforts in this regard.
Speaking about the progress of the #IBelong campaign, Ms. Batchelor stressed that not a single state had fulfilled all of its points so far.
“There are a few states that are close to solving the problem of statelessness on their territory,” she said, expressing hope that Belarus would manage to become one of them.
She said that Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, would like to visit Belarus before the end of the campaign. She added that in conversations with the high commissioner she would describe her visit to Belarus as useful, important and encouraging.
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