Thailand Changes to Thailand’s Civil Registration Law in 2008 entitled all children born in Thailand to have their births registered in the civil registry, regardless of their own or their parents’ nationality, legal status or documentation. Combined with other measures, this reform made it possible to register the births of children at risk of statelessness, including the children of remote ‘hill tribe’ communities where parents are often stateless. Increased birth registration coverage has been a first step for stateless children and those at risk of statelessness to acquire a nationality under Thai nationality law by providing evidence of their links to Thailand. The Royal Thai Government is implementing these provisions in the context of its efforts to end statelessness by 2024, a pledge made in 2016. Stateless persons in Thailand Thailand hosts the third largest reported population of stateless people in the world.68 Registered stateless persons are included in Thailand’s population database and have been issued unique identification numbers. Predominantly they are: members of various ethnic minorities living in highland areas,69 some of whom are commonly referred to as ‘hill tribes’; descendants of former Thai nationals who lost Thai nationality as a result of border demarcation; and people whose ancestors left neighbouring countries generations ago as a result of conflict and persecution. Most of the ‘hill tribes’ live in mountainous and border areas and in the past followed nomadic or semi-nomadic ways of life. They are linguistically and culturally diverse. In addition to the children born to registered stateless parents, other children in Thailand may be at risk of statelessness, including abandoned children and foundlings, because their parents are unable to register their birth. Stateless persons in Thailand have historically faced restrictions on freedom of movement and found it difficult to access basic services, limiting their employment opportunities. Over a number of years, measures have been taken to address many of these issues. The measures taken have permitted stateless children to obtain an education and lifted some restrictions on freedom of movement.70 The reasons for their statelessness Decree No. 337, issued by the Revolutionary Government in 1972, was a principal cause of statelessness in Thailand. The Decree had retroactive effect and superseded provisions of the Nationality Act of 1965 that had automatically granted Thai nationality to every child born in the territory. The Decree cancelled the nationality of people who had acquired it purely as a consequence of being born in Thailand before 1972.71 It also created a risk of statelessness among children who were born in Thailand to parents who were stateless and did not have permanent residence status when the children were born.72 ‘Hill tribe’ communities were particularly affected because they frequently had no documentation that proved their entitlement to nationality. Significant gaps in the civil registration system and inconsistent practices aggravated the risk of statelessness. Before Thailand amended its Civil Registration Act in 2008, the law was interpreted by district and local registrars in a manner that only facilitated registration of the births of Thai nationals and non-nationals who 68 UNHCR, Global Trends, Forced Displacement in 2016, at: http://goo.gl/4Fydg9. 69 The Regulation of the Central Registration Bureau on the Registration of Highlanders’ Legal Status (2000) identifies 9 ethnic minority groups (Karen, Hmong, Yao, Akha, Lahu, Lisu, Lua, Khamu and Mlabri) and defines them as ‘indigenous groups who have been living in the highlands and have their own cultural identity, belief, language and way of living’. It recognizes that ‘other ethnic minorities or others are living in the same areas’. 70 See UNHCR, I Am Here, I Belong: The Urgent Need to End Childhood Statelessness (3 November 2015), at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/563368b34.html; and UNHCR, #IBelong Campaign Update (October 2016), at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/5804cbb44.html. 71 Decree No. 337 of 1972 superseded the Thai Nationality Act B.E.2508 of 1965, in particular Section 7. 72 See P. Saisoonthorn, ‘Development of the Concept of Nationality and Efforts to Reduce Statelessness in Thailand’, Refugee Survey Quarterly, 2006, Vol. 25(3), pp. 40-53. 23 CAMPAIGN TO END STATELESSNESS WITHIN 10 YE ARS