“There is no word that can describe how I feel right now. I feel happy, I feel excited but above all, I feel honoured to be the first person from my community to graduate from the university. It’s something that I take pride in,” says Nosizi Dube. Nosizi is a member of the Shona who are formerly stateless – the first person from the Shona community in Kenya to join university and has just graduated with a bachelor’s degree in economics. © UNHCR/Charity Nzomo ACTION 11: Ensure stateless persons can enjoy their rights DESIRED OUTCOME • • All stateless persons enjoy their fundamental rights irrespective of their (immigration) status. Stateless persons are included in national systems and can access basic services. Context Stateless persons face significant roadblocks in their daily lives, making it difficult – sometimes even impossible – for them to access education, health care and social security benefits, secure employment, or to get married. Stateless persons are generally denied enjoyment of a range of human rights and prevented from participating fully in society. Additionally, stateless persons are often at risk of arrest or detention, forced eviction, expulsion and even trafficking, due to their lack of legal status or restrictions associated with their legal status. The 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons defines who a stateless person is and, along with applicable standards of international human rights law, establishes a set of minimum rights that stateless persons should be granted. The rights set out in the 1954 Convention are not limited to individuals who have been recognized as stateless following a determination made by a State or by UNHCR; instead, the rights afforded to an individual under the Convention are linked to the nature of that person’s presence in the country. These rights include property rights, the right of association, the right of access to the courts, the right to gainful employment, the right to education, the right to social security, the right to freedom of movement and the right to identity and travel documents. In addition to the 1954 Convention provisions, the treatment of stateless persons under a State’s national law must align with other international human rights standards: most human rights apply to everyone, regardless of nationality or immigration status, including stateless persons.29 Furthermore, the principle of equality and non-discrimination generally prohibits discrimination based on the lack of nationality.30 29 Please see Human Rights Committee, General Comment No.15 (The Position of Aliens under the Covenant), 11 April 1986, http://www.unhcr.org/ refworld/pdfid/45139acfc.pdf and Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 31 (The Nature of the General Legal Obligation Imposed on States Parties to the Covenant), CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.13, 26 May 2004, http://www.refworld.org/docid/478b26ae2.html Please see also the UN Sub- Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, Special Rapporteur on the rights of non-citizens, Final Report, E/CN./Sub.2/2003/23, 26 May 2003, http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/pdfid/3f46114c4.pdf Please note though that full enjoyment of human rights is facilitated by the possession of a nationality, hence the need for specific protection for stateless persons in the form of the 1954 Convention. 30 Please see, for example, Articles 2(1) and 26 of the ICCPR 34 GLOBAL ACTION PLAN TO END STATELESSNESS 2.0