Today at least 10 million people world-wide are stateless.
They are fighting for the same basic human rights that the most of us take for granted. Often they are excluded from cradle to grave— being denied a legal identity when they are born, access to education, health care, marriage and job opportunities during their lifetime and even the dignity of an official burial and a death certificate when they die. Many pass on the curse of statelessness on to their children, who then pass it on to the next generation.
The irony is that these people find themselves stateless through no fault of their own-and in most cases their condition could be resolved through minor changes in existing laws. UNHCR has an international mandate to prevent and reduce statelessness.
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) Office in Malta has launched a report on statelessness in Malta on occasion of the Global “I Belong” campaign, which is aimed at ending the problem of Statelessness within 10 years.
‘Mapping Statelessness in Malta‘, the first comprehensive study on this topic in Malta, seeks to encourage the country’s accession to the two statelessness conventions along with their due implementation.
Malta – together with only three other EU member states (Cyprus, Estonia and Poland) – is neither party to the 1954 UN Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons nor does it have in place a procedure to determine statelessness. Malta is also not party to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. The country has only signed, but not yet ratified, the 1997 European Convention on Nationality which mirrors to a large extent the 1961 Convention.
Although Malta is not found to host a high number of individuals who are stateless, the report establishes that there are people who are or may be stateless or of undetermined nationality. Despite the limited size of the stateless population in Malta, it is important to recognise that each stateless person faces particular hardships that should not be disregarded.
The Malta report makes a number of key recommendations, including:
• Malta should consider acceding to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness
• Malta should consider establishing an effective statelessness determination procedure which would ensure the identification of stateless persons in its territory
• Malta should ensure that the rights of stateless persons are upheld in the country
• Malta should ensure that there is awareness about statelessness among relevant Government institutions that may encounter stateless persons, such as immigration and asylum authorities, citizenship authorities and civil registries among others
UNHCR urges Malta to sign Statelessness Conventions
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) Office in Malta delivered an information package on Statelessnessto the Speaker of the House, Dr. Angelo Farrugia as part of the global campaign to eradicate Statelessness, iBelong.
Nowhere People: Exhibition on Statelessness
As part of the #IBelong campaign to end statelessness, UNHCR Malta is holding a photographic exhibition of Greg Constantine‘s ‘Nowhere People’ at the Malta Postal Museum in Valletta.