On International Women’s Day, UNHCR published the Background Note on Gender Equality, Nationality Laws and Statelessness 2022. 25
countries continue to not grant equal rights to women to confer nationality to their children. Liberia has pledged to remove sex discrimination from
nationality laws, which currently do not allow mothers like Georgia to confer nationality to their children. © UNHCR/ Diana Diaz
On 10 February, UNHCR and the Government of
the Republic of Serbia signed a Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) to continue their cooperation
to resolve the remaining issues of persons without
documentation. The MoU strengthens cooperation
in identifying persons without personal status
documents, including birth certificates, and to
support them in obtaining these documents. The
MoU is the third of its kind between UNHCR and
the government and will run until 4 November 2024,
whichs marks the end of the #IBelong Campaign.
On 18 February, in Austria, Leonhard Call, a
member of the European Network on Statelessness
(ENS), organized the webinar “Statelessness in
Austria – analysis and gaps in legal protection,
Part 1: Naturalization”. The webinar focused on
the statelessness definition, the work of UNHCR
on statelessness, ENS and the national NGO SOS
Mitmensch, and existing gaps in the Austrian
Nationality Act that may lead to statelessness. The
webinar was attended by 30 participants, including
legal counsellors, academics, civil society volunteers
and stateless persons.
On 23 February, in North Macedonia, UNHCR
and OHCHR, with support from the UN Resident
Coordinator, organized a UN Country Team meeting
dedicated to statelessness, as part of the “Call 2
Action for Human Rights” dialogue initiated by the
UN Secretary General. The UNHCR Representative
gave a presentation on statelessness, identifying the
main gaps and discussing proposed solutions. The
meeting resulted in a joint statement and a roadmap
to end statelessness by 2024.
On 8 March, in Geneva, to mark International
Women’s Day, UNHCR organized a side event
at the 83rd meeting of its Standing Committee to
raise awareness on the issue of sex discrimination
in nationality laws, which remains a leading cause
of statelessness globally. Some 25 countries still
do not allow mothers to confer nationality to their
children on an equal basis as men, and more than
50 countries do not give women equal rights as men
to confer nationality to their spouses or to change
or retain their nationality. The event was moderated
by UNHCR’s Assistant High Commissioner for
Protection, Ms. Gillian Triggs, with remarks by the
Republic of Iran on the positive amendments to their
nationality law and by the Global Coalition on Equal
Nationality Rights. The side event was attended by
70 government officials and NGO representatives.
UNHCR > The Campaign to End Statelessness | January – March 2022 Update
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