S P E C I A L R E P O RT / C H I L D R E N “...a form of punishment more primitive than torture” 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 S TAT E L E S S AC H I E V E R S STEFAN ZWEIG (1881 – 1942) Author, born Austrian Made stateless in 1938 10 EDUCATION: A BASIC HUMAN RIGHT DENIED? Education is a particularly thorny issue. Stateless children can be refused permission to enter public schools, denied higher education and stigmatized by teachers and other pupils alike. “What affects me most is that I cannot declare my children,” says Juliana in the STAT E L E S S N E S S STAT E L E S S N E S S In Kyrgyzstan, a mother of three, one suffering from epilepsy, has difficulty in obtaining medical care and social allowances for her children and lives in poverty because she cannot find work. © GREG CONSTA NTI NE flict, many refugees have lost the identity documents which are required in order to register the births of refugee children in the country of asylum. Challenges also arise in relation to registering children born out of wedlock or to parents whose religious marriages have not been formally registered. In Lebanon, UNHCR found that 78% of new births surveyed since their arrival to Lebanon were not registered with the national authorities by Syrian refugees. Further research is underway to assess the scale of the issue in the other main countries of asylum. UNHCR continues to work with national authorities to simplify the requirements for registration, and to make civil registration of marriages and births more accessible to refugees. It has also undertaken a mass awareness-raising campaign in coordination with UNICEF and other partners to explain procedures to refugees, including through brochures and instructional videos shown at help desks, camps and registration points. © UNHCR / A . ZHOROBAEV / DECEMBER 2 010 ©UNHCR /A . SEN/ NOVEMBER 2 013 A stateless refugee from Syria holds his maktoumeen card, a document issued to unregistered stateless Kurds which confers no rights or status. Dominican Republic. “The school asks for the documents of my children,” documents Juliana does not have. “I want my children to study, to get ahead, something I didn’t do,” but without those vital pieces of paper her children and many others may not be able to even attempt living a normal life. “I missed out on getting a scholarship to study in Japan because I had no ID card, no nationality,” says Sheila, who grew up stateless in Viet Nam. Shaming and threats are sometimes employed. “The teachers enter the classroom and tell those who don’t have IDs to raise their hands,” one girl in the Dominican Republic recalls. “Then those who have IDs tease those of us who don’t. They say ‘the trucks are coming to deport you. You cannot take your exams. You are wasting your time. You are not going to get anywhere with your life.’” In Myanmar, only 4.8% of stateless girls and 16.8% of stateless boys complete primary education, compared to 40.9% and 46.2% of other boys and girls. Children sometimes beat the odds and the result can be spectacular. Undaunted, many stateless children have gone on to achieve great things. Srinuan has a remarkable story. Facing challenges in completing education, she persevered and graduated from school with the support of a local foundation. She continued to pursue her education and won a full scholarship to study at a university in the United States where she was shocked that people “treated me like an equal. Even if I told them I was stateless they still wanted to be friends.” “I could travel freely,” she continues. “I was not the same person that I was in Thailand. I would think ‘Why can’t I feel the same way in my home country?’” But when she did return home “to renew my travel documents I felt like my struggle was beginning all over again.” Empowered by her education, she eventually returned to live in Thailand where she successfully fought to obtain Thai nationality. Her success encouraged others in her village to follow her example. UNHCR’s Campaign is aimed at resolving the statelessness which results in the kind of hardship faced by thousands of children, like Srinuan, today. Children in Telipok, Sabah, Malaysia. Many children of migrants are unable to establish a nationality. Some are completely undocumented and do not have access to education. 11