Across the world, more than 4.3 million people are not recognized as citizens of any country – they are stateless. They often face barriers to go to school, see a doctor, open a bank account or get married.
In 2014, UNHCR and partners launched the #IBelong campaign, which sets an ambitious target for the world’s countries to end statelessness by 2024. During the past eight years, important progress has been achieved and thousands of stateless individuals have become citizens, but much more needs to be done.
This December, our Christmas Calendar tells the stories of 24 individuals and families who are, or until recently were, stateless. Without being recognized as citizens of any state, stateless people are fighting for recognition and fighting for their right to belong.
What is going on?
Globally, millions of people are stateless and do not officially belong to any state. They are often denied fundamental rights and face barriers to access education, healthcare or employment.
The causes of statelessness are diverse. Some people are stateless because they belong to an ethnic group that is not officially recognized by the country that they live in. Others are stateless because the country where they, or their parents, were born ceased to exist. For others, statelessness is the consequence of an administrative error or discriminatory laws and regulations.
In more than 20 countries, children risk being born stateless because of laws that restrict mothers from passing on citizenship to their children. Statelessness can also be tied up with conflict and displacement. When quickly forced to flee, documents such as birth certificates, marriage certificates, or proof showing one’s connection to the land can get lost – and with that, the evidence needed to prove eligibility for citizenship.
Deprived of basic rights such as freedom of movement and access to healthcare and education, stateless people often face a life of exclusion – and this exclusion can in many cases be passed down through generations.
However, significant progress has been made during the past eight years since the start of the #IBelong campaign. Around 450,000 formerly stateless people have acquired a nationality, including through national efforts motivated by the #IBelong campaign. One country, Kyrgyzstan, in 2019 became the first country to resolve all known cases of statelessness on their territory. Three countries have reformed their nationality laws to allow women to pass on their nationality to their children.
Yet, as children continue to be born into statelessness, much work remains and efforts need to be stepped up.
What needs to change?
Statelessness is a man-made problem and can be resolved with sufficient political will. Through the #IBelong campaign, UNHCR and partners call on States and the international community to identify, prevent and reduce statelessness and to protect stateless people with the aim of ending statelessness altogether by 2024.
In 2014, UNHCR launched the Global Action Plan to End Statelessness: 2014 – 2024, developed in consultation with States and other stakeholders, which outlines 10 key actions to end statelessness:
- Resolve existing major situations of statelessness.
- Ensure that no child is born stateless.
- Remove gender discrimination from nationality laws.
- Prevent denial, loss or deprivation of nationality on discriminatory grounds.
- Prevent statelessness in cases of State succession.
- Grant protection status to stateless migrants and facilitate their naturalization.
- Ensure birth registration for the prevention of statelessness.
- Issue nationality documentation to those with entitlement to it.
- Accede to the UN Statelessness Conventions.
- Improve quantitative and qualitative data on stateless populations.
