Actors of the Kyiv Roma Theatre of Music and Drama perform in a play “Invisible Roma” dedicated to the 5th Anniversary of the #IBelong
Campaign. © UNHCR/A.Krepkih
On 4 November, in Ukraine, UNHCR hosted a
ceremony recognizing members of the State
Migration Service and Civil Registry for going
the extra mile in supporting people to obtain
civil documentation in five regions of Ukraine:
Zakarpattya, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Odesa and Kyiv.
From June 2017 to September 2019, UNHCR and its
partners identified and provided legal assistance to
2,064 undocumented persons in these five regions.
The ceremony was symbolically held at the Kyiv
Roma Theatre, as the majority of people at risk of
statelessness in Ukraine are members of the Roma
community. The Theatre’s actors dedicated their
play “Invisible Roma” to Roma people who lack
documentation and have limited access to basic
rights and services.
through assistance, sensitization and training, and
reform of the Nationality Code to eliminate all forms
of discrimination.
On 23 and 24 October, UNHCR and its implementing
partner Moroccan Organisation of Human
Rights organized a training on refugee law and
statelessness for representatives of the Ministry
of Interior and security forces in Nador, Morocco.
The training aimed to strengthen knowledge of
international standards in the area of statelessness,
reinforce protection space, and raise awareness
of relevant statelessness prevention measures.
A similar training was organized on 22 and 23
November for lawyers in Morocco to strengthen
the legal assistance capacity for the prevention
of statelessness.
On 3 October, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of
Morocco and UNHCR organized a workshop in
Rabat on Morocco’s contribution to the Global
Refugee Forum. The workshop gathered 167
stakeholders from ministries, national institutions,
international organizations, regional and municipal
authorities, private sector, NGOs, academics and
refugee associations. One of the sub-thematic
groups discussed statelessness prevention and
recommended accession to the UN Statelessness
Conventions, the facilitation of birth registration
On 6 and 7 December, in Tunis, Tunisia, UNHCR
and the Commissioner for the African Union
on Refugees, Displaced and Stateless Persons
organized a seminar on the African Union Draft
Protocol on the Right to a Nationality and the
Eradication of Statelessness. The seminar was
convened to advocate for the support of North
African countries for the protocol and to inform
participants of progress in the implementation of the
Global Action Plan to End Statelessness by 2024.
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