Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and UNHCR jointly opened the photo exhibition “WE BELONG: Global Faces of Statelessness” at the
Bangkok Art and Culture Centre. © UNHCR
On 5 December, the Minister of Internal Affairs
of Niger appointed the members of a technical
committee tasked with reforming the institutional
asylum framework. In line with a pledge made at
the High-Level Segment on Statelessness, reforms
are expected to include the establishment of a
Statelessness Determination Procedure.
UNHCR submitted recommendations as part of the
European Commission’s public consultation process
on its initiative to introduce a new strategy on the
rights of the child. Among other recommendations,
UNHCR urged the Commission to redouble efforts to
end childhood statelessness in Europe, including by
improving identification of stateless persons through
the establishment of Statelessness Determination
Procedures, introducing safeguards against
childhood statelessness, and ensuring universal
access to birth registration.
On 16 December, the results of a public audit of the
United Kingdom’s Statelessness Determination
Procedure were published in a report entitled
‘Can I Belong’ A Review of the UK’s Approach to
Statelessness’. The review was carried out under
the Quality Protection Partnership, a joint UNHCR
and UK Government collaborative endeavour aimed
at improving the quality of Home Office decisionmaking. At a virtual event launching the report,
the UK Government presented its response to the
audit. The audit includes 40 recommendations
and highlights areas for improvements relating
to applications for leave to remain as a stateless
person in the UK. Following a UNHCR press release,
the Independent, the legal blog Free Movement and
the University of Liverpool Law Clinic and Asylum
Aid published articles about the audit.
UNHCR recently submitted recommendations
to the upcoming Portuguese and Slovenian
Presidencies of the Council of the European
Union (January-December 2021) inviting the two
Council Presidencies to consider 1) developing a
comprehensive EU strategy and action plan on
statelessness within the EU, 2) increase support
to civil registration and documentation systems in
third countries in the context of EU enlargement,
and 3) show leadership in bringing the issue of
statelessness to the attention of COHOM, CODEV
and COHAFA to support efforts to end statelessness
globally.
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