access nationality and the documentation to prove
it. This is our strategy: work with local communities
to try to build an interest in preventing and resolving
stateless; identify who is stateless; and partner with
allies in government, international organizations
like the Inter-Parliamentary Union, civil society and
supporters and influencers like Cate Blanchett to
advocate for change. To increase accessions to both
the 1961 Convention and its sister Convention, the
1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless
Persons, we will be following up with the States that
delivered pledges at the 2019 High Level Segment
on Statelessness to accede to one or both of these.
We will also be encouraging States that are already
party to advocate with other States, as that peerto-peer dialogue is so important. Also, we will be
having a treaty event in September to welcome all
those that have recently joined the 1961 Convention.
And we will have other events to raise awareness.
But the key thing I think will be increased resources
and staff to work on these issues and stepped up
advocacy as we enter the final stretch now.
On 16 June, in Ukraine, UNHCR and partner
organizations held a webinar for employees of the
State Migration Service involved in implementing
the Statelessness Determination Procedure recently
established in Ukraine. The participants were trained
on communication and interview techniques as well
as the various profiles of stateless people in Ukraine.
Good practices were presented on the basis of SDP
interviews in Hungary, Kosovo (S/RES/1244(1999)),
Moldova, Montenegro, and the United Kingdom.
On 17 and 18 June, in Tashkent, Uzbekistan,
the National Human Rights Centre and UNHCR
conducted a “training of trainers” on nationality and
statelessness matters for government officials with
the aim of incorporating the content in the existing
human rights trainings for law-enforcement and
other officials.
A statelessness determination applicant at the State Migration Service
in the Kirovohrad region. © State Migration Service Directorate
On 26 May, the Government of Kenya launched a
60-day Rapid Results Initiative (RRI) to expedite
the re-acquisition of Kenyan nationality for those
individuals who had lost it due to historical legislative
changes, as well as the acquisition of nationality
for other groups. The Government Taskforce on
Statelessness subsequently confirmed that other
stateless groups, including stateless persons of
Rwandan descent, can benefit from the procedure.
Since the announcement, UNHCR and the Kenya
Human Rights Commission have been collaborating
with community leaders from stateless communities
to explore how they can support them with their
nationality applications.
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