REFUGEES FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION UNHCR, APRIL 2023 Destruction of documents: The Migrant Workers Convention prohibits the destruction of identity documents.16 False documents: The Refugee Convention provides that the fact that a person carries false identification documents or has entered the country illegally is not in itself a reason to refuse that person refugee status or impose any penalties. 17 The Protocol to the Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime on the smuggling of migrants provides that, whereas producing or procuring a fraudulent identity document shall be criminalized, migrants themselves shall not become liable to criminal prosecution for that reason.18 “Integrity and security” of documents: Protocols to the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime require States parties to implement measures to ensure the adequacy of the “quality” and “integrity and security” of documents such as passports. 19 Nationality: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “Everyone has the right to a nationality. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the righ t to change his nationality” (Article 15). • • • • • 16 The 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness requires states to grant nationality to a person in some circumstances, notably to a child born in the territory of that state where the child would otherwise be stateless and to a child found in the territory of unknown parents, and also places limits on the deprivation of nationality. 20 The Conventions relating to the Status of Refugees and of Stateless Persons create a general obligation to facilitate naturalization “so far as possible.”21 The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Migrant Workers’ Convention all provide for every child to acquire a nationality. 22 The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child provides in Article 6 for every child to have the right to a name, birth registration and to acquire a nationality, and that “a child shall acquire the nationality of the State in the territory of which he has been born if, at the time of the child’s birth, he is not granted nationality by any other State in accordance with its laws” 23 . The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women requires states to end discrimination on the basis of sex in transmission of nationality between spouses and from parent to child, and other conventions prohibit different forms of discrimination. 24 Migrant Workers’ Convention, Article 21. 17 Article 31(1), Refugee Convention: “The Contracting States shall not impose penalties, on account of their illegal entry or presence, on refugees who, coming directly from a territory where their life or freedom was threatened in the sense of article 1, enter or are present in their territory without authorization, provided they present themselves without delay to the authorities and show good cause for their illegal entry or presence.” 18 Protocol Against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, Supplementing the Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, Articles 5 and 6. 19 Article 12 of both the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons. 20 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, especially Articles 1, 8 and 9. 21 Refugee Convention, Article 34; Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, Article 32. 22 CRC, Article 7; ICCPR, Article 24(3); Migrant Workers’ Convention, Article 29. Every state recognized by the UN except for the United States is a party to the CRC. 23 24 African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, Article 6(4). Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Article 9; Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), Articles 1 and 5; Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Article 18. 8