The Campaign to
End Statelessness
April 2017 Update
#IBelong
Join us in our Campaign to End Statelessness
Mobilizing governments and civil society
On 21 February, delegations from 27 diplomatic missions
to the United Nations in Geneva met at the Mexican
Permanent Mission for the fifth meeting of the group of
Friends of the #IBelong Campaign to End Statelessness.
The Assistant High Commissioner for Protection Volker
Türk encouraged the Friends to strategically leverage
ongoing multilateral initiatives, such as the Sustainable
Development Goals and the Global Refugee Compact,
to help address statelessness. The meeting provided
an opportunity to take stock of developments since the
launch of the Friends group in October 2015, including
the adoption of the Human Rights Council Resolution
“The Right to Nationality: Women’s Equal Nationality in
Law and in Practice” in June 2016 and the approximately
77 recommendations relevant to statelessness made in
the course of the 24th and 25th UPR sessions in 2016.
Participants discussed important upcoming advocacy
opportunities, including the follow up to the New York
Declaration of September 2016, and agreed to prepare
a work plan to help guide the group’s efforts over the
coming two years.
Addressing Statelessness in the European Union:
One year on from the adoption of European Council
Conclusions that attracted around 70 participants from
Permanent Representations in Brussels, EU Institutions,
and NGOs.
On 23 January, in Bangladesh, UNHCR and the
Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) jointly launched the
Bengali version of “Nationality and Statelessness:
Handbook for Parliamentarians”. In the presence of
the Standing Committee on the Ministry of Law, Justice
and Parliamentary Affairs and the Standing Committee
on Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Women Members of
Parliament, the Honourable Speaker of the Bangladesh
Parliament, the President of the IPU, and UNHCR all
underscored the critical role parliamentarians play when
it comes to addressing statelessness. The speakers
highlighted the Handbook as an important advocacy and
learning tool, noting that it recommends concrete actions
that can be taken by parliamentarians and presents
information on contemporary statelessness issues,
including relevant developments in international law and
doctrine as well as good practice examples.
On 18 January, in Brussels, UNHCR, the European
Migration Network (EMN) and the European Network
on Statelessness (ENS) co-organized a Conference
On 6 and 7 February, in Togo, the Global Campaign for
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