S P E C I A L R E P O RT / FA M I L I E S “...a form of punishment more primitive than torture” © UNHCR / B. SOKOL / J ULY 2 014 A 1 0 -Y E A R C A M PA I G N T O E N D S TAT E L E S S N E S S Families: Under Constant Pressure T T H E L AC K O F N AT I O N A L I T Y C A N D I STO RT A N D O F T E N D E ST ROY “If I had known there would be these problems, I would never have married my husband. Why are my children to blame for a mistake I made? Now my kids can’t access education or healthcare, and my husband suffers from the problem emotionally.” – A JORDANIAN WOMAN MARRIED TO A FOREIGNER UNABLE TO PASS ON HIS NATIONALITY TO HIS CHILDREN S TAT E L E S S AC H I E V E R S IGOR STRAVINSKY (1882-1971) Composer Became stateless in 1921 12 the basic human partnership—the family. Statelessness discourages young people from marrying in the first place and from having children, even if they do form a partnership. The pressures of being officially ‘invisible’ can destroy the family unit through physical separation or legal quagmires. The administrative nightmare may last for generations, continuing the cycle of degradation and hopelessness. Kosala, a young stateless man in Viet Nam wanted to get married but “my girlfriend’s parents asked ‘Who are you?’ I had no documents, no ID, no nationality. I couldn’t even get a marriage certificate from the authorities.” IMPOSSIBLE DECISIONS Knowing they would pass their statelessness on to their children, one stateless couple told UNHCR they had decided not to start a family because they could not face cursing their children with the same deprivation and despair of statelessness. “I feel bad when I see others with babies, because I cannot have a baby,” the wife says. “Every married couple wants to have children.” In Madagascar, Elina reiterates that heartache. “I really want to start having children. I have been married long enough. But I won’t until I get my nationality.” In Belgium, Gabir, a stateless man from the Middle East, cannot marry his girlfriend who is a European Union citizen because he is stateless and lacks the necessary identity papers. He also cannot even officially acknowledge the paternity of their child. Legal headaches are magnified. The stateless often face insoluble problems over property rights or the custody of children following the death of a spouse or separation. They are at risk of arrest or detention each day because they lack an official ID. They live in constant fear of being expelled from a country or sometimes resort to fleeing and split up their families in a desperate attempt to resolve their children’s statelessness. Gender discrimination is particularly insidious. Twenty-seven countries today STAT E L E S S N E S S still prevent women from passing on their nationality to children on an equal basis as men. Nabila, a Syrian mother, worries about her stateless daughter who was unable to acquire her father’s nationality before her parents divorced. She despairs, “Although my daughter has a good degree from Damascus University, without citizenship or identification papers, she cannot accept the many job offers and travel opportunities she receives. She is only 25 years old, but her future is bleak.” Families’ plight can sometimes result in dreadful choices. Some couples seek divorce, in part because it is one of the few decisions they have full control over and in part because divorce is one of the few means of exiting the cycle of despair. Archaic nationality rules in some countries mean divorce may offer an avenue for the children of a stateless father and a national mother to acquire her nationality. These children may now gain nationality, but at the cost of a broken family. Saida in Morocco was unable to pass on her own nationality to her children because she is a woman. Without nationality, her family had no right to residence and when the children reached maturity they faced the problem of leaving the country every three months to attain a visa and trying to return. Thankfully, the law was amended in 2007 changing the lives of thousands of children for the better, including Saida’s. Morocco is one of 12 countries that have reformed their nationality laws during the past decade allowing mothers to confer their nationality to their children in the same way fathers can—an encouraging development. STAT E L E S S N E S S A Constitutional Court ruling in the Dominican Republic stripped over 200,000 Dominicans of Haitian descent of their citizenship. Thousands of families have suddenly found themselves stateless. Only two of the nine members of the Espinal family are still legally considered Domincan citizens. In 27 countries, children can be left stateless because women do not have the same rights as men to confer nationality. 13