The Minister of Justice of Japan, Ms. Yoko Kamikawa, announces the findings of a study on stateless children
born in Japan and measures to be taken to resolve their plight. © The Asahi Shimbun
On 20 July, the Ministry of Justice of Japan
announced the findings of research carried out by
the Immigration Services Agency (ISA) regarding the
legal status and eligibility to Japanese nationality
of a group of 300 children who were born and
registered as stateless in Japan. To resolve the
nationality status of these children, the Ministry has
committed to improve relevant data compilation,
enhance legal counselling, and improve coordination
with concerned agencies.
On 28 July, Rwanda published a new nationality
law which provides for facilitated naturalization
for stateless persons and fulfils one of Rwanda’s
pledges at UNHCR’s 2019 High-Level Segment on
Statelessness.
In Azerbaijan, UNHCR provided legal support to
13 persons to establish statelessness before the
court. Their cases were subsequently referred to the
Citizenship Commission, and thus far five have been
granted nationality.
In line with Action 6, Grant protection status
to stateless migrants and facilitate their
naturalization, on 4 August, Colombia enacted
Law 2136 creating a Comprehensive Immigration
policy which includes provisions on the protection
of stateless persons and establishes a statelessness
determination procedure. The law guarantees a
series of rights for those granted statelessness
status, including the right to travel documents and
to facilitated naturalization. Applicants will have the
right to stay in the country while their application is
under consideration. The adoption of the law is in
line with a pledge submitted by the Government of
Colombia at the 2019 Global Refugee Forum.
In line with Actions 6 and Action 10, Improve
quantitative and qualitative data on stateless
populations, the Ministry of Justice and Public
Security (MJPS) of Brazil launched SisApatridia,
an online platform dedicated to the submission
and processing of applications for statelessness
determination. This system is expected to improve
data on statelessness as it centralizes all new
applications and consolidates past applications. It
will also accelerate the processing of statelessness
claims, improve protection prospects for stateless
people and facilitate their naturalization.
With regard to Action 7, Ensure birth registration
for the prevention of statelessness, from 17 – 19
August in Nigeria, UNHCR, the National Population
Commission and the National Commission for
Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons
conducted a birth registration exercise for internally
displaced persons (IDPs) in three settlements in
Abuja. A total of 1,516 IDP children were registered
and issued with birth certificates during the three-
In Kuwait, in a meeting on 13 September, the
Parliamentarian Committee for persons with
undetermined nationality (Bidoon) approved three
proposals to further the protection of the Bidoon.
The proposals entail specific measures for Bidoon
working in education, healthcare and the military to
benefit from equal pay and related benefits, among
other provisions.
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