However, because lack of citizenship often justifies rights violations,
addressing them in isolation will not resolve root problems with
legal identity or nationality and clients will not be able to access full
citizenship rights.
9.2 Information Sharing
Knowledge is power. Sharing the information that may allow clients
to seek solutions to their documentation or citizenship rights issues
by themselves is a key aspect of community legal empowerment. This
should therefore always be the first course of action with any client, and
it is good to use any situation in which the paralegal has contact with the
community to share information.
RELATED RESOURCE
• Statelessness and Displacement:
Scoping paper, NRC and Tilburg
University
• UNHCR’s Handbook on
Protection of Stateless Persons.
In particular Chapter 2 which
focuses on statelessness
determination procedures.
Information can be shared in person, at community meetings, at outreach
events, and door-to-door. It can be written or verbal. Some common
ways that projects share information include:
• Know your rights workshops
•E
vents targeted to subsections of the community such as parents of
school-age children or women
• Participatory theater
• Roadshows
• A table at a fair or other community event
• Mass communication channels
• Poster in public places
• Social media
• Radio call-in shows
• Consultations after workshops or outreach events
• Telephone or text informational helplines
Some topics you might cover include:
• People’s rights and the state’s obligations to protect those rights.
• How to apply for documents or access rights.
•H
ow to get the supporting documents you will need for an
application.
•H
ow government officials may act, and what is illegal or
discriminatory and what is not.
•H
ow to address common problems, e.g. bringing copies of the law to
show to officials, especially where regulations are new, and bringing
extra supporting documents in case of arbitrary requests.
• Information that is not readily available in a local language, e.g. the
content of laws.
•S
ources of help for other issues, e.g. organizations clients can
approach for assistance with non-legal matters such as shelter or
gender-based violence.
A C O M M U N I T Y- B A S E D P R A C T I T I O N E R ’ S G U I D E : D O C U M E N T I N G C I T I Z E N S H I P A N D OT H E R F O R M S O F L E G A L I D E N T I T Y
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