MEETING REPORT Regional Expert Meeting on the Human Rights of Stateless Persons in the Middle East and North Africa Amman, 18-19 February 2010 I. BACKGROUND ON STATELESSNESS, UNHCR AND OHCHR INVOLVEMENT The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) set in train a series of major improvements in the area of protection of the human rights of all individuals. But while the UDHR established the right of every person to a nationality, millions of people worldwide do not possess the legal bond of a nationality with any state. They are stateless. In principle, international law ensures to stateless persons the enjoyment of human rights. The reality is different, though, and there is much that remains to be done to ensure the full enjoyment of all human rights by stateless persons. In the Middle East and North Africa region, hundreds of thousands of stateless persons face significant obstacles in the enjoyment of their inalienable human rights precisely because they are stateless. In the MENA region, the concept of nationality or citizenship is directly linked to the process of state formation, as well as to cultural norms and values. The establishment of new political boundaries after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and ensuing armed conflicts are among the factors that resulted in displacement and in making people stateless. With modern State formation in the region, freedom of movement across the boundaries, whether regulated or not, enabled nomadic tribes to live in more than one country for parts of each year without formally acquiring the nationality of any. Conversely, nomads and others also benefited from the policy of some States to distribute passports in some instances. Statelessness is perpetuated nowadays partly as a result of national legal provisions and administrative practice concerning the acquisition, change or loss of nationality which do not respect and ensure the right to a nationality. Nationality laws denying women the right to pass on nationality to their children, lack of safeguards against statelessness at birth and administrative decisions on nationality and citizenship, including punitive withdrawal of nationality, are often cited as the most important factors rendering persons stateless. Failure to register children at birth is also a contributing factor in some States. Restrictive approaches to naturalization and confirmation of nationality have tended to perpetuate statelessness. Nationality or citizenship status should generally bear no consequence on the exercise or enjoyment of human rights. However, the reality in the region is different. 2