Assessment of the #IBelong Campaign
interaction itself illustrated the type of partnership that is critical to the success of
the Campaign. Outreach, listening, understanding, advocacy, personal
representation, individual accounts, research, media and public interest are all
necessary components in capturing hearts as well as minds in order to drive
change.
Equally important as part of the event were the perspectives and contributions
of civil society as outlined by the many NGOs working on the issue of
statelessness. These organisations are addressing the problem of statelessness
from a variety of angles, from international coverage on problems such as
childhood statelessness, regional coverage on deeply rooted traditions and
practices on nationality to specific thematic coverage on issues such as gender
discrimination and barriers for women to convey their legal identity to their family
members.
As noted above with regard to the success of Kyrgyzstan in ending
statelessness, it is through the collaborative efforts of civil society, stateless
persons, government institutions, regional and international agencies and the
triangulated approach this allows that statelessness can be identified, resolved and
prevented from arising again. The partnership and engagement of civil society is
clearly a key to ensuring that stateless people are identified and advised on steps
to resolve their situation. The work of NGOs is equally instrumental in shifting
policy and perspectives with regard to statelessness, not only within states but also
at the regional and international levels. The global network of civil society actors
on statelessness is another critical component to success.
Receiving over 350 pledges, therefore, from a range of actors to take steps that
will play a role in ending statelessness by 2024 is a breakthrough for the
Campaign.
Now, however, is the most critical moment in the effort to eradicate
statelessness. Mid-way into the Campaign, in global terms, there is but one state
that has managed to resolve all known cases on the territory. The half-way point
has 93 States Parties to the 1954 Convention and 74 States Parties to the 1961
Convention, a great step forward but still less than half of all states globally for
either instrument. 22 Amongst the 350 plus pledges, the majority of which come
from states, 23 some critical areas are covered such as the introduction of
statelessness determination procedures, better identification of who is stateless and
why, improvement in birth registration, providing a legal status to stateless
migrants and some efforts at addressing existing problems of gender
discrimination, but these pledges alone do not cover holistically all the problems,
all of the gap areas, or indeed all of the regions globally.
In other words, although highly successful in terms of incrementally moving
forward the agenda for the eradication of statelessness, an assessment of pledges
22
23
‘Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons’, United Nations Treaty Collection
(Web
Page,
10
November
2019)
<https://treaties.un.org/pages/ViewDetailsII.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=V3&chapter=5&Temp=mtdsg2&clang=_en>; ‘Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness’,
United Nations Treaty Collection (Web Page, 10 November 2019).
Early analysis indicates that 252 confirmed pledges were received from states, while 100+
pledges were received from regional, international and civil society organisations. Procedures
for clarification of some pledges as well as formal submission of pledges following the HighLevel Segment are ongoing at the writing of this analysis.
311