SUDAN CITIZENSHIP SYMPOSIUM KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY MS. ERIKA FELLER ASSISTANT HIGH COMMISSIONER - PROTECTION, UNHCR Khartoum, 6 November 2010 mistakes. The second difference is that we now have more detailed globally discussed and agreed standards on which we can draw. In recent situations of state succession, such as when Montenegro seceded from the Union of Serbia and Montenegro in 2006 or when East Timor became independent in 2002, UNHCR worked closely with both concerned governments (Timor Leste and Indonesia) on who should be included in the citizenry of the new state. Provision of advice in the drafting of citizenship laws in a range of countries post-independence has been another major focus of UNHCR action. When it comes to assisting individual stateless persons, UNHCR implements technical programmes in a number of countries around the world to aid the reform of laws to prevent statelessness and ensure that stateless persons can confirm or acquire a nationality and obtain identity and travel documents. A common cause of statelessness globally is inequality between men and women when it comes to transmission of nationality to children. Although more than 30 states retain laws which discriminate between men and women in their right to acquire, retain or change their nationality and to confer nationality on children, this number is progressively diminishing. Only since the beginning of 2009, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and Kenya have all taken steps to remove gender discrimination in their nationality legislation. Sudan took some very welcome steps towards removing gender discrimination from its nationality laws in the 2005 revisions to the Nationality Act. UNHCR has also been mandated by governments to actively promote accession to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, which are the two international instruments providing the most detailed guidance to states on how statelessness can be avoided and what minimum treatment stateless persons should be able to enjoy. The Government of Sudan is not yet a party to these Conventions. However, already the Nationality Act 1994, as amended in 2005 to comply with the Interim National Constitution, has made quite some progress in reducing the potential for statelessness under the current law. The laws of Sudan may, as a result, now be moving in the direction where they should shortly support and enable accession, which we would encourage. In so acceding, any state makes a strong statement of commitment to the human rights of a very vulnerable group, just as it signals its interest in cooperation with the international community to reduce and eliminate statelessness. The more states accede to these conventions, the stronger the international framework to prevent statelessness becomes. This in turn reduces the potential of statelessness to become a serious cause of national and regional instability. The CPA, Citizenship Issues and UNHCR’s Interest Our statelessness mandate and our responsibilities for the internally displaced, as the lead agency for the protection sector, interlink closely in this country. The future status, rights and durable solutions for populations with ties to both north and south – such as the estimated two million southerners in the north (estimates vary) and the northerners in the south –is also an IDP protection issue, given that it is overwhelmingly (though not exclusively) IDPs who are affected. So this 3