REFUGEES FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION UNHCR, APRIL 2023 Annex 3: International standards on proof of legal identity and access to nationality Recognition of refugee (or stateless person) status and issue of identity documents The UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the UN Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons were adopted in 1951 and 1954 (respectively) in recognition of the need to provide protection to those people who are unable to access the protection of the state whose nationality they hold or (in the case of a stateless person) where they had been a habitual resident. The status of refugee or stateless person is intended to be a temporary one, since the conventions assume that a person is provided protection with this status until such time as he or she can go home, is entitled to acquire nationality in the country of refuge, or is resettled in a third country where naturalisation is available. In recognition of the fact that access to identity documentation is often critical for a person to access rights, both the UN and OAU refugee conventions require countries of asylum to issue identity and travel documents to refugees; the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons has similar provisions for stateless persons. 114 The 2004 Dar es Salaam Declaration that established the ICGLR committed states to “provide refugees and displaced persons with identification documents enabling them to have access to basic services and exercise their rights.” 115 In practice, although the institutional structures vary, registered refugees may receive both a UNHCR document and a document issued by a national refugee agency recognising their refugee status, or a single combined document. These record the country of origin or nationality (and in principle should also indicate that the person is stateless, if that is the case, although this is rarely done in practice). Identity documents are also critical to enable registration of the birth of a child; in some contexts, lack of currently valid documents may mean that birth registration is not possible. 116 A national of the host country may not be admitted into registration procedures as an asylum seeker or refugee. An exception to this rule may arise where a registered individual forms a family with a national of the country of asylum. While an individual may never be an “asylum-seeker” or “refugee” in his or her own country, he or she may be registered by UNHCR as “other person of concern” on the basis of a related refugee’s right to family unity. If the child may have acquired the nationality of the host country through one parent then this should be verified with the relevant authorities of the country of asylum; if the child 114 Articles 27 and 28 of the UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, 1951, and the UN Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons,1954. Article 27 of both conventions states: “The Contracting States shall issue identity papers to any [refugee / stateless person] in their territory who does not possess a valid travel document.” Article 28 of both conventions states: “The Contracting States shall issue to [refugees / stateless persons] lawfully staying in their territory travel documents for the purpose of travel outside their territory, unless compelling reasons of national security or public order otherwise require ….”. See also “Handbook on Procedures and Criteria for Determining Refugee Status and Guidelines on International Protection Under the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees”, UNHCR, April 2019, HCR/1P/4/ENG/REV. 4 https://www.refworld.org/docid/5cb474b27.html; “Identity Documents for Refugees”, EC/SCP/33, UNHCR, 20 July 1984 https://www.unhcr.org/excom/scip/3ae68cce4/identity-documents-refugees.html 115 Dar-es-Salaam Declaration on Peace, Security, Democracy and Development in the Great Lakes Region, ICGLR, adopted by the First Summit of Heads of State and Government, Dar -es-Salaam, 19-20 November 2004, paragraph 68, available at: http://www.icglr.org/images/Dar_Es_Salaam_Declaration_on_Peace_Security_Democracy_and_Development.pdf 116 Bronwen Manby, ‘Preventing Statelessness among Migrants and Refugees: Birth Registration and Consular Assistance in Egypt and Morocco’, Paper Series (London: LSE Middle East Centre, June 2019), http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/101091/. 46