UNHCR Representative in Greece Philippe Leclerc (left), UNHCR Associate Protection Officer Petros Mastakas (left), Interior Minister Alexis
Charitsis (right) and Special Secretary for Citizenship Lampros Blatsiotis (right) sign the Memorandum of Cooperation © Ministry of Interior
Greece/Y. Heliotis
On 21 January, the Ministry of Interior of Greece and
UNHCR signed a Memorandum of Cooperation
(MoC) on nationality acquisition and prevention
of statelessness. The MoC foresees, inter alia,
the support of two experts to assist with the
collection and processing of reliable statistics
on Greek nationality acquisition, the design and
implementation of capacity-building activities for civil
servants and the enhancement of quality assurance
mechanisms in the Greek nationality acquisition
procedures.
On 17 and 18 January, the Kenya Human Rights
Commission convened a workshop on digital
identity and citizenship with representatives
from the Government of Kenya and from stateless
communities in Naivasha, Kenya. The workshop
resulted in the creation of a government working
group on statelessness to promote access to
birth registration and nationality for the remaining
stateless communities in Kenya.
On 9 February, UHNCR and the National School
of Administration (ENA) convened a conference
in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, on
“Statelessness, Nationality, and the Right of
Asylum”. The conference was attended by more
than 100 participants and resulted in a commitment
on the part of ENA to integrate a module on
addressing statelessness in its academic curriculum.
On 21 March, the Issue-Based Coalition on Large
Movement of People, Displacement and Resilience
organized a side-event “Leaving no one behind:
Addressing statelessness and enhancing the
resilience of vulnerable groups through the
Sustainable Development Goals” at the UNECE
Regional Forum on Sustainable Development. The
event raised awareness with key representatives
from States in Europe and Central Asia of the
phenomenon of statelessness in the context of the
2030 Agenda.
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