Kuwait and Syria, or saying that people who belong to certain minorities cannot have a nationality like Myanmar excluding the Rohingya people. Another reason why people have no nationality is the change of borders. For example, some individuals used to be citizens of the Soviet Union, but as its land became divided into different countries, not all people got the nationality of the new country they were in and became stateless. This is clearly wrong, goes against every human’s rights and must be changed. Sometimes it is difficult to persuade a country to change its nationality rules or include stateless people as citizens because of discrimination, intolerance and stigma. For example, if a group have been treated as ‘outsiders’ for a long time, because they are stateless, it can be hard to change people’s attitudes and to convince the public and/or the government that they have the right to belong and should be recognised as citizens. 2. Do you think progress has been made on statelessness since the UDHR came into force in 1948? • The UDHR marked an important moment in history for the issue of statelessness: for the first time, nationality was recognised to be a fundamental human right. Today, the right to nationality is protected by lots of different treaties and international courts and committees of experts are helping to ensure that laws and practices that make people stateless are changed. In the last decade in particular, statelessness is becoming more and more visible as an issue that affects millions of people across the globe and requires an immediate response by the international community. More and more NGOs and activists are working together on statelessness and there have been important successes for individuals (like Neha – see p. 81-83 of the book) and whole communities (like the Makonde in Kenya – see p. 37-40 of the book). Lots more work still needs to be done, to ensure that everyone enjoys the right to a nationality and there are lots of people around the world fighting to make this happen. They are running campaigns, speaking to leaders, protesting and doing all kinds of interesting and important things to change the situation. It can take a lot of time and hard work, but it is worth it: we must do everything we can so that everyone enjoys the right to a nationality! Now it is time to explore an action dedicated to statelessness. The UNHCR is the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. This is one of the specialised agencies within the United Nations and it focuses on helping refugees and also individuals who are stateless. As a group or individually, look at the UNHCR’s #IBelong campaign located at https://www.unhcr.org/ibelong/. After reading about the campaign and discovering a bit about the aims of the campaign, ask participants to critically reflect on the images that were developed to promote the #IBelong campaign and encourage people around the world to get involved (these can be found in Appendix V). What are the strengths and weaknesses of these images? (How) are they effective in communicating the goals of the campaign and/or what statelessness means? If time allows, ask participants to also brainstorm alternative ideas for posters, images etc. to promote the message of the #IBelong campaign. Further the Activity: A great way to address the issue of statelessness is by campaigning to raise awareness on and encourage action against statelessness. The UNHCR’s #IBelong campaign is such an example. To show your support sign #IBelong’s open letter to contribute in ending statelessness here: https://www.unhcr.org/ibelong/sign-the-openletter/. You can also start a campaign in your school or community by encouraging people to also sign the letter. For more information about how people around the world are fighting for everyone’s right to a nationality visit: http://www.kids.worldsstateless.org/act/campaign-act-raise-awareness. 27