Marking 10 years of the #IBelong campaign: collective actions in addressing statelessness in Ukraine

Kyiv, 25 October 2024: Marking the 10th year anniversary of the UNHCR-led global #IBelong campaign to end statelessness worldwide, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and the Office of the Ombudsman of Ukraine today hosted a forum bringing together experts from international organizations, government officials, and civil society.  
The event aimed to showcase achievements, propose solutions, and foster cooperation to create a roadmap for the way forward in Ukraine to address statelessness within the country.  
“Being stateless or not having the basic civil and identity documents to prove who you are and your right to citizenship often means that you cannot access services and support in society that the rest of us take for granted and depend on daily. Like schools, hospitals, courts, banks and social services. Ukraine has made tremendous progress over the past decades in preventing and reducing statelessness and to UNHCR stands as a global example for inspiration. Today, we have taken this progress as a steppingstone to explore further ways to address challenges that remain, such as barriers to birth registration for children born in Russian occupied territories of Ukraine. We remain committed to working with the Government of Ukraine, the Office of the Ombudsman and civil society partners to identify practical solutions for reducing risks of statelessness and ensuring that no-one is left behind in the context of Ukraine's recovery,” said Karolina Lindholm Billing, UNHCR Representative in Ukraine. 
“Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Ombudsperson's Office has received about 120 appeals from people at risk of statelessness. Unfortunately, this problem affected those who lost their documents during the hostilities or in the temporary occupied territories of Ukraine. I am grateful to UNHCR for their cooperation. Only united and consolidated actions can bring results!” said Oleksandr Osipov, Representative of the Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights on equal rights and freedoms, national minorities’ rights on political and religious views. 
Major progress has been achieved in Ukraine in reducing the number of stateless people. From 1996 to 2013, Ukraine’s efforts, supported by UNHCR and other key actors, enabled more than 150,000 people – particularly Crimean Tatars – who had been deported during World War II, to return to their homeland and obtain Ukrainian nationality.  
Further progress was made with Ukraine’s accession to international agreements, including the European Convention on Nationality in 2006 and the UN Statelessness Conventions in 2013. In May 2021, Ukraine took another important step forward by introducing a stateless determination procedure, giving undocumented and stateless people a pathway to legal recognition and protection.
 
 
During the 10 years of the #IBelong campaign, Ukraine's State Migration Service recognized 1,057 stateless people, granted nationality to 4,160 stateless individuals, and provided identity documents to 3,271 former USSR nationals. In addition, more than 64,000 birth certificates were issued to children from the occupied territories, while legislative advancements improved access to documentation and legal aid. With support from UNHCR and its NGO partners, over 7,000 undocumented individuals received assistance, including to obtain documents, while Roma Community Centres were established to strengthen social inclusion and documentation. 
Still, thousands of people in the country remain stateless or undocumented and at risk of statelessness, meaning continued collective action is essential. Recognizing that ending statelessness requires a whole of society approach and building on the momentum of the #IBelong campaign, UNHCR launched the Global Alliance to End Statelessness on 14 October 2024. 
 
UNHCR and the Ombudsman of Ukraine welcome the Government’s support of the vision of the Global Alliance and consideration to join it – and will continue working with all stakeholders to reduce and prevent statelessness in Ukraine and ensure that stateless people are included in national and international development plans. 
Key collective priorities identified at the roundtable include simplifying access to birth registration and documentation, exploring group solutions for at-risk populations as well as preventing new cases of statelessness stemming from the ongoing occupation and illegal annexation of Ukrainian territories. An additional step would be to expand free legal aid to include undocumented persons and to remove the financial barriers for vulnerable people who otherwise could not afford to obtain documentation. 

In addressing statelessness in Ukraine, UNHCR works closely with the State Migration Service, the Ministry of Justice, Civil Registries and Free Legal Aid Centres, as well as our NGO partners NEEKA, R2P, and Tenth of April and in collaboration with the Office of the Ombudsman and other partners.  
Globally, statelessness remains a significant challenge, with UNHCR reporting 4.4 million stateless individuals around the world by mid-2024. The actual number is likely higher, as many stateless people remain undocumented and uncounted. Stateless people often face discrimination and marginalization and are deprived of access to basic rights that others take for grant, including education, health care and livelihoods. To address this, UNHCR has identified statelessness as a strategic priority and, through its Strategic Plan for 2023-2026 aims to build on the momentum of the #IBelong campaign from 2014-2024. The newly launched Global Alliance to End Statelessness encourages states, civil society, and stateless communities to collaborate and share knowledge to address and prevent statelessness. 
LINK: The #IBelong Campaign: A Decade of Action to End Statelessness, 2014-2024