Across the globe, many training sessions were
organized for government and civil society partners
to improve their awareness and technical knowledge
on matters relating to nationality and statelessness.
In 18 August, in Kazakhstan, UNHCR, the NGO
Bureau for Human Rights and the Ministry of Labour
and Social Protection, conducted an online training
on the topic of identification and documentation
of stateless persons for 350 social workers in
Kazakhstan.
From 26 to 30 July, the third edition of the
Nationality and Statelessness Course for Frenchspeaking practitioners was held. Opened by
UNHCR’s Assistant High Commissioner for
Protection, Ms. Gillian Triggs, this virtual training was
attended by 65 people from 23 different countries
in Africa and beyond. It included members of the
newly established statelessness determination
bodies in Côte d’Ivoire, civil registration officers
and participants from UN agencies, civil society
organizations and human rights institutions. The
course was delivered by 13 trainers from universities
in Western Africa and the United States.
On 15 and 16 June, in Yemen, UNHCR and the
Migrant and Refugee Study Centre organized a
training for 35 senior field officials of the Civil Status
and Civil Registry Authority on the importance of
universal birth registration for the prevention of
statelessness.
From July to September, in Jordan, UNCHR
delivered four training sessions to employees of
the Civil Status Department which focused on the
importance of registration and documentation as a
tool to prevent statelessness.
At the end of August, in Uganda, UNHCR facilitated
two online statelessness trainings for officials from
the Ministry of Internal Affairs aimed at raising
awareness of statelessness and solutions to address
the problem, with a particular focus on the pledges
delivered by the Government at the 2019 High-Level
Segment on Statelessness.
On 28 September, in Morocco, UNHCR and the
Moroccan Human Rights Organization convened
an event to sensitize civil status officers on the
importance of birth registration for the prevention of
statelessness.
Implementation of the Global Action Plan
In line with Action 1, Resolve existing major
situations of statelessness, on 2 September, the
Kenyan national taskforce on statelessness organized
a ceremony during which 52 stateless persons of
Asian descent were granted citizenship certificates.
During the ceremony, Kenya’s Director-General of
Immigration reiterated the Government’s commitment
to resolve statelessness. There were also positive
developments with regards to the stateless persons
of Pemba descent. On 10 August, the departmental
Committee on Administration and National Security
of Kenya issued a report recommending the
Government to initiate a process to recognize this
group as citizens. The report follows a petition
submitted to the National Assembly in September
2020 which called on the government to resolve the
statelessness situation of this group.
Brothers Dhruv and Parv Kavia receive their Kenyan citizenship
certificates during a ceremony organized by the Government of Kenya
to confirm the Kenyan nationality of stateless individuals of Asian
descent. © Paresh Kavia
5